Featured Image Credit: TikTok/direalshaggy/Jason Koerner/Getty Images for Live Nation
Topics: Entertainment, Music, News, Celebrity
Lucy Devine
Topics: Entertainment, Music, News, Celebrity
When you think of Shaggy, you might imagine his deep, husky voice and thick Jamaican accent, but it turns out that Shaggy's real voice isn't what you might think.
The musician - who's been in the industry for decades - is known for his tracks such as 'Boombastic', 'Angel' and 'It Wasn't Me' who has had five number one hits and 11 top 10 singles over the years.
Despite his success, people are only just realising that the singer, 55, actually sounds totally different to the way he does on his music.
Advert
A video of Shaggy discussing his true voice has been going around on TikTok, where he explains where the inspiration behind his voice came from.
"I got this voice by mocking drill instructors in the military," he explained.
"In the Marines, the drill instructors would go 'yeah boy, just drop and gimme' 20, let's go boy', and I would mock him as a form of joking because, you know, it motivated your platoon."
As to why Shaggy - real name Orville Richard Burrell CD - sings in that voice, it's simply because he thought it sounded good.
"I just sang in that voice because it sounded cool, and all of a sudden 'Oh Carolina' blew up and now I'm faced with the situation that I'm gonna sing every song like that," he added.
After viewing the video, people were completely shocked.
One person wrote: "So we all just hearing shaggy real voice for the first time?"
While another said: "Not Shaggy gas lighting us all these years."
A third added: "Damn Shaggy really said 'It wasn’t me'."
And a fourth wrote: "I am flabbergasted....I was today years old when I found out that shaggyvoice isn't shaggy voice."
"SHAGGY!!!! Ain’t no waayyyy you just dropped this on us like that," said a fifth.
A few fans said they did know about Shaggy's real voice, with one claiming: "I remember telling people shaggy didnt have an accent back in the day and they said i was crazy smfh."
Others had no idea that Shaggy had once been in the Marines.
The singer enlisted at the age of 18 in 1988 and went on to be deployed Kuwait two years later as part of the Field Artillery Battery in the 10th Marine Regiment during the Persian Gulf War.
He's thought to have left the Marines in 1992, a year before the release of his debut track, 'Oh Carolina'.
"I was today years old when I found out Shaggy is a Marine," one TikToker said.