James Brown was a huge fan of Shaggy.

The 'It Wasn't Me' hitmaker was approached by the funk legend - who died in 2006 - after he had seen him perform, and says he gave him great advice, which has stuck with him since.

Shaggy exclusively told BANG Showbiz: ''James Brown watched the whole way through my concert, he really took a liking to me. We talked about everything from music to women to performance.

''He's a guy that gives a lot of advice. He said, 'They will take away your woman, your car, your house, but you still have your talent, they can't Take That from you. And if you have that you'll always be a rich man.'''

Shaggy, 43, has recently released an ''unofficial anthem'' to celebrate 50 years of Jamaican independence, 'Love Mi Jamaica' - alongside Red Fox and Andre 'GC' Fennell - and is really pleased with how it has turned out.

He said: ''It's one of those joints that I just did, to commemorate the 50th anniversary, just to drop it, and everybody is grabbing onto it this song. It also has Damian Marley and a whole load of other Jamaican artists on it.''

Shaggy is performing as part of the Respect Jamaica 50 series of shows at London's Indigo2 at The O2, which takes place every night from now until August 6th with performances from Jamaican legends including Jimmy Cliff, Toots And The Maytals, Horace Andy and Morgan Heritage. Shaggy will perform on August 5. For more information and tickets, visit www.respectjamaica50.co.uk/