Shaggy NOT Dead, Victim of Infamous Celebrity Death Hoax: Bogus 'Reggae Star Stabbed to Death in Bar Fight' Rumor Goes Viral on Twitter

Grammy Award winning Jamaican-American reggae star Shaggy (real name, Orville Richard Burrell) is NOT dead, despite recent rumors swirling around the web that he was killed in a heated L.A. bar fight. The hashtag #RIPShaggy began trending on Twitter after bogus reports went viral on the web, claiming that the "It Wasn't Me" rapper was stabbed in the liver and killed during a violent bar brawl. But it turns out Shaggy is just the latest victim of the infamous social media celebrity death hoax - a rep for TMZ confirms that the 44-year-old singer/songwriter is indeed still "alive and kicking."

According to TMZ, a morbid report "that Shaggy kicked the bucket after taking a shiv to the liver during a brawl in L.A." began circulating on the web late Wednesday (Jan. 23)... the bogus death notice even managed to make its way onto Shaggy's public Wikipedia page. And that's when Twitter blew up with all the sad "R.I.P. Shaggy" updates:

@lisa_k_thomas22: "Rip Shaggy! 44 years young! So sad."

‏@MizSoftNTender: "RIP... Shaggy... Damn... Mr. lover lover... My mommy is so sad."

@magicCmushrooms: "My hood is like a family my heart felt the pain RIP shaggy."

But no worries, "Boombastic" fans, Shaggy is most definitely not dead. A close rep of the funky rapper recently spoke out to qualm all the death hoax hoopla.

"[Shaggy] is like a cat with 9 lives," the inside source confirms to TMZ. "But I can happily report that he's alive and kicking and in the same building as me right now as we speak."

This is not Shaggy's first online brush with death... another bogus report back in April 2012 also insisted that the reggae superstar had met an untimely, tragic death. Not true.

It's a sad fact that many celebs have fallen victim to the infamous internet death hoax, including Adam Sandler, Morgan Freeman, Channing Tatum, and Johnny Depp. All of these reports are fake. Fans should make sure that they get all their info from credible sources before going crazy on social media - spreading fake celebrity death rumors are exactly what the hoaxsters want!

In honor of Shaggy's still being alive, here's a 2001 throwback: