Keri Hilson says she deeply regretted recording a diss song aimed at Beyonce that would prove fatal for her career.
Once one of the most promising R&B singers in the game, Keri Hilson had the culture in a chokehold in the late 2000s era with some bops that remain in rotation to date. However, in a surprising move in 2009, the Georgia singer suddenly started beefing with Beyonce, one of the biggest stars in music.
Following the release of her “Turnin’ Me On (Remix)” in 2009, Hilson’s career took a nose dive and eventually fizzled out in the 2010s, leaving speculations that her disrespect of Beyonce on the song was her career downfall.
In her new interview with Charlamagne Tha God and DJ Envy on The Breakfast Club, Keri Hilson gets candid about the controversial song, saying she did not want to record it but was pressured by label execs and producers into doing it. “It’s a regret,” she said about the song. “But not in the way people think. That’s a song I actually didn’t write. Those are not my words.”
The controversial song was produced by Polow Da Don, and Hilson shared that the producer wanted to capitalize on her hit even though she was already hot and on tour with Lil Wayne.
“He wanted me to do a remix to ‘Turnin’ Me On,'” she explained. “He produced the record. Because I was on tour with Lil Wayne, I wasn’t able to lay anything down. He had been on me for a couple of weeks, [saying] we need to do a remix.”
The 42-year-old singer says she was taken aback when she heard the song for the first time and promptly declined to record it. She also stated that she eventually wrote her own verse but was pressured into sticking with the one that was written for her.
“He had another writer in our camp at the time, he had her write this,” the singer said. “He played it for me— meanwhile I’m thinking I was coming in to write a remix to ‘Turnin’ Me On.’ Automatically, I was like, ‘I’m not saying that.’ That was my position. I’m an athlete. I am competitive. But I’m not nasty, I’m a finesse player. I don’t look at things like that.”
Hilson shared that she was threatened that her album would not come out if she didn’t record the song, which resulted in her succumbing to the pressure and ending up recording the verse. “My album wasn’t out yet, I was told it’s not coming out if you don’t do this,” she revealed. “I was super young. I felt I had no choice. I’m still protecting everyone involved. I’ve been eating that for years.”
Keri Hilson assured fans that she has now reached a point where she has forgiven herself for not standing up for herself.
