Now, this is turning us off. On April 9, actress and singer Ester Dean took to Instagram to publicly apologize to her music colleague Keri Hilson for her role in writing the controversial lyrics aimed at Beyoncé on the leaked version of Hilson’s 2009 “Turnin Me On (Remix)” and letting her take the heat for it.
The seemingly sincere message fell on deaf ears, as Hilson took to social media to check Dean for her lonnnnnnnnnng overdue apology.
During a conversation on The Breakfast Club on Wednesday, Hilson revealed that she had been pressured by her label to sing the petty verse, with her then-manager Polow Da Don allegedly threatening to derail her career if she refused. The decision left a stain on her music career and sent the Bey-Hive into a buzzing non-stop storm against the singer.
As news about the anecdote flooded social media, Dean came out and admitted to penning the lyrics and expressed regret for contributing to Hilson’s pain. After at first, cheekily telling a fan “And Did!” after she was asked if she wrote the verses…
Dean went on to apologize and note that the verses were co-written by Hilson.
“I submitted a lot of verses for that remix — one got picked, it was co-written with Keri,” the Pitch Perfect star penned in an open letter shared to Instagram Wednesday.
In the song, Hilson took a swipe at Beyoncé and the star’s hit tune “Irreplaceable,” singing:
“Your vision cloudy if you think that you’re the best / You can dance, she can sing / But she need to move it to the left, left.”
Hilson then wailed:
“She need to go have some babies / She needs to sit down, she fake.”
Looking back, Dean described the lyrics as “childish” and admitted they should never have been approved, noting that they definitely didn’t “age well.”
“I see how it hurt people, especially women, and I take full accountability,” she added. “I’ve worked with and supported many women since, but that doesn’t erase the moment. I am sorry for my part in it. Growth is real and so is this apology.”
Keri Hilson Responded To Ester Dean & Clarified What She Wrote
The apology didn’t sit well with Hilson.
The 42-year-old singer took to The Shade Room‘s comments section to respond to Dean after the outlet shared her apology post, claiming that her regret and confession were long overdue. She also made it clear that Dean was the one who wrote the anti-Bey lyrics, and that she attempted to re-write it three times, a tidbit she also revealed during her Breakfast Club interview.
“Dean, I personally don’t think this is our fight to have. I’ve respected you on this matter for 16 years, and attempted to do that again yesterday while finally expressing my truth when asked,” the singer wrote in part. “But since you’re coming to the table, let’s be clear. You used the word co-write. I re-wrote 3 lines in your verse. Which was the only battle I won in the matter. But you weren’t there when all this was going down, and we didn’t write it together.”
According to the hitmaker, the lines that she contributed to the song were:
“Been getting dollars boy/ Gone get ya money up/No you ain’t the only homie on me, line up.”
“The softest section,” according to Hilson.
What happened on The Breakfast Club?
On Wednesday, Hilson explained that while she was on tour, Polow, her former manager at Interscope Records, insisted she record a remix of “Turnin Me On.” At the time, she was gearing up for the release of her debut album In a Perfect World, and consumed with touring alongside Lil Wayne.
According to Hilson, Polow was determined to get the remix done, prompting her to take several days off from the tour to return to the studio and write a new verse. However, she was taken aback when she found out that Polow had already prepared lyrics from another writer, and shady lyrics at that.
“I come into the studio and he plays me this verse,” she recalled around the 25:50 minute mark. “Automatically, I was like, ‘I’m not saying that.’ That was my position.’”
Although Hilson wasn’t clear who the lyrics were about, she knew something was off and didn’t want to play “dirty” against another female star in the industry.
“I’m an athlete but I’m a finesse player. I’m not a nasty player, I’m not a dirty player. I don’t even look at things like that,” she explained. “But we disagree there Polow and I. Because he believes in kind of the shock jock mentality. He believes in playing dirty and I don’t.”
Hilson said she initially turned down the verse and returned to writing her own material, but was eventually pressured into recording the remix anyway.
“I tried to fight him on it and I began writing my own but he… It was quite forceful,” she said of Polow’s behavior. “In an executive-artist way. Involving others and kind of threatening my career, in a real sense.”
Hilson continued:
“My album wasn’t out yet, so it was like, ‘You’re not coming out if you don’t do this.’ The mistake that I made was not continuing to fight, but I was in tears. I was crying. I was adamant that I did not wanna do that.”
Looking back on the viral moment, Hilson said she still regrets following through with the petty Beyoncé diss track, revealing that she felt totally powerless at the time.
“I was super young. I felt I had no power, I felt I had no choice. But I did record my version which had nothing like in it,” she clarified. “It was on subject–the song is about men. It leaked days after I did it, but he promised me that wouldn’t happen…I protected him [Polow]. I protected the girl that wrote it, who went on to become famous. I protected everyone in the story. So, I had to eat that and I’m still eating it until this day.”
Wow! What do you think about this beef between Ester Dean and Keri Hilson? Tell us in the comments section.
