If Keri Hilson had her way, the official remix to her smash single, "Turnin' Me On", which features new verses from hip hop's odd couple, T-Pain and Lil Wayne, would've never seen the light of day. But instead, the track mysteriously sprung a leak Tuesday morning (March 3) and caused quite a bit of commotion around the industry.
Rumors began circulating that Keri's verse on the track was aimed at R&B's top diva's, Beyonce and Ciara, but music critics couldn't fathom the purpose or reasoning behind the malicious gesture.
Hilson sang, “Your vision cloudy if you think you the best. You can dance, she can sing, but need to move it ‘to the left’.” Towards the latter of her verse she snapped, “Go head tell these folks how long I been writing your songs… I been putting you on… check the credits hoe!…If you want me you can find me in Decatur hoe.”
The two excerpts above ignited speculation that Hilson wasn't referring to anyone but Beyonce and Ciara. But during an exclusive interview with V103's, Ryan Cameron in Atlanta Friday evening (March 6), Hilson quickly refuted those claims and suggested that the context of the remix was taken way out of hand.
Hilson, who called into the show while Cameron was interviewing with Ciara explained, "I just want to let Atlanta know and Ciara know that this is a true leak. I did, and I don't know if Polow said this on the radio, but I did fight this coming out. I didn't want this coming out because we played it for people when I did it and that's what people said it was about; they started throwing out names. We were like 'No, it's not about that' and we tried to let them know what it was really about. But the fact that people brought back names, it was like ok, that wasn't the reaction we need, so I told Polow, 'let's not do this and he agreed".
After hearing Keri's explanation, Ciara offered, "So cool, I mean I guess everybody is here to listen to what Keri said and I'll take it for that. And like I say, from my end it's always been nothing but love for you. I was very happy for you to get where you are, you know what I'm saying?".
When Cameron probed Hilson about who the jabs were actually aimed at, Keri, again, didn't offer up any specifics, but did say the targets know exactly who they are. Keri told Cameron, "I mean I will say this, my journey has been 12 years long and there have been many people, specifically girls, and it really just isn't one person, it's been a lot of people."
She added "It's anyone who's tried to take me down and didn't want to see me succeed. There have been a lot of people. I'm not going to call any names because I feel I addressed it, but they know who they are."
Though she apologized for any controversy the verse caused, she did stand firm on the actual lyrics to the tune.
Haven't heard the song yet? Head over to BET's, SoundOff Blog for the track, right here!