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Lyfe Jennings Defends ‘Slave’ Song Amid Backlash

Charlamagne and Amanda Seales previously had choice words for the R&B singer upon the release of the song.

R&B singer Lyfe Jennings found himself in the crosshairs of Black Twitter and the butt of their jokes after radio veteran Charlamagne Tha God and comedian Amanda Seales ridiculed the Ohio-born crooner over some lyrics from one of the songs off his 777 album. On Sunday (Sept. 15), Charlamagne published a video of the Insecure actress reacting to one of Jennings songs titled, “Slave” to his official Instagram page. As some of the verses plays, Amanda appears confused then shocked before her expression melts to disapproval at his choice of words. In the lyrics she’s reacting to, Jenning seemingly comparies sex to slavery, singing "I'm gon' beat it like a slave / so you don't run away / got the whips and chains / call me master."

“Some of y’all don’t have any friends. If you did, you wouldn’t make mistakes like this record,” Charlamagne capped off the post. Shortly after, Jennings responded to them with a post to his Instagram. Although he issued an apology to anyone who found offense with his lyrics, Jennings chastised the Power 105.1 radio host for spinning his lyrics to drum up outrage.

"You know what's weird is that y'all know that Lyfe done put out positive music my whole career. They ain't never supported my stuff," the 41-year-old soul singer hit back in a short clip. "You ain't never supported Boomerang, you ain't never supported S.E.X., you ain't never supported all that good music I did for Black people. And then you're gonna try and put something like this on your page? That's what's wrong with you Black folks right now. You always wanna grasp on to the most negative but you can't support the good."

Charlamagne went on the record at The Breakfast Club to squash the beef. He clarified that he was not coming for Jennings personally and didn’t think the song was “negative.”  

"I just thought the song was wack," Charlamagne said on the radio show’s Rumor Report section. "The lyrics were so trash! How can he say we don't support him? We've interviewed Lyfe on The Breakfast Club. If Lyfe wanted to come up here now he could. But to be clear: Lyfe, I don't care about you singing about sex. I didn't think the song was negative. I just thought the song was wack. I thought it was so wack I had no idea it was you, because you, my guy, are better than that."

Following that, the R&B soul singer clarified to TMZ that he wasn’t trying to invoke a comparison to Amercian chattel slavery, explaining that he wrote that song after he was inspired by 50 Shades of Grey’s bondage theme. 

“If you were to watch the video, you’d know it's about bondage. It was just a play on that. When you talk about whip and chains, slavery wasn’t the only thing that had whips and chains. It’s plenty of other aspects of life in general that has chains and whips,” Jennings told the entertainment website. 

As Jennings noted, the music video -- which is quite risque in nature -- features Jennings acting out some light BDSM-esque play with scantily clad women. 

Regardless, the Internet is not jiving with Jenning’s lyrics or his explanation.

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