Someone has it out for O.T. Genasis's "Never Knew," and many have pointed the finger at Keyshia Cole. The R&B singer has vocalized that she isn't a huge fan of the rapper taking the melody for one of her classic hits, "Love," and switching up the lyrics to create his Crip-themed jam. It was all a bit of fun and fans seemed to have enjoyed it, but not long after the music video hit YouTube, O.T. Genasis shared that the visual had been taken down.
Keyshia chatted with her One On One With Keyshia Cole panel about "Never Knew" and shared her thoughts on the track. "I'm smooth sailing, I'm good, I got my family," she said. "Gettin' my mom right, everything like that. I'm okay, but I'm really trying to get back to my music. So I would like my classics to be left alone. Is that wrong as an artist to say? I love everybody, I mean, that sings my songs. I done had Cardi sing it, sing my songs. He did it on Valentine's Day, Bruno Mars was singing it. Trey Songz singing it in the club. But they keep my lyrics the same. How am I gon' get paid when you makin' new lyrics and you ain't sent me out a check or anything like that? I don't even know how that thing goes. And then people hitting me up sayin' like, 'Oh, I would never listen to Keyshia Cole's song the same."
Keyshia's man Niko Khalé suggested that people who are seriously going through heartbreak or love will listen to Keyshia's original song no matter what. However, those who want to hear "gangsta sh*t" are going to rock with O.T. Genasis. "I think it's kinda hurtful a little bit, too, as an artist because there was no, 'Hey, how you doin'. How you feel about this?' 'Cause that's what you do if you an artist. If I wanna remix a Prince song Imma go to Prince and figure out if I can use that. Or if I wanted to use...like how I did 'Let It Go' and I re-did that."
O.T. Genasis shared a clip of Keyshia's show on Instagram and seemed a tad defeated in his caption when he wrote, "Damn Keyshia 😳😳😳 it’s like dat? I thought u was from da Bay ? I thought it was California love 😔 A n*gga can’t have fun no more lol." Check out the clip of One On One With Keyshia Cole below.