Bobby Brown did hold back his feelings on those who cover his songs.
Appearing on the latest episode of Club Shay Shay, Brown remembers not liking Britney Spears’ cover of one of his signature songs, “My Prerogative.”
Host Shannon Sharpe asked Brown if he would “need to hear” a song that he’s sampled on.
“Yes, I got to hear it. Gotta hear it,” Brown explained.. “Because you don’t know what these kids will say these days. These kids will say some shit that you know you don’t want your song associated with.”
Brown also stated that no artist has done his music any “justice” who has sampled him, especially Spears.
“Britney Spears butchered ‘Prerogative.’ “Teddy Riley produced it, but that was a butchering that, you know … I couldn’t take it,” Brown said.
Although he cleared the sample, Brown thought that Spears would give a great interpretation of “My Prerogative.”
“I cleared it only because it was Britney Spears and I was thinking… Teddy Riley is doing it too, so you know, but I felt it was a butchering,” he continued.
Club Shay Shay was not the first time that Brown expressed his dismay with Spears’ cover. While admitting that he loved Spears’ visuals, that was as far as he would go.
“Why try to fix something that ain’t broke? That’s what I say,” he said. “But I’m grateful someone covered a song of mine. The check wasn’t bad either,” Brown told New York Magazine in 2005.
In 2004, Spears released her version of “My Prerogative” as one of three new songs on her compilation album Greatest Hits: My Prerogative. Although Riley gave Brown credit for producing the track, Swedish production duo Bloodshy & Avant produced Spears’ version of the song.