Bobby Brown accuses Britney Spears of "butchering" one of his songs with cover
Spears stormed the charts with My Prerogative in 2004 – but original writer Bobby Brown remains unhappy about it.
Singer Bobby Brown has taken a swipe at Britney Spears, claiming she "butchered" one of his classic songs when she covered it.
My Prerogative was originally released by Brown back in 1988, mashing hip-hop, disco and rap elements to create genre 'new jack swing' with the addictively catchy track.
Becoming a massive hit and one of the most defining songs of the era, My Prerogative has since been sampled and covered multiple times in the nearly 40 years since.
One of the most notable versions was by Spears, who named her Greatest Hits album after the song and covered the track in 2004.
But instead of being happy at the Princess of Pop putting her spin on the anthem, Brown said he did not like how the song played out.
Speaking on the podcast Club Shay Shay, Brown said "Britney Spears butchered Prerogative".
"Teddy Riley produced it, but that was a butchering that I couldn’t take.
"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."
The 56-year-old musician stated during the interview that he makes sure to hear any version of his songs before release, only clearing them if he’s satisfied.
He added: "You don’t know what these kids will say these days. These kids will say some s**t that you don’t want your song associated with."
However, while many of his tracks have been sampled over the years, he doesn’t feel like any of them "really did justice" to the songs.
Brown originally wrote the song alongside Teddy Riley shortly after he was fired from the RnB and Pop Group New Edition.
The lyrics focus on rumours about the person singing it, and how they should be able to live life on their own terms and how they see fit.
While Brown’s version was believed to be taking aim at the former band, Spears’s version was seen as her hitting back at the intense media scrutiny she had been facing at the time.
Both versions had massive commercial success, with Brown’s peaking at number six in the UK charts, while Spears’s peaked at three.
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Authors
Tilly Pearce is a freelance TV journalist whose coverage ranges from reality shows like Love Is Blind to sci-fi shows like Fallout. She is an NCTJ Gold Standard accredited journalist, who has previously worked as Deputy TV Editor (maternity cover) at Digital Spy, and Deputy TV & Showbiz Editor at Daily Express US.
