Singer, actor, author, Tyrese speaks with ESSENCE.com about the recent controversy surrounding his video, “I Gotta Chick.”
His comments about finding the “best” women for the video didn’t sit well with his Twitter followers, who questioned why the “best” didn’t include Black women.
“There was nothing classy or tactful about the video,” wrote ESSENCE.com columnist Demetria L. Lucas. “This is a ongoing issue with Black men of a certain stature who prefer an “exotic” woman over the women who birthed them, raised them, and supported them until they got put on and had the option to explore “other” women who look nothing at all like them.
Tyrese’s response to the controversy is that the whole thing was misconstrued.
Anybody who knows me knows that if I don’t respect anybody, I respect Black women,” he said during his visit to ESSENCE.com. “My mother is a Black woman, my sisters are Black, I’ve dated Black women all my life.”
He adds, “Of all the women who ended up being picked for the video, we rolled with the sexiest, the most beautiful, the most attractive…it wasn’t race-specific.”
Watch Tyrese set the record straight, and let us know what you think.