J. Holiday made headlines throughout the past week for a seemingly left-field Instagram rant directed toward Beyoncé, Cardi B, and SZA for using heartbreak as inspiration in their music. Although he has since deleted the original video from Instagram, he's not the least bit sorry for what he said.
In a new interview with The Shade Room, the "Bed" singer issued an apology for dragging Mary J. Blige into the mix (he admitted to being "salty" about losing his Grammy to her in 2008) while standing by his previous opinions about the other artists. "First and foremost, I do want to give my sincere apologies to Mary J. Blige for getting caught up in the mix. With the Grammys coming up and my best friend dying, I got caught up in the mix of my own emotions," he explains. "The Grammy nightmares came back and [I felt like] I should have won that Grammy." He goes on to say that fans who have been calling him "irrelevant" are trying to diminish his past accomplishments. "To say that my opinion doesn't matter in the music game is like a slap in my face as a Black man."
It should come as no surprise that J. Holiday isn't a fan of today's current musical climate. He says his rant was more commentary on the lyrical content in pop music, which affects him differently now that he is a parent. "If you're cool with your kids learning how to do molly and cocaine and all that, that's cool. That's on you. People clearly told you that they're not your kids' role model. So for me to say what I said about raising my daughters, y'all got a [sic] nerve to say that I'm saying something wrong."
The third snippet from the interview goes on with Holiday addressing the online attacks he's been getting, mainly from Beyoncé's fan base. "As far as the Beyhive is concerned...aye man, I don't know Beyoncé! I could give a shit honestly. But as a Black woman you should feel a little better about the lyrical content. You have daughters now. So I know you gon' to teach your daughters right. I don't know if you want them swallowing watermelon seeds or even repeating the lyric."
The singer ends by saying there are others more worthy of the Beyhive's ire. "Instead of raiding Donald Trump's page, you'd rather raid my page for having my opinion of saying something about my genre of music. I should be allowed because I put my blood sweat and tears into it."
If none of this is making sense to you, rest assured you aren't alone. Feel free to catch J. Holiday's lovely quotables below.
