Jessie J, 33, is apologizing after her recent comment that her “Bang Bang” collaborator Nicki Minaj, 38, “asked” to join the hit song (which also featured Ariana Grande, 28). “I respect you publicly being yourself @nickiminaj…From the moment I met you to now I have shown you nothing but love and gratitude for how f***ing blessed I was to have you and @arianagrande who btw wrote Bang Bang with the insanely talented Max Martin which I found out today,” she said via Instagram on Aug. 6, also apologizing to Ariana.
“Jesus. What a day. Sorry Ari. I never knew. Wild. Run that story everywhere please,” the British born singer added. “I’m the first person to admit Bang Bang would NEVER have been what it was without you guys…I’m sorry I got the story wrong all these years,” she went on, following up on her comments made in a recent interview with Glamour where she broke down some of her biggest hits, including the epic 2014 collaboration.
“I was told you heard the song and wanted to be on it by someone clearly gassing me up at the label. (Bless them and my naive ass) Thank you for clarifying I was wrong on that and Do it like dude 😂…Told me huh,” Jessie penned as part of her apology.
Babe @JessieJ I didn’t hear the song & ask 2get on it. The label asked me2get on it & paid me. How would I have heard the song? 😩 chiiille what am I the damn song monitor? Snoopin around for songs chile?😂This was said by another artist recently as well. Yallgotta stop🎈 LoveU😘 pic.twitter.com/LShiO3wEm6
— BEAM ME UP SCOTTY MIXTAPE OUT NOW‼️🎀🦄♥️ (@NICKIMINAJ) August 6, 2021
In her original comments — which Nicki responded to via social media — Jessie recalled how she thought the track came together. “Max Martin wrote ‘Bang Bang,’ and Ariana had been played it, I’d been played it, and we both loved it. We just said, ‘Why don’t we both do it?’ So Ariana stayed on the second verse, I recorded the first verse, and then Nicki was played it in the studio and was like, ‘I’ve got to jump on this.’ We didn’t go to her and ask; she wanted to do it,” Jessie said.
Nicki quickly clapped back via social media to tell her side of the tale. “Babe @JessieJ I didn’t hear the song & ask 2get on it. The label asked me2get on it & paid me. How would I have heard the song?” the Pink Friday rapper wrote via Twitter on Aug. 5. She added, “What am I the damn song monitor? Snoopin around for songs chile?…Ya’ll gotta stop,” she also said.
As part of Jessie’s apology, she took the opportunity to share a funny throwback video of herself. “This is a video of me back in 2015 on stage taking the piss out of myself which is basically an hour of my set…It was made into a meme about 2 weeks ago. Is that what this is really about? And where this weird energy between us began?” she asked, including clips from their music video shoot and AMAs performance that year. “If we can’t laugh in the lives we have been blessed with. What’s the point. It really isn’t that deep,” she also said.