Muni Long is calling out Atlantic Records, alleging the label gave her song “Timber” to Pitbull without permission before attempting to get her to adapt her vocals to suit Kesha’s voice.
Long set the record straight after recently ruffling feathers over her refusal to write “‘soulful’ songs for non-melanated artists.”
She elaborated on her remarks in a recent TikTok video, recounting three of seven instances “them people played in my face.”
She captioned the video, “My intention with these stories is to help change that culture of using black people behind the scenes but never out front. It happens ALL THE TIME. It’s not JUST happening to me. I’m just not afraid to speak up.”
Long began with the 2013 track “Timber,” claiming she co-wrote the hook, post-chorus and bridge with Breyan Isaacs.
“I write a song. The song is called ‘Timber’” she began. “Love it, they fall in love with the record. Me and Breyan had a great time in the studio writing the song.”
The “Made For me” hitmaker agreed that the song should go to FloRida, but unbeknownst to her, it went to Pitbull.
Shortly before the track was due to be released, Lung received a phone call asking her to “cut some vocals.” She added, “In my mind [that means] you need my voice on the song.”
Muni Long Told Kesha “Couldn’t Sing It Like You”
When she heard the track, she noticed another singer’s vocals on the song. After questioning the change, Long was told, “she couldn’t sing it like you so we had to switch it.”
However, Long was asked to change her original recording to match the new singer because “it is going to sound different and we need to have the same feel.”
“That’s the problem I have,” Long asserted. “You wanted it to feel a certain way, but you wanted it to look that way.”
In addition to not getting paid, Long claims Kesha’s mother tried to get a percentage of publishing rights for the song.
“Said artist’s mother was trying to get publishing on the song,” Long added. “She didn’t write it, not one word.”
Muni Long claimed the incident was not a one-off occurrence and that Atlantic “always do stuff like this.”
@munilong My intention with these stories is to help change that culture of using black people behind the scenes but never out front. It happens ALL THE TIME. It’s not JUST happening to me. I’m just not afraid to speak up.
Furthermore, Long also referenced a “recent offense” but said she was holding off on telling the story because “the movie is not out yet.”
In a follow-up video Long responded to some of the racist reactions to her post.
@munilong No fr. Wtf is a j###########?
