All About Laughs
Songs are synonymous with the artists who sing them. The mere mention of the song title can instantly make you think of the singers voice, performances and music videos. You’d be surprised to find out that some of you favorite artists biggest records were initially not written for them. Even worst, sometimes people miss out on a hit in favor of someone else getting a similar record or sound. Fans of 90’s powerhouse Chante Moore learned this the hard way when she uncovered that she missed out on a potentially career defining record in exchange for the song that launched Jennifer Lopez music career.
Following the success of her biggest hit, “Chante’s Got a Man”, Moore got in with super producer Rodney Jerkins to do a record called “If I Gave You Love”. The song was in the same vein as other Rodney hits of the time like Toni Braxton’s “He Wasn’t Man Enough for Me” and Whitney Houston’s “Its Not Right but its Okay”.
Super producer Sean “Diddy” Combs was looking for records at the time for then girlfriend Jennifer Lopez’s music debut. Upon hearing “If I Gave You Love”, he demanded the song. His team decided to have Rodney mock up an identical record for Lopez. That song, “If You Had My Love” helped skyrocket Lopez into the music mainstream. Lopez is no stranger to getting records not originally written for her, as songs like “I’m Real”, “Play”, “Louboutins” and “Get Right” all have origins with different artists including Mariah Carey, Usher, Brandy and Christina Milian.
“I wanted to sock him in the head,” says Moore when asked about the song. “I heard that it was because Puff Daddy walked in and heard my song and said, ‘I want that song.’ [Rodney] was like, ‘Yeah, it’s already taken. We wrote that for Chante.’ And [Puffy] was like, ‘Yeah, mmm hmm, I want that song.’ So Rodney wrote really the same song,” the singer explained, before adding: “Hers, I can’t even remember. It’s so close I can’t even sing it right now. Same song!”
Diddy has a history of shady music dealings. His label Bad Boy records is famous for their mishandling of artists and their money. Recently deceased rapper Black Rob died broke and homeless due to bad business with the hip-hop mogul. Former protege Mase also talked about it over the years, as have Aubrey O’day, Total and several others.
In response to a 2020 rant by Diddy about the unfair treatment of artists by the Grammy committee, Mase said “I heard your Grammy speech about how you are now for the artist, and about how the artist must take back control. So I will be the first to take that initiative. Also, before we ask of other ethnicities to do us right, we should do us, as Black people, better—especially the creators.” The Harlem World creator urged Diddy to walk it like he is talking it.
Aubrey recently repsonded to his launch of Our Black Party urging people to vote Trump out of office. She tweeted “Diddy has mismanaged artists & stolen their money his whole career (including Danity Kane), and now he is showing up with 18 days left before the election to get Trump out of office,” she wrote.
