White TikTok Influencer Dragged After Stealing Ashanti’s Classic Song ‘Foolish’ And Claiming It’s Her ’New Song’

Danielle Cohn, a White teenage TikTok star is coming under intense fire on social media after posting a preview of a song she labeled her own, but turned out to be a cover of R&B artist Ashanti’s “Foolish”.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by DANIELLA🌊🖤🌺 (@daniellecohn) on Aug 23, 2020 at 1:02pm PDT

The social media sensation, who is reportedly 16 years old, grew up in Orlando.  She first began to gain attention online after posting videos in 2016 on Musical.ly, an app later acquired by TikTok that allowed users to record short videos of themselves lip-syncing to popular songs to share with others.  Cohn would go on to top the Musical.ly leaderboard frequently as she continued to upload videos of her lip-syncing, and soon thereafter would amass millions of followers on the platform.  

According to Buzzfeed, in 2018 she and her mother, who also serves as her manager, would pack up and leave Orlando to relocate to Los Angeles, in pursuit of launching a music career for Cohn.  Working two jobs, including a cashier gig at night to support her and her older brother, ad requests for the young social media star would begin to pour in in droves, encouraging her mother to make the decision to quit her job to manage her daughter’s growing brand.  “I can’t work,” says her mother, “because I have to bring [Danielle] everywhere and do everything — it’s work because she’s young and I don’t want her at these places on her own.”

Over time though, Danielle would amass a slew of haters as well.  Various accounts labeling themselves “hate pages” dedicated to Cohn would emerge.  Users began to criticize her for being “inappropriate” for the way she talks and acts, and also telling her to cover-up.  At the time, the online star would go on to say she was one of the most hated people on the Internet. However, her latest stunt might be revitalizing the hatred once again.  

New music video https://t.co/BFBUmxwA6V pic.twitter.com/EZgrVl6hcz

— Danielle Cohn🖤 (@DanielleCohn555) September 4, 2020

Labor Day weekend would invite the release of Cohn’s latest musical offering, with an accompanying visual.  She didn’t stop there as she also released mercy to go along with the release of her single.  ”Make a TikTok to my new song,” wrote Cohn under the video along with “Foolish” in the description.  Fans, noticing that the song was indeed a cover of Ashanti’s 2002 hit single, dragged Cohn with the quickness for not crediting Ashanti or acknowledging that it was indeed a cover, also noting that many of her young fans probably had no idea of the original song’s existence.  

“Not this white Girl stealing Ashanti’s song and trying to claim it as her own…..” said one user on Twitter.  After a wave of backlash ensued, Danielle briefly addressed the situation, tweeting out “Do people not understand what a cover is”, yet failing to acknowledge her error in the situation.  

Ashanti’s name began to trend on Twitter as fans attempted to clarify that the song was indeed a cover and shouldn’t have been labeled as her own offering.  “Ashanti needs to sue this little broad,” another user commented while highlighting the merch on her website.  “The f*****g audacity! First you steal her entire song and then tried to say it was a cover & now you’re also trying to make a profit off of merch. Smdh.”

Read more reactions to the whole debacle below.

Not this white Girl stealing Ashanti’s song and trying to claim it as her own….. pic.twitter.com/KBtgZUry6u

— 𝔑𝔞𝔥𝔞⁷ (@gwuapbby) September 6, 2020

— please stop quoting this with “iTz a CovEr.” I’m not dumb I know what a cover is. And I never said it wasn’t. She didn’t give Ashanti Credit on TikTok initially, she said “MY NEW SONG.” and she made Merchandise to Sell & Make a Profit off of “Her New Song.” PUHLEASE stfu. pic.twitter.com/FVurSerOOz

— 𝙻𝚒𝚋𝚋𝚢 𝙵𝚘𝚕𝚏𝚊𝚡 (@BAAQ_) September 6, 2020

Do YOU not understand you need permission and proper credits to an artist to cover their use? Yet Ashanti’s name is not at all in your song credits but yeah… sure girl. pic.twitter.com/h4YqnXSqEE

— Alexa Zaro (@alexarzaro) September 7, 2020