Teyana Taylor recently shared how she was disappointed with how little Pharrell pushed for her success when she was signed to him early on in her career.
The R&B singer inked a deal with Pharrell’s Star Trak imprint back in 2007 when she was just 15 years old. Teyana released From a Planet Called Harlem while signed to Star Trak, but said she negotiated her way out of her deal in 2012 because she wanted a certain level of creative independence within the industry. Taylor then joined up with Kanye West’s G.O.O.D. Music.
In a recent interview with Angie Martinez’ IRL podcast, Taylor said there was a time during her tenure at Star Trak that she was frustrated by the way Pharrell handled her career.
“Getting signed to a man, it was like a figure to me … I looked at these people like figures. Whether it was as a dad, as a brother, it didn’t matter. So it’s like, you didn’t see me, you didn’t hear me, you didn’t protect me. you kind of just like fed me to the wolves type-shit without probably even knowing,” she told Martinez. “Some of those conversations still need to be had.”
She continued: “I had a really, really, really, really deep and honest conversation with Pharrell, because, you know, he was the first person to sign me. He was Skateboard P, I was Skateboard T. You cannot tell me that wasn’t my pops. I really looked up to him. He didn’t have kids at the time, and he wanted kids. He’d be like, ‘Yo, she call me her pops.’ He was really proud of that.”
She went on to say that she was like Pharrell’s “baby twin,” but that as her career progressed he didn’t do much to elevate her to the next level.
“He’s not confrontational at all. He’s literally one of the sweetest people in just the whole wide world, you know what I’m saying? So, it wasn’t that he didn’t protect me, it’s just that a lot of hands started going into the cookie jar … it’s P, he not ’bout to be like. ‘No, y’all n-ggas back up,’” she explained
“Maybe he was hurt about some things. You don’t know. It could’ve been a thing of pride and ego at the time. We don’t know. To me, as a 15-year-old, it was, you didn’t protect me. You let everyone mishandle me. I signed to you. You let everybody get in the way and everybody break us apart. You didn’t protect me.”
Fast forward to the 30:14 mark to hear her feelings about Pharrell.
Thoughts?
