Ester Dean is responding after Keri Hilson expressed regret over her Dean-co-written “Turnin Me On (Remix)” aimed at Beyoncé.
The songwriter hopped on Instagram Thursday to clear the air after Hilson said during an interview with The Breakfast Club that the decision to shade Queen Bey on “Turnin’ Me On” negatively impacted her career. “It’s a regret,” Hilson said at the time, denying that she wrote the song and pointing to Dean’s pen instead.
Dean noted that her post is an “open letter” to Hilson and other creatives. “Back in July 2008, I started working with [producer] Polow Da Don in Atlanta,” she began. “Later, I moved to Los Angeles to write for Polow’s artist over at Interscope. I wasn’t famous. I wasn’t chasing clout. I was in the studio – day and night – writing 3 to 4 songs a day. No friends. No family. Just work.”
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She went on to rewrite some of the lyrics off the “Turnin’ Me On (Remix)”: “Your vision cloudy if you think that you’re the best/ You can dance, she can sing/ But she need to move it to the …,” which many believed to be in reference to Beyoncé’s 2006 hit “Irreplaceable.”
Those lyrics, Dean admitted in her open letter, were “tacky,” but not forced. “No. That was me. I wasn’t in the room with Keri writing this together,” she continued. “I didn’t know her personally. She was already a star. I was just a writer trying to earn my place. I did my job and left. Keri came in another time and wrote her own verse – her pen, her voice.”
Dean went on to clarify, “I didn’t work with Beyoncé until years later when I signed to Roc Nation as a writer. There was no ‘plot’ no ‘beef squad’. No secret industry mission. Just writers writing.”
She added: “Keri was already massive. She didn’t need saving. She was out here making history. Why Speak Now? Keri was speaking on big platforms I didn’t have access to – and it was her story to tell, not mine. I stayed writing. No hate. No shade. Just truth.”
Dean concluded her letter by noting that what Hilson went through was unfortunate. “She’s a great artist, a beautiful spirit, and she deserves grace,” the songwriter wrote. “She took her lessons. I’ll take mine.”
In Hilson’s aforementioned interview with The Breakfast Club, she said part of the blame belonged to Polow.
“I tried to fight him on it and I began writing my own,” the singer said. “The mistake that I made was not continuing to fight. But I was in tears, I was crying, I was adamant that I did not want to do that.”
Dean had previously come forward and issued her own apology on Wednesday (April 9) after Hilson’s interview, claiming the verse was “childish.” She wrote in what appears to be a now-deleted post: “I see how it hurt people, especially women, and I take full accountability.”
Check out Dean’s full response shared April 10 below.
