On Friday, Ariana Grande released the third single off her upcoming fifth studio album Thank U, Next, and "7 Rings" was pretty much all anyone could talk about all weekend. While fans received the song and music video pairing with high praise, there were others who called Ari into question.
First, Princess Nokia accused Ariana of copying her 2017 track "Mine." The artist called out the pop star on social media, and garnered attention from those reaching far across the music industry.
The controversy stems from a line in Grande’s song in which she sings, “You like my hair? Gee, thanks, just bought it/I see it, I like it, I want it, I got it." In "Mine," Princess Nokia raps, ”Flip the weave, I am a stunner/ It’s mine, I bought it/It’s mine, I bought it.”
While the similarity in these lines sparked the first controversy over "7 Rings," Soulja Boy also hopped on the accusatory bandwagon, claiming the new song sounds like his 2010 track "Pretty Boy Swag." And the drama doesn't stop there. The next controversy arose when Ari reposted a message about the song to her Instagram Story.
When The Shade Room posted the Instagram Story to their page, announcing it had rubbed some people the wrong way, Ariana took to the comments section to explain herself.
Ariana wrote, “Hi hi… I think her intention was to be like… yay a white person disassociating the negative [stereotype] that is paired with the word 'weave'… however I’m so sorry if my response was out of pocket or if it came across the wrong way. Thanks for opening the conversation and like… to everyone for talking to me about it. It’s never my intention to offend anybody.” She also deleted the post from her page.
Despite the controversy, "7 Rings" is still breaking records, claiming the title of most streamed song on Spotify within its 24 hours of being released.