Since the release of his latest racy music video for âSheâs Single,â R&B crooner Raheem DeVaughn has been receiving a lot of slack from naysayers, similar to responses to Keri Hilson’s âThe Way You Love Me.â The controversial video, dubbed soft porn, has become a viral phenomenon, even trending on Twitter. âI wanted to create an image that was tasteful, but cutting edge, provocative, grown⦠real,â DeVaughn tells Vibe.com of the raunchy clip. âI wanted to have people guessing and jaw-dropping. I knew it was going to be big but I didnât guess all this. I was curious to see just how many people are checking for me, but it looks like a lot of people are.â âSheâs Singleâ is lifted off DeVaughnâs new mixtape âJackin’ 4 Beats,â and is a remake of Lil Wayneâs song âSingle.â The âCustomerâ singer says the song is not a cry for attention. âItâs not a moment of desperation. Technically there ain’t no records to sell. Itâs a free mixtape. I paid for the video to be shot myself. Itâs just another way for me to display my artistry,â he tells Vibe. âIâm constantly reinventing myself. Itâs a constant thing that I do. No diss to any of my homies, but I pay very close attention to what people say about me. I maybe saw five negative comments out of thousands. And whatâs interesting is it was from dudes. But I made this for women. I made this for a woman to say thatâs how I want to be loved down. And for the brothers who do ride with me I made it for them to say yeah thatâs how I put it down.â Unlike Keri Hilson, DeVaughnâs video was only created for promotional use and not for commercial sales. Understanding the double standard, DeVaughn says heâs cool with her video as well, even though he didnât have a chance to view it. âI havenât seen her video yet, but Iâve seen some of the comments. Someone created a blog page on just me and her,â he says. âThey had our pictures up like mug shots like how does this dude go from “Customer” to this? Easy. Itâs art man, donât take it so seriously. I’m a fan of Keri. Unfortunately for women though, if they decide to be promiscuous they’re going to get a bad rap. It is what it is. We all know that. But hopefully it was her decision. If sheâs cool with it, Iâm cool with it.â Read the rest of this interview on Vibe.com.
