This month, the hilarious parody video “Why You Always Lying” made by 21-year-old Nicholas Fraser to the tune of Next’s 1997 hit “Too Close” took the internet by storm. Made to address people who always seem to tell half-truths, Fraser embodies the group in a silly parody, everything down to the open shirts and taking it a step further with water.
Not everyone thought it was hilarious, though.
During a podcast with You Know You Got Soul, the group’s former lead singer RL recently revealed he’s not too pleased with the parody.
“Vlad asked me to make a video [below] to make light of it and I did it reluctantly because I am going to be honest: I don’t know how I feel about it. You are making a parody of my life’s work. And on one end, I don’t want to be a stickler and, you know, seem like I am bitter or anything. But you are kind of making a parody of something that I really worked hard with. It is something that I continue to get residuals from and you know, it is part of my identity…I promise you, people will send me different languages and like, ‘Did you see this?’ And I’m like, ‘Are you kidding me?’ I try to make light of it, but it is getting to the point of overkill.”
The parody has over 11 million views on Vine and has spawned spin-off parodies from all around the world in different languages, including Korean and Spanish.
While I can understand RL’s frustration, parodies of songs pop up all the time, especially based on the popularity of the song, and “Too Close” was one of 1997’s biggest R&B songs.
Do you think RL should have just should have taken it with a grain of salt and simply laughed it off, or should he have a point to be upset?
