Kelly Price stopped by The Breakfast Club, where she opened up about the body-shaming she’s received in the music industry.
Price goes into detail about the awkward meeting she had with then-Jive A&R Jeff Fenster when he told her she needed to lose a significant amount of weight before her record is released. Even more awkward, she had to ask them how much weight they expected her to lose, and they had no response for her.
“We don’t know,” they answered when she asked what would happen to her record if she didn’t lose enough weight. “It messed with my head,” she continued. Price kept it together until she was out of the Jive offices but admitted the incident left her in tears.
Following the meeting, she called her told her lawyer to tear up the Jive contract.
Recalling another incident concerning her weight, she detailed a time recording with a group at Daddy’s House who insulted her during a recording session. Price asked to take a break to make a lyrical change to the song they were working on overheard the guys discussing her weight.
Price said she’s also dealt with people telling her she doesn’t look like the typical artist, forcing her to go against the grain. “You don’t look like Aaliyah. You don’t look like Tamia. You don’t look like Deborah Cox. No, I look like me,” she said.
When asked if she thinks the music industry has changed, she admits, “it’s a slow walk.” Then Price shows love for Lizzo, acknowledging how important she is in the music industry and that she wishes she had Lizzo’s confidence level.
“She’s super important,” she said. “I love that she loves herself and the skin she’s in because I wasn’t there when I was her age.”
