Viral Jennifer Lopez Thread Accuses Her Of Failing To Credit Other Artists

Jennifer Lopez has been a fixture in the pop music world since bursting onto the scene in 1999, but a detailed Twitter thread by user PallahAbdul is drawing attention to her history of sampling without crediting and recording songs originally intended for other artists.

The thread starts at the beginning of J.Lo’s career with her debut single “If You Had My Love.” It went to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, but drew controversy at the time because its producer Rodney Jerkins wrote an incredibly similar song for Chanté Moore titled “If I Gave Love.”

Other early career hits are discussed too, including “Waiting for Tonight,” which was originally released by dance-pop trio 3rd Party in 1997 and covered by Lopez.

Ashanti figures heavily into the thread, which includes interview clips of her saying that she recorded the original demo for “I’m Real” and that they even kept some of her backup vocals. She also apparently did the same for Lopez’s “Ain’t It Funny.” Ashanti was signed to Murder Inc. at a time when Lopez worked regularly with artists and producers on the label like Ja Rule and Irv Gotti.

Upon its release “I’m Real” was also the subject of controversy because it contained a sample of the Japanese electronic group Yellow Magic Orchestra’s “Firecracker,” which Mariah Carey had sampled earlier for her Glitter soundtrack.

Additionally, the duet format of the “I’m Real” remix was apparently cribbed from the Mariah, Nate Dogg and Ja Rule collaboration “If We.” Record executive Tommy Mottola reportedly heard the track and asked Irv Gotti to put together something similar for Lopez, with “I’m Real” ultimately coming out first.

In 2018, Lopez released a handful of singles, including “Te Gusté” with Bad Bunny and “Dinero” with DJ Khaled and Cardi B.

Read the full lyrics to “Waiting for Tonight” and the rest of Jennifer Lopez’s discography on Genius now.