Keke Palmer says she is planning to take legal action against Trey Songz after he included her in his “Pick Up the Phone” video without permission. Palmer voiced her strong objections to the “violation” and accompanying “sexual intimidation” in a furious Instagram post earlier this week, demanding, “How am I in this video Trey? After you found me in a closet HIDING because I was so afraid of anymore conflict. Literally my last option was to hide because you all would not listen when I said I did not want to be in the video the FIRST time. Just cause you give someone food and alcohol and throw in a little sexual intimidation doesn’t mean they will buckle.”
Palmer has now followed up the post with an interview with Larry King, in which she reveals how she came to be in the video and why she’s looking for legal recourse in the aftermath. Apparently, what Palmer believed to be a New Year’s Eve party in Miami turned into a music-video shoot, and as she started experiencing pressure to partake, “I wasn’t in the right mind. I had been drinking and eating and it wasn’t a professional environment. It was not a place where I was, like, I’m in the right mind to decide if this works with my brand, if I like the artist — I don’t know nothing about the artist that’s also in the song.” She says she refused to participate despite the repeated urgings of a producer, an assistant, and Songz himself. Of the latter’s “sexual intimidation,” Palmer elaborates, “I feel, as a female, often I’m put in situations where sometimes males will use their masculinity, their sexuality, to taunt you.” Palmer intends to take legal action, despite the video having since been pulled, because “it’s not specifically just about this person, this guy, and what he did. It’s the overall idea that you can’t just do stuff to people and it’s alright, no matter who you are.”
This is preposterous. How am I in this video Trey? After you found me in a closet HIDING because I was so afraid of anymore conflict. Literally my last option was to hide because you all would not listen when I said I did not want to be in the video the FIRST time. Just cause you give someone food and alcohol and throw in a little sexual intimidation doesn’t mean they will buckle. Yet, you still disrespected me as a young women, whom you’ve known since she was TWELVE. YOU STILL, defied my wishes and in turn showed your lack of respect for a brand that took me fourteen years to build and put me in the video against my wishes. Come on bruh, I clearly said no and you said okay, yet I was being secretly filmed when you told me “let me just show you the idea”?? Wow. This is what I’m referring to in my previous post, this is the sexism and misogyny I refer to because if I was a dude, he wouldn’t have even tried me like this. Let this be a lesson to all, I’m not for the bullshit. I’m serious about my business and you will not use my likeness without MY permission. When you in front of a boss you treat them like one, like I treat YOU. NO MEANS NO!!!!!!! People have to listen to women and stop questioning them and their intelligence. Speak up, cause when you look someone in the face and they say “I understand. You don’t have to feel pressured to do the video” and they STILL put you in it, it is a violation. It would be great to be able to handle these things privately but why when they aren’t respected?
