According to COMPLEX Chingy expressed how the false claim made by transgender social media personality Sidney Starr about their alleged sexual relationship had a detrimental impact on his career.
In a recent interview with TMZ, he reflected on how this incident essentially halted his promising career and criticized the workings of the music industry during that period.
The 44-year-old artist revealed that despite Starr eventually admitting to fabricating the story, the damage was done, and he struggled to regain his footing in the industry.
“When that happened I lost a lot of stuff based off a lie, which was just, that was the most oddest thing I’ve ever seen,” Chingy said. “Nah, man, when the individual apologized, and it so-called went away, which it took years to blow away, nah, man. Ain’t nothing good happened from that for me.”
Chingy noted that his sudden disappearance from the limelight, despite his previous success and popularity with millions of records sold, raised questions among fans and industry observers.
However, he clarified that his absence was not due to personal issues but rather a consequence of shady industry politics, sabotage, and other negative elements related to the false claims made by Starr.
According to Chingy, he never truly made up with Starr although he accepted her apology. In his eyes, he wanted to just come to an understanding and move on without having to be associated with Starr in any capacity.
“There’s no, I mean to be honest with you, man like it was spilled milk, and I lost a lot from it. That person gained,” he said. “I’m not going, I’m not gonna hold on to something. It is what it is. Apologize. Cool. I’m going this way and let that individual do their thing and a lot of stuff, man. But that situation….that hurt my career. Like I’m just gonna be honest about it.”
The situation between Chingy and Starr started after a photo they took together circulated online in 2010, with the social media personality claiming they were in a relationship.
People picked up the rumor and began questioning Chingy’s sexuality which hurt the trajectory of his burgeoning career.
Starr revealed in 2012 that she made the whole relationship up in order to advance her career and was apologetic towards Chingy.
That wasn’t enough, though, as the two never really came to an understanding and continued to take shots at each other over the years.