Bobby Brown says Britney Spears “butchered” cover of ‘My Prerogative’

Bobby Brown has criticised Britney Spears‘ cover of his classic song ‘My Prerogative’, saying that she “butchered” it.

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The pop star’s version of the R&B singer’s 1988 single appears on her 2004 best-of compilation, ‘Greatest Hits: My Prerogative’. Brown’s original track features on his second studio album, ‘Don’t Be Cruel’, and has been covered or sampled numerous times since.

During a new interview on the Club Shay Shay podcast, Brown spoke about whether he asked to hear an artist’s rendition of a track they wanted to sample or cover before giving them the go-ahead.

“Yes, I gotta hear it,” he responded. “Because you don’t know what these kids will say these days. These kids will say some shit that you don’t want your song associated with.”

The singer went on to tell host Shannon Sharpe that he wasn’t a fan of Spears’ rendition. “Britney Spears butchered ‘[My] Prerogative’,” Brown told Sharpe.

“Teddy Riley produced it, but that was a butchering that I couldn’t take it. I cleared it only because it was Britney Spears and I was thinking… Teddy Riley is doing it too, so you know, but I felt it was a butchering.”

Spears’ cover was actually helmed by Swedish production team Bloodshy & Avant, who also produced her hit single ‘Toxic’. Teddy Riley is credited as a producer on Brown’s original version, and is listed as a co-writer.

You can watch the full interview with Brown in the video above, and revisit both tracks below.

Earlier this year, Stranger Things star Millie Bobby Brown reiterated her desire to portray Spears – but said it was not her story to tell.  The actor had first spoken about potentially playing the pop star on screen in 2022, though Spears was quick to shoot down the idea.

Last summer, Universal Pictures announced that Spears’ best-selling 2023 memoir The Woman In Me would serve as the basis for a new biopic about the singer, with Jon M. Chu (Wicked, In The Heights, Crazy Rich Asians) attached as director.

Chu later said that teased that he had an “initial conception” of the story the upcoming film would tell. “I think it’s a lot about how we treat people, young people, stars that we think we own, women, mothers,” he said.

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