As we continue to celebrate black music history month, it is also the time to celebrate Pride month.
And in honor of this month, we would like to tell the story of Chingy. An artist that was on a constant rise that in this day and age people now google “what happened to Chingy?”
Howard Earl Bailey Jr, also known as Chingy, is an American rapper and actor. A rapper than began his career in his late teens, he was on a long rise towards fame. He was a protege to Ludacris who then signed him to a label that put him on the musical map towards legendary. If you were born in the ‘90s, Chingy’s music was played non-stop since his rise was in the early 2000s. So it begs to question. What happened.
The Story of Chingy
Due to an unproven rumor, Chingy’s career began to have a downfall just as fast as he rose.
The rumor? That he was in a relationship with transgender women, Sidney Starr.
When it all started with a simple picture, gossip blogs began to spread the rumors of said relationship. Within a moment and just a picture of who he thought was a fan who was also a dancer, this story began to unravel and create a lie. A lie that made him lose a record deal.
In an exclusive interview with VLADTV, he denied the relationship and said this,
“It goes to show you how many people wanted it to be true,” Chingy said. “That’s what it goes to show you. It goes to show you that that person who nobody knew had that much power to come out and say one negative thing about me and a whole mass of people just instantly took to it. And they didn’t have not one piece of evidence. Not one piece—a clue, nothing. They had nothing. They just had this person’s lie…It actually, it injured my career a little bit. I watched it happen. I lost a deal cause of that…It was said to me. Cause it was so much bad publicity around it…I’ve never been through a sabotage situation like that. And it was so fabricated and false.”
Since then the dancer, after many years, came out and admitted the lie. She apologized in a now-deleted video stating that it was a lie and she knows how much she hurt him.
But even with these apologies, Chingy has still struggled to create music. But since then, he has used the time to learn more about himself. He has said in an article with BuzzFeed, he has focused on religion, school, growing, and becoming humble.
While he was an artist on the rise, a lie made him fall and lose almost everything. And while he no longer holds anything against the dancer, he is now happy and satisfied where he is now.
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