Bobby Brown didn’t like Britney Spears’ cover of his 1988 song “My Prerogative” — and that’s putting it mildly.
“Britney Spears butchered ‘My Prerogative,’” Brown candidly admitted to Shannon Sharpe during a discussion about cover songs on Wednesday’s episode of the “Club Shay Shay” podcast.
“Teddy Riley produced it. But that was a butchering. I couldn’t take it.”
Sharpe, however, pointed out that Brown had “cleared” the cover. “I cleared it, only because it was Britney Spears!” Brown, 56, exclaimed, insinuating that he thought she’d wow him.
A rep for Spears did not immediately return Page Six’s request for comment.
Spears, 43, famously covered the catchy tune in 2004 amid her doomed marriage to ex Kevin Federline, with whom she now shares two grown sons.
The cover was one of three new tracks on the singer’s compilation album “Greatest Hits: My Prerogative,” though Bloodshy & Avant, a production duo from Sweden, actually oversaw the cover — not Teddy Riley.
Brown confessed that he’d learned a lesson from the disappointment over Spears’ cover, saying, “I gotta hear it [to clear it] because you don’t know what these kids will say these days.”
“These kids say some s–t that… you don’t want your song associated with it.”
Many fans of Spears took exception to Brown’s blunt assessment and headed to X to sound off on his brutal comments.
“New headline: Bobby Brown, on the brink of being forgotten, brings up Britney Spears to stay relevant,” tweeted a fan, while another wrote, “Britney’s version slaps though—maybe he just needs to give it another spin?”
“Everyone agrees Britney’s version is the superior version,” declared a third. “I don’t make the rules.”
“Britney’s version is absolutely incredible,” a fourth person wrote. “No idea an original version even existed.”
Brown’s original hit appeared on his second studio album, “Don’t Be Cruel,” and ultimately spent 24 weeks on Billboard’s Hot 100 in 1988.
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