CORRECTION (Sept. 20, 6:27 p.m. ET): A previous version of this column erroneously attributed a statement to Drake. He has not responded to Berry’s claims.
Oscar-winning actress Halle Berry’s legendary career has inspired rappers across eras — from Common and Jay-Z to Ye (formerly Kanye West) and Kendrick Lamar — to mention her in their songs, often as the standard of beauty. In 2009, Hurricane Chris took it to another level with his hit “Halle Berry (She’s Fine)” about a woman so attractive that every man wants to call her “Halle Berry, Halle Berry, Halle Berry, Halle Berry.” That repetition of her name is the chorus itself.
Until now, Berry has been gracious about the endless fawning, even telling the YouTube show “Hot Ones” in 2019, “I love all these artists. I’m always flattered when any one of them include me and that they still remember me and know who I am.”
Until now, Berry has been gracious about the endless fawning, even telling Hot Ones in 2019, “I love all these artists. I’m always flattered that they still remember me and know who I am.”
It has been all good — until Drake took it too far. For the promotion of his new single “Slime You Out,” he shared a 2012 photo of Berry covered in green slime at the 25th annual Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards. In response to an Instagram fan who asked her about the photo, Berry said of Drake, “Didn’t get my permission. That’s not cool I thought better of him!”
Berry’s original comment didn’t appear to fully explain the situation. Getty Images owns the photo and can license it for a fee. But, as Berry later explained in another Instagram comment, Drake’s team contacted her team to ask if she was OK with him using that photo to promote his single and she said no.
When asked online why she was so upset, she answered, “Cuz he asked me and i said NO that’s why. Why ask if you intend to do what you want to do ! That was the f— you to me. Not cool You get it?”
Today.com reached out to a representative for Drake for comment, but didn’t get a response. As of Tuesday afternoon, he hadn’t responded publicly to Berry’s remarks.
There’s a precedent for men in hip-hop exploiting women in ways that they’d never exploit men. The most glaring example may be Ye, whose label used a photo of Whitney Houston’s drug-strewn bathroom (taken by her sister-in-law Tina Brown) for the cover of Pusha T’s 2018 album, “Daytona.” Tina Brown sold the photo in question to National Enquirer in 2006. Pusha T said Ye claimed to have paid $85,000 for the photo. Even if he did, he didn’t clear its use with Houston’s estate, and Houston’s cousin rightly called the use of the photo “absolutely disgusting” and “tacky.” He’s right. Paying for the photo wouldn’t make it morally right for Ye to use it.
Of course, the image of Berry, which depicts her on an iconic children’s TV awards ceremony, is an innocuous one. But if she told Drake no, then the innocence of the photo doesn’t mitigate his apparent decision to disregard her response.
Every woman in her situation would be justified in her anger. But in her specific case, Berry has talked openly about her childhood with her abusive, alcoholic father and, as an adult, surviving intimate partner violence. Consider, then, how significant it must be for her, in particular, to tell a titan in the music industry that no, she doesn’t want him using her photo and how offensive it is for him to use it anyway.
There’s a shame spiral that often accompanies the kind of abuse Berry says she experienced. It can take some courage saying no. Berry’s past is one of the reasons that it’s irrelevant whether Drake has a legal right to use the photo. She said no, and that no should have been respected. It doesn’t matter how famous she is, how often her name’s been mentioned in hip-hop songs or how gracious she’s been to those who’ve evoked her in their lyrics. To rob Berry of that right is just another means of objectifying her, divorcing her voice from her body and subjecting her to a scrutiny she never sought. just wanted to say I love you guys more than you know 🤍 Though there might be a “right to publicity” claim she could make, Berry said on Instagram that she has no interest in suing Drake. Instead, she’s simply standing up for herself, something she encouraged all survivors of domestic violence to do in a 2011 speech, when she said, “I want women to stand up and break the silence and get rid of the shame and the fear and find a way to stand up for themselves.” If anything, this unnecessary debacle should remind us that while Berry may be most often associated with attractiveness, it’s time now that we associate her something else: standing up for herself.
