Teyana Taylor opened up about being to Pharrell Williams’ record label as a teen and how she believes he could have done more to offer support and “protect” her.
In 2007, Taylor signed with Pharrell’s Star Trak Enterprises when she was just 15 years old. During that time, Taylor released one mixtape, “From a Planet Called Harlem,” before leaving the label in 2012 to sign with Kanye West’s GOOD Music and Def Jam. Eight years later, the songstress revealed that she was exiting the music industry because she felt “underappreciated” by the labels.
In a recent interview with Angie Martinez, Taylor addressed her decision and shared her opinions about Williams.
“For me, that 15-year-old, that girl just needed you to fight a little harder. You know what I’m saying? Needed you to maybe push even if you didn’t have the strength to,” she said. “I just needed you to push for me more.”
Taylor continued, “He’s not confrontational at all. He’s literally just one of the easiest people in the whole wide world, you know what I’m saying? So, it’s not like he didn’t protect me, it’s just that a lot of hands started going into the cookie jar, and he didn’t, you know like. To me, as a 15-year-old, it was, you didn’t protect me. You let everyone mishandle me. I’m signed to you and you let everybody get in the way and everybody break us apart. You didn’t protect me.”
Nevertheless, Taylor says she expressed how she felt to Williams in 2016 after Kanye West’s “Fade” was released, which she was featured in.
“I love that I was able to share that with him during a high and not like hitting somebody up while you’re angry and sitting around somewhere bitter,” she added. “None of these doors would have ever opened for me if it wasn’t for P.”
