Ginuwine Finally Reacts to Awkward Early 2000s Justin Timberlake Meeting

Back in October, Ginuwine unexpectedly found himself playing a pivotal role in Britney Spears’ tell-all memoir, The Woman In Me. The pop star took aim at her ex-boyfriend, Justin Timberlake, detailing an awkward and ridiculous interaction he had with the R&B singer in the early 2000s. Britney wrote about Justin using a “blaccent” when he met Ginuwine, with the “Cry Me a River” singer saying, “Oh yeahhhh. Fo’ shizz. Fo’ shizz. Ginuwineeee, what’s up homie?” What made the snippet go viral was Oscar-winning actress Michelle Williams’ reading of the moment for the audiobook.

Following his recent appearance on The Masked Singer, the “Pony” artist revealed to Billboard that he actually doesn’t remember the meeting with JT and Britney. Of course he doesn’t: it was 20 years ago, and he probably met a lot of ridiculous white boys using what they thought was “Black slang.”

“I would have probably looked at him very weird if he did that like she said,” Ginuwine said. “I just don’t remember that, but I remember him being a cool dude and me kicking it down there in Florida with [*NSYNC’s] producer at one time.”

If you weren’t following pop music in the early 2000s, there were a lot of awkward white guys pretending they were into hip-hop. Honestly, there are a lot of acts from that time who we need to just forget were ever a thing.

In case you’re wondering, no Black people thought any of these bands were actual allies who appreciated our music or culture. They all came off as awkward and performative—something we’ve said about the “SexyBack” singer a few times.

Do I think Justin was walking around talking with a “blaccent” and for sure thought he sounded cool? Yes. But he also had frosted tips back then, so clearly he made a lot of mistakes during that time.