TikTok influencer Danielle Cohn spent the holiday getting dragged on social media after she posted a cover of Ashanti‘s classic “Foolish” but claiming it was her own music.
“Make a TikTok to my new song,” she wrote in the caption of her preview, while blatantly calling the track “Foolish” in the description of the video.
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In record speed, her followers and Ashanti fans alike called her to task, criticizing the teenager for not acknowledging to her droves of young followers that the song was a cover of Ashanti’s 2002 original.
Many also pointed out that she not only neglected to give Ashanti credit on her TikTok, she even made merchandise related to the cover.
Due to all the controversy, Ashanti’s name started to trend on Twitter. But in response to the backlash, the teen attempted to walk back her original promo by posting, “Do people not understand what a cover is.”
She later followed up by stating, “The internet is just full of bullying now. Trending on twitter cause I did a cover song so sad!”
While her responses may have lead some to show her sympathy, die hard Ashanti fans where unmoved with one posting, “Ashanti needs to sue this little broad. The f**king audacity! First you steal her entire song and then tried to say it was a cover & now you’re also trying to make a profit off of merch. Smdh”
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But this isn’t the first time the young influencer has made a profit off of singing other people’s music. Back in 2018, BuzzFeed News reported that Cohn had made a name for herself lip-syncing popular songs on social media apps and was planning to move to Los Angeles to pursue a music career.
At the time, the publication reported she had amassed, “nearly 10 million fans on the popular tween app Musical.ly and 1.8 million followers on Instagram. She entered 2018 attracting major partnership and brand endorsement deals with brands like Samsung, Six Flags, and Live Nation, to name a few.”
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