Pharrell Williams says he's now embarrassed by the lyrics to one of his biggest hit songs, 'Blurred Lines'.
In an interview with GQ, the music mogul said he didn't initially get the problem with the words to his 2013 collaboration with Robin Thicke, but now realises they cater to a "chauvinist culture".
"Some of my old songs, I would never write or sing today. I get embarrassed by some of that stuff. It just took a lot of time and growth to get to that place," he explained.
The producer and singer said some of the "older white women" he encountered enjoyed the song in a way that "had him blushing".
"So when there started to be an issue with it, lyrically, I was like, 'what are you talking about?' There are women who really like the song and connect to the energy that just gets you up."
Referring to the lyric: "I know you want it," Williams said at the time, he thought, "women sing those kinds of lyrics all the time".
"So it's like, 'what's rapey about that?'"
"And then I realised that there are men who use that same language when taking advantage of a woman, and it doesn't matter that that’s not my behaviour.
"I realised that we live in a chauvinist culture in our country. [I] hadn't realised that," he continued.
"I didn't realise that some of my songs catered to that. So that blew my mind."
'Blurred Lines' became the target of further controversy when Marvin Gaye's family sued the creators for copyright infringement, claiming plagiarism from the soul singer's hit 'Got to Give It Up'.
Williams and Thicke, who wrote the track together, were ordered to pay out over US$5 million of the more than $US16 million the song had earned.
Newshub.
