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Mary J. Blige Apologizes for Burger King Ad, Says She'd 'Never Just Bust Out Singing About Chicken'

Posted Jun 30th 2012 9:30AM by Kenneth Partridge
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Jim Spellman, WireImage

Back in April, Mary J. Blige ruffled feathers with a Burger King commercial many felt portrayed negative African American stereotypes. The Queen of Hip-Hop Soul has now apologized for the spot, which found her singing about chicken wraps, telling Hot 97 DJ Angie Martinez that she was told the ad "would be shot in an iconic way," Contact Music reports.

"I did it because I thought it was something that wouldn't come out like that," Blige said of the commercial. "I would never just bust out singing about chicken and wings."

"I want to apologize to everyone who was offended who thought I would do something that was so disrespectful to our culture," she added. "I would never do anything like that. I thought I was doing something right."

Mary's mea culpa comes after Burger King issued its own apology and pulled the leaked ad from its YouTube channel.

While Blige accepts full responsibility for the commercial, she feels some critics were too harsh with their rebukes.

"I understood the laughter and the jokes and the stuff that was happening -- you're supposed to do that when something like that happens -- but the thing that hurt me is when people were starting to say vicious, negative things that didn't have [anything] to do with that," she said.

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