Jon B regrets calling Chloe Bailey and Gunna‘s sampling of his 1997 hit “They Don’t Know” in their “You & Me” collab, released in 2022, a “ratchet record.”

The R&B crooner opened up about his past comments on Shirley Yu’s Shirley’s Temple podcast. 

The singer says he ‘wasn’t used to being on podcasts’

“I regretted how I spoke on it the first time because I wasn’t used to being on podcasts,” Jon B said, according to Complex. “First of all, I didn’t do a lot of podcasts. So I was sort of new to that whole thing of speaking my truths in a way.”

“It hurt me because I was like, ‘Man, that could be my daughter right there,’” he added. “It hit different because I never wanna come off like a hater.”

Jon B also claimed that Bailey and Gunna only contacted him to receive clearance for the sample after the song was released. The sample was officially cleared by Sony Music at the time, and it’s unclear whether or not Jon B owned his masters, according to Vibe.

“I like having the ability to say ‘yea’ or ‘nay’ before something is released,” he said. “If it’s out already, the damage is done, you know what I mean?”

What was Jon B’s unfiltered reaction at the time when Chloe Bailey and Gunna dropped ‘You & Me’?

Initially, Jon B’s reaction was the following: “They put that ratchet record out. I couldn’t stand it. I wish they never did it.”

“[They] never actually never got my rights to do that record either, so Gunna we gotta holler about that. … That’s some business s**t we got to handle,” he continued. “Yeah, I mean, you know what, it’s all a compliment to what we did. That’s [producers and co-songwriters] Tim [Kelley] and Bob’s [Robinson] compliment, that’s my compliment, but at the same time my lane is my lane and my area is my area and I earned that. If you made a hit in your area, you do your song whatever it is, I’m not going to just come into your area, take your joint, and make it mine and not pay you or whatever.”

Bailey reacted to Jon B’s comments during a September 2024 appearance on The Breakfast Club.

“Jon B is an incredible artist,” she said. “If that song didn’t exist, we couldn’t sample it. I love what Gunna and I did to it. I’m sad he feels that way, but, hey, everyone has opinions.”