Tank “can’t just stand by and not talk about the truth of it all” when it comes to R&Beef. As the drama between Anita Baker and Babyface continued to unfold, the “Slow” crooner took it upon himself to jump to Face’s defense, posing the question, “Who’s protecting our Black men?”
In a two-minute video shared on Instagram (below), he captioned it, “My apologies @babyface but i’m not as meek and mild mannered as you are. It is a flaw of mine, but somebody has to say something!”
The 47-year-old then declared, “I wasn’t gon’ say anything, but it’s kinda hard, really hard for me to stand by and let one of my heroes, one of the nicest human beings ever, just be attacked and be vilified for no reason. A guy by the name of Babyface.”
Tank continued, “When a man stands accused of doing something that he hasn’t done — he apologized to his fans for not being able to perform after he was told he would not be able to perform. So, somehow whatever happens after that is his fault? Now you kick him off the tour? I wanna respect my elders. I do. I wanna respect my elders and stay outta grown folks business is what they say, but somebody gotta say something.”
The singer was referring to an announcement Baker made on Tuesday (June 13) where she revealed that the Girls Night Out singer would no longer be supporting her on her Songstress Tour. She reportedly blamed the removal on being threatened and harassed by Face’s fans. Babyface later issued a statement about her decision.
“Babyface? You do this to Babyface? That don’t seem wrong to y’all?” Tank questioned. “Something don’t seem wrong about that? He didn’t do anything. He didn’t say anything. Nobody’s gonna say anything? We have to protect our Black women. I understand that, but who’s protecting our Black men? Our Black heroes.”
Tank’s statement came just hours before his enchanting Tiny Desk performance. Neither Babyface nor Anita Baker have reacted to his sentiments.
