St. Louis rapper Chingy admits he nearly stopped taking photos with his LGBTQ+ fans after transgender media personality Sidney Starr used a picture of them to fake a trans relationship.
The whole incident began when the “Right Thurr” rapper and internet personality posed for a few photos together, which began making its rounds on social media in 2009. Starr soon addressed the viral pictures and alleged she and the rapper were in a relationship.
Immediately following Starr’s claim, social media had a field day. Commenting on the alleged relationship, many people began questioning the rapper’s sexuality, which then led to a downward spiral of his fast-tracked rap career. In 2012, Sidney Starr apologized to Chingy and confessed to making the whole thing up in order to advance her career.
Chingy And Sidney Star Recall Photo Scandal
In April 2024, Chingy recalled Sidney Starr lying about them having a romantic transgender relationship. He admitted, “It hurt my career. I lost a lot from it.” While reflecting on his rap career with TMZ, Chingy called out the “bullsh*t” that comes with being in the industry, like “untrue rumors” and “shady characters who can tend to derail your character and sabotage [your career].”
He continued to vaguely mention Starr and her allegations that they smashed. Although Starr later confessed to lying and eventually apologized to Chingy for starting the rumor, the damage was already done. The “Holidae Inn” rapper said:
“When that happened I lost a lot of stuff based off a lie, which was just, that was the most oddest thing I’ve ever seen. Nah, man, when the individual apologized, and it so-called went away, which it took years to blow away, nah, man. Ain’t nothing good happened from that for me.
When an artist, like my caliber who’s sold millions of records and was once one of the biggest artists in the world, they look at that different. If they’re not seeing you at these award shows all the time or on the radio all the time, they’re like, ‘Well, where’s he at? What’s wrong?’ But, what was wrong was a lot of sabotage and bull crap in this industry.”
When asked if he mended things up with Sidney Starr or accepted her apology, Chingy said:
“There’s no… I mean to be honest with you, man like it was spilled milk, and I lost a lot from it. That person gained. I’m not going, I’m not gonna hold on to something. It is what it is. Apologize. Cool. I’m going this way and let that individual do their thing… But that situation, that hurt my career. Like I’m just gonna be honest about it, it really did.”
In October 2024, Sidney Starr recalled her run-in with Chingy. While appearing on Adam22‘s ‘No Jumper‘ podcast, Starr got upset after Adam22 accused her of ruining the rapper’s career. She said:
“When I first came out, I had the thing with Chingy. People don’t really understand that. I was very young. At that time, I was literally only 19 when I met him. I wasn’t even 21 years old yet when that happened. I was young-minded. I had started my transition at 15. I was young. I was a backup dancer.
I was working for a show that was with Shawnna, the rapper, Ludacris. I was working with her. I was on tour. Chingy opened up for one of the shows. I always had a big crush on Chingy. So, the thing was I wanted to get a picture. He was very welcoming [in taking a picture as I was admiring him for his craft and talent].
I was only 19 years old, so people were in my ear, saying, ‘Sid, you gotta do something with this because you’re a trans woman and they’re not going to pay no attention to you.’ Remind you, this was around 2010, trans women were not being looked at for anything. I was the first trans woman to hit the scene. WorldStarHipHop. MediaTakeOut. It was only me and one other trans woman. Amiyah Scott. I was taking the Harriett Tubman role. I was fighting for the trans women at that time.
Nobody was talking about Chingy at that time. I actually made the world start talking about him again. But, I became a warm-hearted, good person in my soul and I apologized. I made a video on WorldStarHipHop and I apologized. I tried to make things right. I made a mistake. I’m only human. I would never do no bullsh*t like that ever again.
I ain’t gonna lie. That sh*t really pisses me off. People never let it go. Let me live. Let me have my career. They won’t leave me alone. Like Michael Jackson. Leave me alone with that Chingy sh*t. Let me live. I’m a human being, I made a mistake. I made a mistake and I’m on a good road now.”
Chingy Slams Media Outlets Who Platformed Sidney Starr After Photo Scandal And Never Reached Out For His Statement
While recently appearing as a guest on the ‘Willie D Live‘ podcast, Chingy recalled his Sidney Starr photo scandal and slammed media outlets who platformed the transgender personality and never reached out for his take. He said:
“That’s when that 09 situation happened with the person lying on me. Yeah. And so that rough patch got a little more rougher. Actually, I didn’t go after the individual legally, but had somebody around me, who was supposed to be a friend that practiced law, that didn’t even say to go after them legally. Keep in mind, I’m still young-minded. I don’t really know a lot of things.
But my main thing was I’m thinking like, ‘Ain’t nobody gonna believe that. I ain’t got nobody and no reason to believe nothing like that.’ You know what I mean? But I think a lot of people wanted it to be true because it was outlets that was talking about it and talking to that individual. And I ain’t never heard nobody be like, ‘Well, let’s get Chingy on the phone. Let’s call up Chingy.’
These are personality, radio personality people that I’ve been hung out with, that I knew. And like ‘The Breakfast Club.’ Like [DJ] Envy and Angela Yee. I used to do interviews and stuff with them all the time. Hang out with them in clubs, everything. You know what I’m saying? So I was like, why ain’t none of these people call me up to see my take on this? And I took it as everybody wanted it to be true. But they allowed that individual own there—they gave that individual a platform to speak about it on so many platforms.
So [for] me, ‘sticks and stones break bones, but words will never hurt me.’ I know myself. See, this is the thing. A lot of people out there don’t know them as energy beings. I know myself. I know who I am. I know that ain’t true. I know that eventually that’s gonna pass by. And eventually the individual told the truth, it came out. Now, by the time they told the truth, it came out, damage done.
Somebody will still say something about that today. It’s pretty much over with today, for real, for real. But you still got somebody that’ll say something. It’s been so many people that have DM’d me and hit me on social media, apologizing for believing it. But the damage was done.
I had a MasterCard, credit card deal, like with my own MasterCard. So man, I had, I was finna sign to Interscope. I was on LA on yachts and sh*t, eating fruit with these people, talking about album deals. And I had a lot going on at that time. And all that, boy, when that hit, gone.”
Chingy Admits He Almost Stopped Taking Photos With LGBTQ+ Fans After Sidney Starr Used Picture To Fake A Trans Relationship
During his ‘Willie D Live‘ podcast appearance, Chingy also commented on his relationship with his fans in the LGBTQ+ community after Sidney Starr’s trans relationship allegations. He said:
“There’s people today, some of these dudes, and wearing these, I mean, actually looking like girls sometimes. Somebody took a picture of me being nice to a fan who came up and was excited to meet me, and saying how much of a fan they was, and just wanted a picture, because they love my music and stuff. And I took the picture. And they based a two-year relationship line off of that.
So what I did was, I was finna stop taking pictures with homosexuals, homosexual individuals. And nothing against them, but I thought, now I thought like, that’s what they gonna do. Didn’t want to be compromised at all. But then you know what type of individual I am? I said to myself, ‘All of them didn’t do that to me. They don’t deserve that.’
And so I still took pictures with homosexual people when they wanted to take a picture with me. Because that’s the type of heart I got. You know what I mean? I ain’t gonna stop being me because somebody decide to be evil. That’s gonna come back on them.
I see a lot of artists who turn these people down who want autographs. I’ve seen a lot of artists turn kids that’s six down, like little kids. I’ve seen artists actually turn down little kids. And these artists be highly successful.
But I’ve watched them not want to take pictures with kids, turn down kids, get their security to get like, kick little kids though, I’m watching this. I’m like, ‘Damn, how do they do that? Like, how you do that?’ Like, you know what I’m saying? ‘That’s just a little six year old girl. Like, how did you just do that?’ But then somebody will go, we take a picture with somebody and they lie on us. We get all this drama.”
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