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Ne-Yo Backs Beyoncé Saying She Has the Right to Discuss Race

"I don't know what makes this more Black than anything else she's ever done," Ne-Yo says.

Conversations surrounding Beyoncé’s Super Bowl halftime show haven’t simmered down one bit in the five days following the performance, on Sunday, Feb. 7.

The people that were mad are still mad, while the BeyHive stays building. From talks surrounding the Anti-Beyoncé rally being organized at NFL Headquarters (slated for Tuesday, Feb. 16, by the way) to comments from the displeased former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani to being outwardly praised by fans for her activist tone, Beyoncé’s “Formation” performance is proving itself to be equal parts historic and controversial. 

R&B singer-songwriter Ne-Yo is the latest to weigh in, standing strong in Beyoncé’s corner. 

During an appearance on HuffPost Live, Ne-Yo shared how he fully supports the singer, saying “if anyone has the right to speak out on racial issues, it’s Beyoncé.”

"I personally don't think that it was all that serious,” Ne-Yo, who wrote Beyoncé’s hit “Irreplaceable,” said during the on-air conversation. “The critics went a little far with where they took [the meaning of the song], but I feel like, overall, even if that was what was meant, so what? She has the right. Everybody else has the right to talk about their culture and their race and be proud of it, so why can't we? Why can't she?"

"I don't know what makes this more Black than anything else she's ever done,” Ne-Yo said. “Beyoncé knows how to toe that line between elegance and ratchet. She's the epitome of it.”

And about the song itself?

“I feel like it's a statement that needs to be made with everything that's going on right now with the whole Black Lives Matter [movement] and just the injustice that's happening with that,” Ne-Yo said. “I don't see anything wrong with her celebrating her Blackness, if that's even what you want to call it.”

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(Photos from Left: Robin Marchant/Getty Images for Churchill Downs, Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)

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