Kiely Williams Sets the Record Straight About Her Lisp in 3LW’s ‘No More’
Since the release of their 2000 hit single, “No More (Baby I’m a Do Right),” popular girl group 3LW’s Kiely Williams has been teased for sounding like she has a lisp in the song.
After spending years hearing fans poke fun at the way she sings on the track, Williams is finally setting the record straight on her apparent lisp, sharing in a new interview that the way she sounds on the single wasn’t intentional.
Kiely Williams says she ‘didn’t have a lisp’ when she recorded ‘No More’
3LW’s song “No More (Baby I’m a Do Right)” is a track that fans can’t help but sing along to when they hear it come on.
The song begins with Williams singing, “I’m getting a little tired of your broken promises, promises. Looking at your pager seeing different numbers and numbers.”
For years, many have been convinced that Williams sang the lyric with a lisp and have poked fun at her for it ever since. Now, Williams is clearing up speculation surrounding the way she sings on the track, sharing in a new interview with Entertainment Tonight that she doesn’t actually have a lisp in real life and didn’t intentionally sing the song with one.
“A really long time ago, ancient times, before there was Pro Tools where you could just auto-tune on the machine, there was a plug-in and it was in a studio. It’s a plug-in box and it was called an Antares,” Williams explained to the outlet. “And this machine, like all of the new technology, was a little hinky. And when they went to mix my vocals, the Antares corrected the notes but gave me a lisp. There’s no other explanation for it. If you turned the Antares off, I didn’t have a lisp, but all my notes were wrong. So they were like, ‘Which one is better?'”
Though Williams has been ridiculed for the lisp for years, she hasn’t let it get the best of her, especially since that’s not how she talks in real life.
“I have two separate feelings. Taking myself out of the equation, when people call me names or make fun of it, it doesn’t personally affect me, because I don’t have a lisp,” The Cheetah Girls alum continued. “However, people with actual speech impediments, I don’t think it’s funny to poke fun at that. They do struggle with it, all the time. It’s not something that’s funny. They’re trying to communicate the same way that you are. So on that level, I’m like, ‘That’s not cool. Just stop.’ When it’s directed towards me … I wish people would stop because they hear me talk all the time.”
Kiely Williams is back to making music on ‘BET Presents The Encore’
When she was a teenager, Williams founded 3LW alongside Adrienne Bailon Houghton and Naturi Naughton.
The pop group rose to fame in the early 2000s and is most known for their hits “No More” and “Playas Gon’ Play.”
In 2002, Naughton left 3LW, telling MTV News at the time that her departure was due to management, growing tension between her fellow group members, and an alleged food fight with Williams that left her feeling “physically abused.”
The group officially disbanded in 2008, with the three women going on to pursue solo careers. While all found success in music and television, Williams stepped back from the spotlight in recent years to focus on her family.
However, she’s now making a comeback to the music scene along with former girl group singers in the new series BET Presents The Encore.
The show centers around 9 singers from various ’90s and ’00s girl groups who move into a house and are given 30 days to write new music, learn choreography, record an album, and put on a live performance.
While talking about the show with ET, Williams admitted that it was a bit “nerve-wracking” being in a girl group again.
“When you’ve kind of just lived a pretty relatively normal life for 10 or so years, to get back into that kind of element where you’re opening yourself up to public scrutiny, that’s just what it is,” she said. “People are going to talk about it. It’s a show, it’s on television.”
But despite her nervousness, Williams is happy to be part of the project and hopes viewers enjoy what she and the other eight singers bring to the table.
“I am really excited to be a part of this project,” she added. “I think that regardless of whatever comments or whatever happens in the blogs and the media, the music is absolutely worth it.”
