Sean Paul Addressed Rumors He Dated Beyoncé During the ‘Baby Boy’ Era
In 2003, Beyoncé and Sean Paul teamed up for Beyoncé’s second solo single, “Baby Boy.” The song hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and solidified Beyoncé’s status as a solo superstar. At the same time, rumors began to swirl about whether she was dating her “Baby Boy” collaborator. Two decades later, Sean Paul recounted his personal experience with the singer.
Beyoncé and Sean Paul had to discuss the rumors about them dating
Sean Paul looked back on the “Baby Boy” era in a 2022 interview with The Daily Beast. He was excited about the opportunity to work with her, and even though they kept it professional, some believed that the two were romantically involved, despite Beyoncé dating Jay-Z at the time.
“We had to have a speak about it,” he said.
“We had just three performances [together], and one was at Reggae Sumfest. At the time, we were both on the Rock the Mic Tour. This was 2003,” Paul said. “She wasn’t on it every day, but she would come on certain dates and do the song [‘Crazy in Love’] with [Jay-Z]. One day, we left to do the video and then played Sumfest. That was the first time. The second time was in LA, and a strange thing happened — and I think that’s what started the rumors.”
Sean Paul said he and Beyoncé didn’t date
According to Paul, he noticed that every performance of his with Beyoncé seemed to be plague by sound or stage issues. “Strange things started to happen at the performances, which was weird,” he said.
“I did my show and then she was performing, and they told me to stick around because we’ll do ‘Baby Boy.’ We do it and I run out there and the crowd goes wild, but after a while it seems like I lost their energy,” he continued. “And it’s weird because I was going wild out there. When the song finished, I came backstage and my own band was all pissed off, like ‘Man, that’s f***ed up. You heard yourself? We couldn’t hear you in the crowd. Your mic was off.’ I was like, ‘How the f*** did that happen?'”
He then recounted a performance in Scotland where things came to a head.
“That’s when we had the talk, because the rumors got really crazy. I landed in Scotland and it was this MTV event, and there were paparazzi everywhere,” Paul remembered. “We ended up doing the rehearsal and everything was good, and the performance was going to be where I come up from under the stage, and then we both walk to a big center thing in the middle of the stadium which was surrounded by fire. That all happens, and then it reaches my part — ‘You’re a top, top, girl’ — and the track keeps going, ‘Baby boy, you stay…. Baby boy, you stay…’ just repeating. I was like, ‘What’s going on here!?'”
Beyoncé then confronted Paul. “She was pissed and was like ‘I need to speak to you,'” he So, we go back and talk and she’s like ‘What’s all these rumors about?’ and I’m like ‘Yo, I’m not saying s***,’ and she’s like ‘These rumors f*** with my career. I just want you to know that.’ I was like ‘They don’t f*** with mine. So, listen: I met Jay before you, and we was friends, so me and him should talk. If he feels a way about that, then we should talk, because it’s not coming from me.'”
They both have their own families today
Paul was asked if he thought Jay-Z had anything to do with the audio issues, and he said that even though it was impossible for Jay-Z to be behind it, the sound issues fueled rumors of a feud behind the scenes. f
“It couldn’t be because he wasn’t even there. But people started to say this s***,” he said. “And there was one more performance we were supposed to do at the VMAs, and she said to me ‘We’re gonna have rehearsal, so look out.’ The day before the VMAs happens, there’s this press day where you speak to every radio station, and I’m hearing somebody rehearsing ‘Baby Boy.’ So, I’m like ‘What’s going on?’ We went to the label and they were like ‘Yo…they’re not gonna do the song with you.’ So, I’m sitting there in the crowd with my present wife and Paris Hilton is sitting in front of me. Beyoncé is coming down the stairs singing the song and Paris Hilton turns to me and goes ‘Why aren’t you up there?’ It was embarrassing and weird.”
Despite being shut out of the VMA performance, he still decided to perform the song with Beyoncé one more time.
“The next day, I was supposed to perform in Washington, D.C., and do the song with her for her father,” he said. “I went there, did my show, and then waited around for a while. And I got pissed off. They were like ‘There are 3,000 influential people waiting out there for you to do it.’ And I was like, ‘There were 50 million people watching the VMAs. I’m not doing it.’ And I left. That was the last time we did the show, and by that time I was saying publicly that there was nothing going on. It fell on me. Nobody was asking them about it. But you know what? It was a big, fat, sexy song.”
