Kaya Jones made some waves on Twitter late last week.
Who is Kaya Jones, you may be wondering?
She’s a former member of the all-girls singing group The Pussycat Dolls… although she’s here to to take issue with saying this group really had anything to do with “singing”
Or at least with the concept of making any kind of meaningful art.
“My truth. I wasn’t in a girl group. I was in a prostitution ring,” Jones Tweeted, adding:
“Oh & we happened to sing & be famous. While everyone who owned us made the $ .”
To be clear, Jones is NOT saying she and her fellow artists charged money to have sexual intercourse with anyone and that her managers acted as actual pimps.
Not in the traditional sense of the term prostitution, that is.
But no one cared about her well-being and she was only asked to sing material others put in front of her, while executives raked in the cash she helped earn.
“How bad was it? People ask – bad enough that I walked away from my dreams, my bandmates & a 13 million dollar record deal,” Jones Tweeted.
“We knew we were going to be #1.”
The Pussycat Dolls were founded by choreographer Robin Antin in 1995.
Among their many rotating members over the years, the most famous is likely Nicole Scherzinger.
You may remember the group for such hits as “Don’t Cha”, “Buttons” and “Stickwitu.”
They broke up in 2009, but Billboard ranked the Pussycat Dolls as the 80th most successful musical act of the 2000s, as they spawned merchandise opportunities, spin-off girl groups and reality programs.
Without mentioning Antin by name, Jones called out the “den mother” of the group during her social media diatribe, writing:
“I want the den mother from hell to confess why another 1 of her girl group girls committed suicide? Tell the public how you mentally broke us.”
This is almost certainly a reference to G.R.L. singer Simone Battle, who killed herself in September of 2014.
Simone Battle took her own life in 2014. May she rest in peace.
“To be a part of the team you must be a team player,” continued Jones of what she and other members were told.
“Meaning sleep with whoever they say. If you don’t they have nothing on you to leverage…Yes I said leverage.
“Meaning after they turn you out or get you hooked on drugs they use it against you. Correct. Victimizing the victim again.”
The singer went on to compare herself to a member the armed forces.
“That’s why I have so much respect for our military. I’ve been through [war]. But my scars you can’t see. At least real war is honest.
“Why don’t we report it? Because we were all abused! I personally have been warned if I tell I will…you know end up dead or no more career.”
It’s unclear why Jones has spoken out about these alleged issues now, but it’s safe to assume she is responding to the controversy surrounding Harvey Weinstein and all the women he harassed.
However, Asia Nitollano, an ex-member of the Pussycat Dolls, who was briefly in the group in 2007, jumped on Twitter and strongly denied everything Jones claimed in her rant.
“Who is Kaya Jones? Lol She was not apart of The Pussycat Dolls the recording group so I do not know her.
“If she was in the Vegas show then I know nothing about that nor have I ever heard such a thing.
“But judging from google she looks like she just wants her 15min of fame. (Side note… it says she’s a Trump supporter… but yet she’s Canadian, which means her vote doesn’t count!!!! )
“Same with this comment about The Pussycat Dolls; she wasn’t in the group so her opinion doesn’t count!!!!””