Jennifer Lopez Backup Vocalist Calls Out 'Problem' With One of Her Songs

For years, Jennifer Lopez has been plagued by claims that she did not sing some of her recorded songs, and a former backup vocalist has recently said there is a "problem" with one of the singer's most famous tracks.

The rumor that Lopez uses ghost singers began circulating early in her career, and artists such as Ashanti and Christina Milian have said that when they produced her music, Lopez relied on their vocals.

Now, Natasha Ramos, one of Lopez's former backup vocalists, has further stoked the rumors, saying she lent her voice to the singer's 2002 hit single "Jenny From the Block."

Newsweek has contacted Ramos and a spokesperson for Lopez for comment via TikTok and email, respectively.

"I'm Natasha Ramos, and I'm the voice from 'Jenny From the Block,'" the former backing vocalist said in a TikTok video posted on March 26.

In a follow-up video posted on April 2, Ramos said she sang on Lopez's songs "Jenny From the Block," "I'm Glad," "The One," "Loving You" and "Baby I Love U!"

"I feel like all of the other ones, excluding 'Jenny From the Block,' are very much true-blue background vocals," she said in the second video.

"I think the problem with 'Jenny From the Block' is that they kept my laugh, and they kept ad-libs, and they turned her vocals like all the way down, and the 'from the Bronx' part is me," Ramos added.

The second video, which received more than 340,000 views on TikTok, has since been posted to X, formerly Twitter, where it has received 6.1 million views.

This is not the first time Ramos has said the voice listeners hear in most of "Jenny From the Block" is hers, posting on X in 2020 that she still loved Lopez but believed she was "missing some checks."

In another video, also posted on TikTok on March 26, Ramos detailed her experience recording the track.

"I don't know what year—2001, 2002, I don't know—but I had the opportunity to sing a reference track ... for 'Jenny From the Block' for Jennifer. A lot of people say she stole the song from me. She did not steal the song from me. That song was written for Jennifer. It was called 'Jenny From the Block'—like clearly it was for her," she said.

"So I recorded it. They shopped it to her. She loved it. She loved the background vocals. They told me they wanted to keep me on there, and they wanted me to sing background vocals for more songs on this album," Ramos continued.

She added: "So she did go into the studio and recorded some background vocals over mine. I am convinced that they turned her vocals all the way down because it sounds almost identical to the reference track."

Ramos said ad-libs are not considered background vocals but lead vocals. She also said her manager at the time made a deal in which she received $3,500 for recording background vocals on five songs. She said she did not blame Lopez and believed her manager and the record label were at fault.

In 2020, she wrote on X: "Just because I think JLo is great doesn't mean I can't ALSO feel duped by the label when it came to me receiving proper compensation for the work I did, the excessive vocals of mine kept i.e. my laugh, etc, and the continued use of my vocals during her performances."

"She's a busy, boss ass woman though. I understand she loved my voice and figured she didn't have to do too much more for the song to sound & be great ... She was working smarter, not harder. The label screwed me—is the point of it all. That's it," she wrote in another post.

In a video posted on March 31, Ramos discussed what it was like working with Lopez.

"I did have the chance to work with Jennifer multiple times in the studio," she said, adding, "I met a bubbly, down-to-earth, super—she was just chill. Like, she was Jenny from the block."

Ramos added: "She gave, like, 'cool chick who lived in your hood' kind of vibe."