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Xscape’s Tameka Tiny Cottle didn’t know Ed Sheeran’s #1 hit until she got a songwriting credit

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Atlantic RecordsEarlier this week, it was revealed that Xscape members Tameka “Tiny” Cottle and Kandi Burruss had been added to the credits of Ed Sheeran‘s smash #1 hit, “Shape of You,” due to its similarity to TLC’s “No Scrubs,” which they co-wrote.  

Now, Tiny tells Billboard that when she and Kandi got the news, it was just as much a surprise to her as it was for fans. 

Tiny and Kandi, along with their co-writer Kevin Shek’spere Briggs, were added to the credits because certain parts of “Shape of You” were rhythmically reminiscent of the “No Scrubs” chorus: “No, I don’t want no scrub/A scrub is a guy that can’t get no love from me.”  

But Tiny had no clue, because she’d never heard “Shape of You.”

“Kandi [Burruss] had called me and told me, ‘You know we might get some credit for the song a guy named Ed Sheeran did,’ and I was like, ‘Oh.’ I didn’t know about the song, so I started listening to the song and honestly I didn’t hear [the similarities] at first.”

“I had to keep listening and keep listening and I was like, ‘Okay I hear it, I hear it,” she adds. 

Tiny goes on to explain what she believes those similarities are: “The part in his B-section [‘Girl, you know I want your love/Your love was handmade for somebody like me’] right before the hook comes in.” 

Tiny and the rest of Xscape surprised fans earlier this month with the announcement of a reunion. The R&B group is currently working on plans for a forthcoming tour.  

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