There have been stories of female artists feeling uncomfortable when in the studio with their male counterparts. In an interview in 2022, Latto revealed that a male artist tried to engage in sex with her in exchange for a feature.
“These men, they don’t know how to keep it business,” Latto said. “I’m just going to keep it 100. It’s a feature on my album — it was difficult to clear. They like, trying to drop they nuts on me because I won’t respond to a DM.”
Most recently, Tems shared in an interview with Korty EO that she wears specific clothing in the studio to avoid men sexualizing her.
“I used to not always like my body, crazy as it seems,” Tems said. “I just didn’t understand a lot of things. I was going to a lot of studios alone, meeting people I never met, meeting people I don’t know, they don’t know me. I want to learn how to produce, maybe I’ll be producing for people because of my objective, which is I just want to make music. I don’t really care about politics, I just want to learn.
“If me being attractive is disturbing you and stopping me from achieving my goal, I am going to help you,” Tems said. “So when I go to the studio, I wear baggy clothes and I’m in my alpha mode because I want you to not be seduced by me.”
Tems said that the tactic works, but it’s their choice if they want to be seduced.
“I’m not going to be like ‘Oh it’s your choice.’ Yes, it’s your choice if you want to be seduced but [let’s work]. Most of the time it works because they can tell she’s just here to work, and we work,” Tems said.
