Early 2000s R&B Singer Blu Cantrell Disappeared From the Spotlight — Here's Why
Blu Cantrell never named the record execs at Arista who she said took "advantage of" her early in her career.
Mar. 7 2024, Published 2:14 p.m. ET
The '90s and early 2000s were an iconic era for pop culture. Von Dutch was all the rage, movies like The Notebook, Harry Potter, and The Fast and The Furious films made their theatrical debut, and all was right with the world.
Among the songs that had taken over the radio at the time was “Hit ‘Em Up Style (Oops)” by Blu Cantrell, an R&B artist who first found fame as a backup singer.
In the late '90s, she was introduced to L.A. Reid and subsequently released her debut solo album, which quickly shot to the top of the Billboard charts.
However, after the release of her second album in 2003, Blu stepped away from the studio — and the spotlight. So, what happened to the GRAMMY-nominated songstress, and what is she up to now? Here’s what we know.
What happened to Blu Cantrell? Details on her disappearance from the spotlight.
Between her admitted crush on Jay-Z and alleged beef with Beyoncé, Blu saw her fair share of controversy during her career.
Speculation on social media suggests that she was blackballed from the industry amid the drama. People have made similar speculations about Teairra Marie and Foxy Brown’s careers — and there may or may not be some truth to those claims.
In 2012, Blu spoke out against music industry execs at Arista who she said took "advantage of" her early in her career.
“Nobody really knows the whole truth but me and them, but I was really taken advantage of. I did most of the writing, and they took all of my publishing,” Blu said of her old record label in a 2012 interview with You Know I Got Soul.
“The checks were coming in, and I never saw any checks. I never got one dime from Arista,” she added.
Hopefully, our good sis eventually recouped some of her losses through her shows.
Where is “Hit ‘Em Up Style” singer Blu Cantrell now?
In 2012, TMZ reported that Blu Cantrell was taken to a hospital for psychological evaluation in Santa Monica, Calif. Police responded to the scene after she was seen screaming in the street by passersby.
“Witnesses tell us she was screaming about someone giving her ‘poisonous gas,’” the report said. “The episode went on long enough that someone called [the] police.”
At the time, she referred to herself as a “one-hit wonder.”
Up until 2016, fans could keep up with Blu Cantrell via social media. However, the singer has since gone off the grid. The last post on her page is a Happy New Year graphic that she posted on Dec. 31 of that year.
Since Blu went missing on Instagram, fans have flooded her comment section with questions. “Where you been? We miss you,” a fan wrote under one photo.
While she isn't active on social media anymore, she still makes rare appearances. In 2020, she performed as part of The Blast Off Tour in England. Still — doesn’t the whole thing kind of make you wonder what really happened behind the scenes? The world may never know.
