Rapper Chingy isn’t backing down following the backlash he received for sharing bombshell information about his family.
The Missouri native, whose real name is Howard Earl Bailey Jr, recently sat down with Jason Lee on “The Jason Lee Show” where he revealed for the first time that social media star and actor Isaiah Russell-Bailey, 19, is his son.
Many online users quickly condemned Chingy for seemingly not being involved in his son’s life. Even Isaiah responded with a post dissing his father.
His mother, Brittany Perry-Russell, shared a video making it clear that she raised Isaiah alone.
After catching wind of the unfavorable responses, Chingy wasted no time speaking his mind on the matter. On Sept. 4, he responded to some comments online where he slammed Brittany.
In a collaboration post shared between BET, Jason Lee Show, and Chingy’s IG accounts, Chingy commented, “An you should always kno it’s a reason behind it all. Manipulation and using kids as checks.”
In the comments section one fan shocked by the news said “I’m trying to figure out does Isaiah knows Chingy is his daddy…… I’m so baffled.”
To this, Chingy responded, “Haha he does but manipulation am using kids for checks is a thing.”
To another fan, he wrote, “Sweetheart shut up. You don’t kno anything about my son an me. Pls speak what you know cause you are clueless.”
Chingy only briefly mentioned Isaiah in the 76-minute interview.
It came up when Chingy revealed that his elder son, who is 30, went to school with rapper Sexy Redd.
Lee was in disbelief that Chingy had a son that old and then asked, “Wait, so you have two kids or three kids?”
The “Right Thurr” artist revealed that he actually has four children: two sons and two daughters.
“Why do we know about the two girls and not the two boys or do or we did,” asked Lee.
Chingy responded, “My youngest son, Isaiah is a big actor out here in California. Yeah, he movies on Disney and all type of stuff.”
After sharing his full name “Isaiah Russell-Bailey,” that was a wrap on his conversation about Isaiah.
The “Family Reunion” star didn’t hesitate to throw a dig at his father by simply showing love to his mother.
He shared images of them at the premiere of his latest movie “The Uprising” and wrote in the caption, “Everything I am, I owe to the woman who has always been there. Grateful for you always.”
Fans quickly flooded his comments with messages of support. But one response stood out: “He said not today deadbeat.” The star appeared to co-sign the jab by liking the comment himself.
Three hours after his post, Perry-Russell shared a clip of an podcast interview she did back in April on “Auntie Cousin Podcast,” where she talked about parenting Isaiah alone.
She reflected on a post she made on her Story that said, “I just want to raise a son that your daughter feels safe with.”
Thinking back on that, she said she got a lot of praise for the post.
“I’m a single mom,” she said. “I’ve been doing it by myself the entire time. So there’s that pressure of just not wanting to get it wrong. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would ever be praised as being a great mom. It’s still very shocking to me.”
The 44-year-old said her son even reaffirmed her when another podcast asked her to come on and speak about her parenting and she had the thought “why me?”
She said, “And when I said it to my son, he was like, ‘Why not you?’ And it touched me. He was like, ‘Mom, you pretty cold-blooded at what you do.’”
Though she did not mention Chingy, and neither of them have seemed to open up about the details of their past relationship, she did briefly touch on their split in a past podcast.
Last year, she was a guest on “The Mama’s Den” where she was asked what challenges she faced as a single mom raising Isaiah while building their careers.
She said, “Well, I mean, starting when he was born, I think I quickly realized, ‘OK, I’m in this by myself.’ I knew when his dad and I didn’t work out, OK, this is a journey that I’m going to have to take alone.”
As a background dancer for Ciara, Chris Brown, Missy Elliot, Usher, and more, Russell recalled always having her son with her.
“I don’t think I asked a single artist if Isaiah could come to my rehearsal,” she said.
“I just brought him. And I was working for some of the biggest artists at the time. Like we were talking about Ciara – he was weeks old.”
Russell, like her son, is also an actress who has credits in popular shows like “Glee” and “13 Reasons Why.”
