John Salangsang/January Images/Shutterstock"No?"
James Charles started off the new year with some new social media drama. On his Instagram Story, the 20-year-old YouTube star shared clips of himself singing along to Saweetie's "My Type" while ringing in the new year at a party. With nearly 16 million Instagram followers, many saw the footage and some believed he said the N-word used in the song. One viewer confronted him about it on Twitter Wednesday.
"My guy did u say the n word on ur insta story," the person tweeted at him.
"No?" Charles responded. "Turn up the volume & listen, I skip over it. how stupid would I have to be to confidently record a video of me singing the n word and still have it up the next morning."
"If you actually watch the video, it's clear he skips over the word," a source said. "James would never, ever utter that word. This is just an attempt of bored Twitter trolls grasping at straws."
Still, many didn't believe the star and soon #jamescharlesisoverparty was trending on Twitter as people scrutinized the footage and debated whether or not he had said it.
Meanwhile, Charles is no stranger to coming under fire on line. Last year, his viral back-and-forth with fellow YouTuber Tati Westbrook took the Internet by storm and his "No More Lies" video, a response to Westbrook's inflammatory claims against him, ultimately came in first on YouTube's "Top Trending Videos (U.S.)" of 2019.
At the time of their public feuding, he was surrounded by cancel culture.
"We're quickly getting to a point where cyberbullying, hating and cancel culture is getting stronger," he told Paper in November 2019. "I can say firsthand, they got to me. I was so grateful to be surrounded by close friends and family that were checking on me all day long, every single day, in the middle of the night, every 10 minutes to make sure I didn't do something that I could never take back."
While it's unclear how Charles is privately reacting in the aftermath of the latest drama, he did post his "2020 vibes" on Wednesday night in the form of two pictures: one of him posing in front of a sunset and another of him holding up a middle finger and smiling.