R&B crooner Mario recently defended his new song with fellow R&B artist Tory Lanez amid his partnership with female-led music and entertainment company Femme It Forward.

According to reports, Mario, whose full name is Dewar Barrett, took to Instagram live to defend the song, titled “Main One,” which dropped on July 15.

“As an independent artist doing his thing, [there are] a lot of artists [who] don’t work as hard as he [does], so regardless of whatever, the music is what it is,” he said about Tory, whose real name is Daystar Peterson, and their new single.

The Canadian singer is currently under investigation by the LAPD in the 2020 shooting involving award-winning rapper Megan Thee Stallion. Since the incident, he’s been charged with one count of assault with a semiautomatic firearm and one count of carrying an unregistered weapon.

Mario continued with his vague statement regarding the new collaboration song, saying he’s going to “keep the energy positive” and “keep creating.”

“It’s like, you still listen to music regardless of what’s going on in the world…you know, we’re gonna keep the energy positive,” he said. “The music is what you love people for. If y’all f**k with the music, f**k with it. If you don’t, we’re just gonna keep creating. Know what I’m saying? We’re vibing out.”

The Baltimore native’s sentiments were in response to the backlash he received for not only teaming up with Tory but also for announcing their new single just two weeks after revealing his partnership with Femme It Forward. Femme It Forward, a joint venture with Live Nation Entertainment, is dedicated

to “celebrating, educating, and empowering the industry’s most creative and accomplished female visionaries through multi-format, multi-market consumer experiences.”

To make matters even worse, Mario’s old tweet of him telling Black men to protect Black women has resurfaced. As such, fans felt that collaborating with the Alone At Prom artist was very hypocritical of him.

“This @theestallion & @torylanez situation got me in awe. Sad AF? Knowing Tory personally, this sh*t [is] crazy to me,” the 35-year-old tweeted in August 2020. “Black men, we gotta learn how to control our ego, anger etc. At some point, the switch gotta turn off! Protect Black women! Heal black men. Love & respect each other!”

Mario is scheduled to hit the Femme It Forward stage at its upcoming event in Washington, D.C., as part of his partnership, on July 29. He’ll be joined by fellow ’00s R&B singers Omarion–whom he had

a Verzuz battle against on June 23–and Pleasure P. He was last seen singing “Main One” and his string of hits at a show in Miami on July 16.