Paying homage to celebrities and their iconic career looks can either go over really well with fanbases or end terribly. Influencer Kayla Nicole received a mix of both reactions when she recreated moments from one of Ciara’s most popular videos, “Ride,” for Halloween.
This year marks 15 years since the single, appearing on the album “Basic Instinct,” became a huge success. Ciara surprised fans when she proved she still had every ounce of sexiness from her 20s by rocking a black bathing suit and floor-length fur coat, much like she did in the video. “Still doing it,” she teased on Instagram with a winking emoji and black heart.
Around that same time, Kayla also uploaded carousel posts showcasing clips and images from her photoshoot inspired by the music video. Like the singer, she rocked the black one-piece swimmer, fur coat, black tights, crop top, and “A” hat, as well as wound her hips as she pulled off some of the original choreography. Knowing that she was sure to cause commotion online, she wrote, “Ciara…..uh huuuhhhhh!” as one of the captions.
One of the comments she received stated, “Not you & Ciara both had the same idea in mind lol! “ A second follower praising her efforts wrote, “You ain’t have to break the internet like this thooooooooo.” But on Twitter, a different discourse unfolded, where the singer’s fans were more so annoyed by Kayla than they were complimentary of her cosplaying as the entertainer for a viral moment.
“Wait, Kayla Nicole dressed up as Teyana Taylor to be spiteful because she was sleeping with Iman..Now she’s dressed up as Ciara. Lord girl. Don’t even play. Russell would never. He better never,” a tweet read.
“If I’m Ciara I’m slapping Russel out his sleep. No questions asked,” another fan comically tweeted.
In early October, Kayla, who is famously known as the ex-girlfriend of Kansas City Chiefs star Travis Kelce, stirred backlash when she admitted to trolling her ex-pro basketball boyfriend by dressing up as his new famous girlfriend for Halloween.
Kayla confessed on the “Unapologetically Angel” podcast, hosted by WNBA star Angel Reese, that she reacted crazily when her then-NBA beau dumped her via text to pursue a relationship with a famous singer/actress. She recalled feeling heartbroken, claiming that she had relocated to New York to be closer to the Knicks player before their romance fizzled out.
“He breaks up with me. Dumps me, moves on, and for Halloween that year, I dressed up as her,” she admitted. Though she gave no clues about the costume, Instagram users quickly resurfaced photos of her on Halloween in 2016 dressed in a sports bra and thong similar to what Teyana Taylor had worn in Kanye West’s music video for “Fade.” Super sleuths finally discovered Iman Shumpert was the ex-Knicks player Kayla had moved to New York for.
Shumpert and the “Gonna Love Me” vocalist went public with their courtship in 2014. They married in 2016 and welcomed two daughters before they divorced this year.
Taylor responded to the petty revelation in a since-deleted Instagram post that stated, in part, “turned around and tried to bully the Black woman that was married to her situationship…Dressing up like me for what? …Crazy part about it all is, I actually showed love under the pic when she posted it.” While it is unclear if Kayla and Ciara have ever crossed paths, the singer has not joined thousands of others in liking the posts paying homage to “Ride.”
Multiple others called out the influencer for past tweets disparaging the couple. One critic wrote, “Tell her to save it. I remember that tweet about Ciara and Russell Wilson ‘force-feeding their love’ Kayla Nicole still weird to me.” While another asked, “Isn’t this the same girl who said Ciara and her man annoy her??”
Still, Ciara’s supporters are shutting down any hearsay suggesting that Kayla and Ciara’s husband of eight years, Russell Wilson, would ever lay a wandering eye on Kayla.
The couple, who have been together since 2015 and share four children, have never been caught in any validated cheating scandals.
