I included parts one and two so you can watch and listen for yourself. It was a pretty well-rounded convo. But for those who want to skip the 50 mins, here are questions to ask yourself and determine where you stand:
- Are we mad because Bruno is latinx? Or because he’s light skinned? And basically because he’s not Black? Would we be happier if he were more brown and was raised in the projects with a bunch of black folk? We don’t even have time to unpack colorism and minority against minority…but really, ask yourself this question. I mean, this isn’t Justin Timberlake, Bieber, Miley, or Katy Perry…but there was mention of light skinned black artists and their ability to thrive…but that’s a whole ‘notha post, chile.
- What is the definition of appropriation? I’ve not heard about him stealing music or any style of music and claiming he is the originator, that he is black, or that he wants to be black, or that black people aren’t the originators of all music and genres popular in American culture today. Nor have I born witness to him taking some unpopular aspect of blackness, putting some white on it, and rebranding it as the new boricua. At every set and opportunity, he gives credit where credit is due and he isn’t half-ass doing it. So why do we equate this to appropriation? Ya’ll act like he took a Jenner body, put an ass on it, fucked a black dude, had a black baby, and made t-shirts without licensing permission and real knowledge of the people on the t-shirts before slapping a $30 price tag on it. There’s appropriation and there’s keeping music genres alive. I venture to say he did the latter — at the right time, with the right music, and the right marketing machine. Hell Ray Charles crossed genres alllllll during his career…so what’s your point? There is mention in the videos (part one and two) about what is appropriation vs. appreciation, implicit and explicit. Categorizing it is one way to be clear, but we have to be careful of overuse and misuse of this term before it becomes white noise (pun intended).
- Why aren’t we mad at why there is a lane for him in the first place? I mean the niggas calling him out are the same ones that keep Future, Migos, and Bryson Tiller in heavy rotation. I mean are we supporting (real) music or the degradation of it with this? You can’t have it both ways and be mad. Where are the revivers of the New Jack Swing and real R&B? When was the last time you bought Brian McKnight albums, do you have “Dream Killa” on your playlist (you don’t even know this is Xscape, do you?), do you go to the R&B Alive Concerts in your city (SWV, New Edition…), Jill Scott, India Arie, Brandy? You know why labels stopped making it? Because niggas stopped buying it. We bootlegged it. Sampled it. Signed up for Spotify and depreciated it. Watched R&B on YouTube and laughed when Usher, Lalah Hathaway, and Fantasia bring the real shit thinking it’s for ladies 35 and older. Clowned it. And then TRADED it for this weak-ass 808, less talk about love and more talk about hos and drugs. Do you even know 25 R&B/New Jack Swing artists or able to at least HUM their songs? Miss me with the fake outrage because black people not supporting black people doing R&B is what opened the lane for Bruno in the first place. Period.
- Bruno didn’t get a Grammy because Black America sold out. He got one because we still refuse to buy IN. Grammys are VOTED on. How many of you shit talking music people are members of NRAS? Miss me with how wypipo want music by non-black people if you aren’t willing to change the infrastructure to VOTE blackness to the top. Of course they want what they want, but this isn’t just about them and their votes. We can’t get everything from think-piecing and picketing OUTside. We have to get in. Until we are willing to change that, we will never get the big awards. Money and votes talk, you should know how it works by now. Yet none of the members of this panel spoke to this. It’s like the niggas mad that 45 won, but refused to vote. Miss me. MISS me.
- Finally – this is music. A unifier, not just of consumers, but also of creators. The greats are always influenced by the predecessors, that’s how the shit works. If you don’t understand music, you won’t understand this and maybe it’s not for you to understand. I say if you are doing it and doing it well, not stealing or actually appropriating, go for it. Real musicians take from wherever and whatever inspires them to create the music that speaks to and for them. This dude grew up and studied up on funk/R&B, so why is he a problem again? How many of the artist you stanning for are students of the game? And don’t give me the ones whose producers are sampling the shit out of other folk music as an example. I mean people who appreciate MUSIC for more than just a check. Who can name AND sing the music of their so-called favorite artists, who pay homage with the music they make and not just to get rich off of fake ass gangsta stories featuring strippers, hunnids, nice cars, jewelry, and designer clothes? #NoShade
The popularity and awardability (I really don’t think that’s a word, but we gon’ roll with it) of music is called the BUSINESS of music. It always panders to the pocket, rarely the ethics (clearly based on popular music of this time period). If you want to preserve black presence in genres we were pushed/categorized into by folk who thought our music wasn’t good enough, then invest in it. How you fighting for a genre and its “black purity” when you won’t even BUY it? They should’ve done a poll: How many of the dashiki toting, natural hair floating folk talking shit have Tidal memberships? How many know who Culture Republic is and support their artists? How many albums have YOU purchased in the genre in the last 10 years?
Let’s put a cap on this bullshit. This can’t just be about Bruno being or not being black (or wanting to or pretending to be), or wypipo and their awards, or drug use — this is has to be about the business of music and restructuring the power centers that be. If you want to change the categories, the talent, etc., then you have to be in CONTROL. Become a radio dj, a radio programming director, the exec who gets to dole out the budgets, shit, just buy the music…otherwise, this is just another opportunity to flex big words and roundtable about the hypotheticals/theoretical without having to make an ACTUAL contribution to/fiscally support those who are actually sustaining it. Next, we have to stop expecting other people to speak UP for us. And let’s be real, if they did we’d have an issue with that too. Finally, we have to be about preserving our OWN influences and stop promoting trash ass music and trash ass artists or we forgo the ability to be able to lay claim to a lane no one is riding in. If you want to be about the culture you have to know and appreciate it, replicate it, and put yourself in positions to promote and prolong it.
Damn it got quiet.
p.s. Aaron Hall was a great singer, but he was no Bruno Mars. Can we at a minimum get a parallel and not a reach? Even the mediator of the convo didn’t know who he was. #CaseInPoint
p.p.s. Ppl keep making noise about his supposed coke snorting. Y’alls favorite artists are on some shit too. Heroin’s been an issue (Jimi, Ray, Future); Three Six Mafia, Wayne, Rick and several others were on that syzurp; Mariah, Snoop, hellllll errybody smokes weed; hell, Whitney, Michael, AND Prince died from ODs. So let’s not.