“The black male artist works very hard to get his due,” Gladys Knight said in a 1990 interview, featured in Michael’s appearance on The South Bank Show that same year. The latter victory prompted Knight to criticize Michael. He would also take best R&B artist (beating Michael Jackson and Bobby Brown) and favorite R&B album (beating Keith Sweat and Gladys Knight) at the 1989 American Music Awards. Then in 1989, Faith won the Grammy for album of the year. Prior to his solo career, several of his hits with Wham! (“Careless Whisper,” “Everything She Wants”) had gotten similar treatment. Michael’s blockbuster Faith album was also promoted heavily on Black radio because most of his singles - particularly “Father Figure” and “One More Try” - were more or less R&B. George Michael’s late ’80s solo breakthrough was particularly telling. In 1990, Vanilla Ice sold 10 million copies of To The Extreme. White rappers the Beastie Boys had the best-selling hip-hop album of the 1980s. Madonna’s early hits were so R&B-flavored that singles like “Borderline” were played on Black radio, and some early fans initially didn’t know she was white. Daryl Hall and John Oates shot to the top of the charts with a mix of soul and pop that was more or less an MTV-era version of the sound coming out of Philadelphia in the ‘70s (a sound that most obviously influenced their own charting hits from that decade) much like Michael Jackson, Prince and Lionel Richie merged soul and pop in the 1980s. At the height of Michael Jackson’s popularity, there were several white artists whose music was blatantly influenced by Black music and artists. White folks making Black music is not a new phenomenon. Sensei’s take is ahistorical, in that she presupposes that appropriation is now more prevalent and prominent than ever. “Because people have realized that they prefer their black music and their black culture from a non-black face… We have artists now that are much more willing to step into ‘Black genres’ who were not willing to–they didn’t want to do it, Black music was seen a certain type of way.” “I don’t even think that Michael Jackson in this day and age would be able to get to the point that he got to previously,” she offers. “He is not Black, at all, and he plays up his racial ambiguity to cross genres.” She elaborates saying that Michael Jackson would suffer today because of artists like Mars. “Bruno Mars 100 percent is a cultural appropriator,” Sensei says in the video. This is why i hate bruno mars says it all /CRLktsA2ea Later in the week, a clip from an episode of the YouTube panel series The Grapevine, in which 30-year-old activist Seren Sensei slammed Mars for appropriation, went viral–leading to some cheers but mostly a whole lot of criticism of Sensei’s argument. Once the Internet’s cadre of Mars disparagers were made aware of the interview, it reignited the adjacent criticism that has long dogged Bruno Mars: that he’s a “culture vulture,” an appropriator looking to gain fame and accolades by stealing from Black artists who have done such music far better than he ever could. And while evaluating someone for their “sincerity” and how “genuine” they are, from the outside looking in, is highly questionable - there’s no reason to assume that Mars or anyone else is making music for cynical purposes - what Ndegeocello said wasn’t exactly an indictment of Mars’ character.īut that was just the spark. But that aspersion in and of itself isn’t all that damning famed retro rocker Lenny Kravitz was dismissed similarly 25 years ago by rock critics that thought he was aping Hendrix, the Beatles, Prince and Sly Stone without bringing anything original to the proceedings. T.I Gucci, lil jon, Jeezy, Jermaine Dupri just to name a few.That’s been a common critique of Bruno Mars for the past few years - that he’s a mimic. Posting on Twitter, Mars wrote: you have the opportunity to celebrate incredible Hip Hop Artist from Atlanta next year”. The city is widely considered to be the modern home of hip-hop in America and the home city of artists including Migos, Gucci Mane, and Outkast. Heappealed to the NFL on Twitter after it was announced that the 2019 Super Bowl will be held in Atlanta. Mars recently called for the NFL to organise a hip-hop halftime show next year, featuring performances from the likes of Lil Jon, Outkast and Gucci Mane. Williams added: “We’ve reached a tipping point in the ‘cultural appropriation’ conversation. White folks making Black music is not a new phenomenon.” Stereo Williams at Billboard also noted: “Sensei’s take is ahistorical, in that she presupposes that appropriation is now more prevalent and prominent than ever.
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