“Stephanie Mills and the Music Industry’s White Washing of Black Recording Artist”
(Was She telling the Truth?)
By Glenn Peppers
As I sat there listening to Stephanie Mills being interviewed on this morning television show on BET called "Sister Circle." The topic came up concerning why black recording artist are being ripped off by being denied airplay on the radio, and on television on music video shows. And how White artist are stealing black artist' music styles, and being promoted as being Soul and R&B singers. White Washing truly talented black recording artist in all genres of R&B music! As Stephanie Mills put it...
“I think they want R&B but they don’t want it from us!”
Stephanie Mills
Could the music industry do such a thing to black people who on a cultural and professional level over many years has given the world some of the most beautiful music and songs, ever?
In a matter of speaking, yes they could! And in a big way too, there are people within the media and within the record business who have the ability on an electronic business scale to all but wipe black music out of the public eyes, ears and minds byway of denying airplay, news coverage, PR press, and viewership on almost all major Network cable channels!... That is, if we all just sit back and let that happen though!
I think they should know that what they think they have, (as far as what they call soul) is once again (just like the 1940's when they stole Big Band, and then in the 1950's with Rock and Roll, and then again in the 1960's and 70's with Soul and R&B) stealing black culture! Something that many time has proven itself doesn’t come off well in the long run!
This act of white washing our music is a fake out, Justin Timberlake Moonwalk on black culture, done to us all over again. Only this time its being done electronically! And just like before. The style will always come off eventually as not sounding quite like the Real thing! Why?... Because copy black music as close and as well as you may. In time the flaws will begin to show!
Artist Robin Thicke’s Copy Cat material of Marvin Gaye’s music, smoothed over with his copy cat sound of Prince combined with DeAngelo’s vocal stylings is proof of how gullible and accepting people are about the kind of music they listen to now days!
It is also a testament on how people like Pharrell will stand back in the producers booth and assist people like Robin Thicke to pull the whole thing off!
It is also a testament on how people like Pharrell will stand back in the producers booth and assist people like Robin Thicke to pull the whole thing off!
In essence, when you look at it, they don't really have enough of us down pat to completely wipe out black culture and music and sports, and math, and science off the map, etc. Unless they are satisfied with a really bad copy of Us!
Are they satisfied with all those ghoulish Frankenstein-ish fashion models, all Botox'ed up? And what of those aging actresses on those Hollywood Housewives shows, they're lips all puffed up like they’ve been in a fight; with their faces all cut and curved up by some over priced hollywood plastic surgeon, all in order to get those African America/African Apple Booties, Lips and Cheekbones!
Even black women are out here going around getting Kardashian Fake Butts, Lips and Cheekbones to look like who else of course?..... Black Women! Out of insecurities, paying thousands of dollars to look like the perverted image of what some white women thinks a Black Women looks like!
So out of foolishness, Black Women go have all that Frankenstein surgery done on to themselves, to look make themselves look like a freakish version of themselves!
Sometimes I wanna scream to every black woman I see falling victim to this mess! “Wake the hell UP!!! They’re making a mockery of YOU!”
So out of foolishness, Black Women go have all that Frankenstein surgery done on to themselves, to look make themselves look like a freakish version of themselves!
Sometimes I wanna scream to every black woman I see falling victim to this mess! “Wake the hell UP!!! They’re making a mockery of YOU!”
Sometimes I wonder do white folks who white wash black culture really think that they have us down pat enough?.... There are white guys in the record business who are called soul singers! Guy's who sing with a Michael Bolton Rough Edge? "Is that how ya'll think black people sound?"
I wonder do they really think that the singing voices and copy cat music of Billie Holiday wannabes is spot on? I don't know. You tell me. What is missing from the copy cat Billie Holiday bunch?...... The PAIN of course!... I mean true pain!
Degradation and the Humiliation of character from being a black woman in a 1950’s world! A world that did not except her for who she was, despite her talent and her peacefully shy humanness!
I wonder do they really think that the singing voices and copy cat music of Billie Holiday wannabes is spot on? I don't know. You tell me. What is missing from the copy cat Billie Holiday bunch?...... The PAIN of course!... I mean true pain!
Degradation and the Humiliation of character from being a black woman in a 1950’s world! A world that did not except her for who she was, despite her talent and her peacefully shy humanness!
You can’t fake that! Not even in the music! You may give a pretty darn good impersonation of Billie Holiday. But the soul will always be hollow in its presentation! Because try as one may! You are not Billie Holiday!
I wonder does that British Rihanna sound-alike singer, and all those Beyonce Haters and Copy Cat's think that they have outdone their so called hero by becoming her? "Mimicking one's swag and style does not a black person make!"
Believe me people, you can Phonetically mimic any style of Black Music and copy all the Blues singers and players and Soul Singers and Jazz artist in the world, but if fire in the furnace it isn't authentic, and if what you feel doesn't come from the heart, or isn’t born out of half drunk, heartbroken too many cigarettes at a smokey night club gig, and jam session after 2am. It ain't soul! And it definitely ain’t jazz either! No matter who you think you sound like!
I’m not saying that white people do not have soul! Everybody has soul, to a degree! It’s the life experience and the sincerity of the soul that counts! That mileage on Your Soul will show in the song! In your music, if you really feel it!
I mean if you really feel that song, or that piece of music, and can convey that emotion through sound and notation, expressively, musically or vocally, then it is soul! I don’t care if you’re Bluish-green and have purple blood! Joe Cocker comes to mind! He was riddled with soul! He expressed it his way! he didn't copy anyone! Joe Cocker was his own thang!!!
Now if you're just trying to cash in on the music, then its really not soul or jazz, or funk or anything!
I mean if you really feel that song, or that piece of music, and can convey that emotion through sound and notation, expressively, musically or vocally, then it is soul! I don’t care if you’re Bluish-green and have purple blood! Joe Cocker comes to mind! He was riddled with soul! He expressed it his way! he didn't copy anyone! Joe Cocker was his own thang!!!
Now if you're just trying to cash in on the music, then its really not soul or jazz, or funk or anything!
Even in funk, the same is true! Not to take anything away from Bruno Mars, but it is true that, Bruno can copy all the Lakeside, Parliament and Con-funk-shun/Roger ZAP and Gap Band/EWF horn grooves in the world, and jumble them all together and make songs out of all those riffs, grooves and changes and horn stabs he wants to! It'll never be as good as the original Gap Band funk and other grooves that he is capitalizing and pulling from!
Yet, people love it! Why?... Because Bruno has complied all this strategically crafted hodgepodge of old school funk and party grooves together (that are slightly altered) that people have been missing from modern party music for quite sometime! His music comes across well! It's fun and entertaining! Like an Ode to Old School funk!
Like anything fake, eventually (As George Benson said in his song, "On Broadway") "The glitter rubs right of and you're nowhere!"
All the sampling devices and Mutronic/Harmonic Auto Tune machines in the world cannot copy pure unadulterated Soul from the heart! A lot of these singers give the appearance of soul, but the soul is empty!
Even Adel is starting to wear out her powerful voice trying to barrel out those songs on such a hard and heavy level, night after night in concert! So much so that she mentioned not doing live shows for a while in order to save her voice! Soul is more than just being Loud and Forceful! You can’t compensate loud for being soulful!
All the sampling devices and Mutronic/Harmonic Auto Tune machines in the world cannot copy pure unadulterated Soul from the heart! A lot of these singers give the appearance of soul, but the soul is empty!
Even Adel is starting to wear out her powerful voice trying to barrel out those songs on such a hard and heavy level, night after night in concert! So much so that she mentioned not doing live shows for a while in order to save her voice! Soul is more than just being Loud and Forceful! You can’t compensate loud for being soulful!
From what I’ve noticed concerning the record industry, they'd rather destroy black music, and hide it from us and the world, and make out as if the copy cats were the true originators of soul music in America, rather than to let our music legacy stand, and live on as something we brought to life!
I've seen this thing building for quite a few years now!... Yet despite the effort to squelch, hijack and steal black culture and music, some people of color just will not be denied their props!
Prince was chief among those who the world just had to give it up to!... The man was incredible! Frank Sinatra once said that if Prince were white, the world would forget about Elvis Presley! Now I don't know about all that. But you catch my drift!
I've seen this thing building for quite a few years now!... Yet despite the effort to squelch, hijack and steal black culture and music, some people of color just will not be denied their props!
Prince was chief among those who the world just had to give it up to!... The man was incredible! Frank Sinatra once said that if Prince were white, the world would forget about Elvis Presley! Now I don't know about all that. But you catch my drift!
When singing icon's and music producers, Natalie Cole and Maurice White of Earth Wind and Fire passed away in 2016, and there was barely any press or tributes to them worth mentioning; I knew then! And don’t give me that, “Oh the World was in Shock!” As an excuse for the media not honoring these two amazing recording artist properly!
These were two of the biggest musical icons of the 1970's and 80's and 90's! They helped make FM Radio and structured R&B and Soul music and songwriting; and record production techniques to be what it is today! Yet when they died, according to the news, it was like they just faded away! Almost as if the industry was glad they were gone!
These were two of the biggest musical icons of the 1970's and 80's and 90's! They helped make FM Radio and structured R&B and Soul music and songwriting; and record production techniques to be what it is today! Yet when they died, according to the news, it was like they just faded away! Almost as if the industry was glad they were gone!
When Whitney passed, the bad press overshadowed her music and her death! As far as the media was concerned, Whitney's drug use, and her bad relationships and her mood swings was the only topic of interest!
Never a whole lot about Whitney's flawless voice! Only about how over time she was in fact losing her magnificent voice!
Never a whole lot about Whitney's flawless voice! Only about how over time she was in fact losing her magnificent voice!
So is Stephanie Mills right? Is the Record Industry and the many, many radio stations coast to coast shunning new and innovative black recording artist by not playing their music?
Are the Cable Music Video Channels willfully not playing black recording artist of substance, and are instead promoting ignorance among us by playing the videos of mindless clowns and buffoons on the music world stage, and asking black youth and listeners to think of these individuals as Stars and heroes as it were?
Are the Cable Music Video Channels willfully not playing black recording artist of substance, and are instead promoting ignorance among us by playing the videos of mindless clowns and buffoons on the music world stage, and asking black youth and listeners to think of these individuals as Stars and heroes as it were?
Does the record industry really think this way of the music world, and of us? Something’s going on here people! I just know it! Think about it! These people in those offices at a lot of these record companies went out of their way and sought out this great wall of basically a slew of No Talented Fame Hounds, and Star-baby-Wannabes! People of whom inside and outside of a recording studio couldn't hold a tune if it had a handle on it! They just wannabe Rich and Famous!
Again, these record A&R people went out of their way to find and then promote these talentless group of people to the world (and to your children) as Stars and Interesting People that the media and the public should get know more about!
Again, these record A&R people went out of their way to find and then promote these talentless group of people to the world (and to your children) as Stars and Interesting People that the media and the public should get know more about!
All the while, white folks were honing, and polishing and promoting their brightest and best white recording artist, and marketing them as Soul and R&B singers, while the tone-deft urban star-baby wannabes produced and released one bad CD and Rap record after another!
All the while encouraging (on some levels) drug culture, and a "Get Money anyway you can, Shake Yo' Ass” Mindset,) and not anything resembling a “Get Educated” Mantra! To say the least!
All the while encouraging (on some levels) drug culture, and a "Get Money anyway you can, Shake Yo' Ass” Mindset,) and not anything resembling a “Get Educated” Mantra! To say the least!
Its all systematic, and a host of us out here see the pattern! People are not being fooled as much as the industry would like to think we are!
So how do we combat this situation? Simply put, I think its all a matter of keeping our own Music Alive, and keeping our legacy out there, and ALIVE! The British and the Japanese should not be the curators of the music our grandparents and great uncles and aunties created and came along with!
We should be the ones telling our own story! Many of us have the means to do so! So Why Not Do So?
We should be the ones telling our own story! Many of us have the means to do so! So Why Not Do So?
In the process, over time people will listen. There are many stories to tell! Because what is being portrayed on TV and on Radio is fake, and is a bad copy cat of what it is we do, and what it is we’ve done!
Even if they succeed in putting real R&B, Soul and Jazz on the back burner like they’ve been striving to do, denying some black recording artist, radio and cable TV airplay. In time, they'll eventually have to come back to try and steal more music and styles and fashion from us. Because we are always evolving, culturally! Creatively! Despite all they do to us, “We’re not done yet People!”
Think about it! Over a span of many years, hasn’t this been the pattern down through the decades? Speaking honestly, isn't this what they've been doing to us all along? Stealing our music and our cultural heritage and styles and traditions? Even mimicking and mocking our many forms of emotion and expression (can you say Al Jolson), and calling it their own!
Only now they think they've got Us Down Pat enough to just wipe us off the map completely though! Don't you even believe such a thing!
Only now they think they've got Us Down Pat enough to just wipe us off the map completely though! Don't you even believe such a thing!
Radio Stations may not play that beautiful multi-talented jazz bassist, guitarist and singer, Esperanza Spalding's music, as with a whole host of other uniquely gifted and talented young Jazz, Soul, R&B and Funk artist, on the Radio now days, or on any of the Cable Network Video Channels... yet! But we hear them!
Those of us who are musically in the know out here, we hear these wonderfully talented people! They're on Public Radio and Public Television, and all over the Internet! Jazz forums and music sites are vast and teeming with good music! Heck just pull some of it up on Youtube!
People are tired of all this weak mindless music floating around! Music is like ordering good food! Demand good music, and you’ll eventually get good music! The record industry won’t continue to produce crap if no one is buys it! You can't make money that way!
People are tired of all this weak mindless music floating around! Music is like ordering good food! Demand good music, and you’ll eventually get good music! The record industry won’t continue to produce crap if no one is buys it! You can't make money that way!
There are hundreds of internet podcast and music channels out here, picking and playing these new and innovative sounds and stylings!
These artist have exciting live shows, and the music is slamming! You can't destroy good music! People with Gifts and God given Talent!... Music, art and gifts of the soul are blessed! These gifts are pure energy! Energy that Life Recycles all around, and all through us! It is passed through onto Generation to Generation!
These artist have exciting live shows, and the music is slamming! You can't destroy good music! People with Gifts and God given Talent!... Music, art and gifts of the soul are blessed! These gifts are pure energy! Energy that Life Recycles all around, and all through us! It is passed through onto Generation to Generation!
Try as you may to destroy what has been gifted to many people of color, and then honed by us, and The Wisdom and Creativity of the Ancients will eventually, and almost always rise and shine again, somewhere else near as a result of adversity!... But then of course when that happens, they'll always be someone waiting at the door to try and steal, copy and capitalize on our innovations once again, I'm almost sure of it!
Glenn Peppers 10-17-2017 7:18am
