photos/videos : Black come to Bruno Mars defense after he is accused of '''cultural appropriation'' for profiting off of African American musical styles

-

Singer Bruno Mars has been accused of cultural appropriation for adopting African-American musical styles, but some black musicians are stepping up to his defense.

The brouhaha started over the weekend with the publication of a video rant in which a black writer and activist accused Mars of ripping off the cultural heritage of black musicians.


Eleven-time Grammy winner Mars is half Filipino, one quarter Puerto Rican and a quarter Ashkenazi Jewish.

'Bruno Mars 100 per cent is a cultural appropriator. He is not black at all, and he plays up his racial ambiguity to cross genres,' Seren Sensei Aishitemasu said on Thursday in a clip for The Grapevine, a web series that explores African-American issues.

'Bruno Mars is a genuine talent pure and simple,' wrote R&B singer Charlie Wilson, one of the artists Mars is accused of copying.



'For the current haters I say this: Bruno with this album helped bring back that classic New Jack/R&B sound to the masses when it was left for dead years ago,' Wilson continued, referring to Mar's latest album 24K Magic.

'So is it Bruno Mars fault that...he was influenced by BabyFace, Teddy Riley, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis...around the same time from a hip-hop side I was influenced by DJ Premier, Pete Rock, and The Beatminerz?' wrote hip-hop producer 9th Wonder.

'This is a Sociology study on influence and exposure....' added Wonder.
Grammy-nominated rapper Rapsody jumped in with a word of encouragement directed at Mars, writing 'Keep making that funky ish, @BrunoMars.


'What Bruno Mars does, is he takes pre-existing work and he just completely, word-for-word recreates it, extrapolates it,' Aishitemasu explained.

'He does not create it, he does not improve upon it, he does not make it better.
'He's a karaoke singer, he's a wedding singer, he's the person you hire to do Michael Jackson and Prince covers. Yet Bruno Mars has an Album of the Year Grammy and Prince never won an Album of the Year Grammy,' she added.

The comments sparked a fierce debate on Twitter between those who agreed with Aishitemasu and others who leaped to defend Mars.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

FRSC returns recovered N2m to crash victim’s mum

-
Image
The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) has rescued crash victims involved in a lone accident on the Lagos /Ibadan Expressway and returned over N2million recovered from the  scene to the mother of the owner. Mr Clement Oladele, the FRSC Sector Commander in Ogun,in Abeokuta on Saturday. Oladele said that the accident happened around 10:15am and it involved 11 people, comprising of three men, six female adult and two female children. The sector commander noted that though, there were no deaths recorded, nine of the passengers who included three male  and six female adults sustained serious injuries. “The lone crash involved a Yellow Toyota LiteAce bus with registration number WWD 558 XA travelling from Ibadan to Lagos. “The suspected cause of the crash was tyre burst by the speeding bus,  which lost control. “The injured victims were taken to Ifeoluwa Hospital,  Ogunmakin for medical treatment and the road obstruction cleared, “he said. The FRSC boss said the victims’ belong
Read more

Police arrest Lagos most notorious cultist

-
Image
The most wanted cultist in Lagos, Kanmi, also known as Father, has been arrested by the State Police Command.Father was declared wanted by the police after he was recently released from the prison, Father was reportedly feared by cult groups within Mushin, Itire, Lawanson and Ilasamaja areas of the state. It was further gathered that while he was in detention, cult activities and war reduced, but as soon as he was released, there was a marked escalation of rival cult wars. Following the cult war that started after his release, Commissioner of Police Imohimi Edgal, ordered Police detectives to fish out Father and his alleged killer gang members. The command’s Public Relations Officer, Mr Chike Oti, said: “Based on credible intelligence available to us that some cultists led by Kanmi alias Father were planning to strike in Ilasamaja community on March 29, the Commissioner of Police, Lagos State, directed the Divisional Police Officer of Ilasamaja, SP. Oriyomi Oluwasanmi Titila
Read more

Tiger kills woman in Nepal

-
Image
A wild tiger killed a 41-year-old woman who was collecting fodder for her cattle outside her home in south-eastern Nepal, police said Tuesday. Police officer Dilip Raj Jha said the animal, suspected to have come from the nearby Parsa Wildlife Reserve, on Monday pounced on the woman’s from behind and killed her on the spot. “The two men who went to retrieve her body also came under attack from the tiger. “They sustained minor injuries,” Jha told dpa. Under Nepalese law, the victim’s family is entitled to one million rupees (9,680 dollars) in compensation for death caused by a wild animal. Although tiger attacks are rare in Nepal, human-wild animal conflicts are common, raising concerns about the safety of people living near wildlife reserves. Nepal is home to 198 endangered wild tigers that live in protected areas in the country’s southern plains along the border with India.
Read more