In a recent interview with HuffPost Live, K Michelle claims that the radio station heads are the problem.
She says:
“Being an African-American woman in the industry right now isn’t the best thing.
“I think the biggest challenges are we are told…it’s not a rumor, it’s not made up…there’s certain formats and radio stations and certain things we can’t sing as African-American women.
“For instance, if I’m to do a ballad, it’s gonna go to Urban AC, a very small audience. But if other artists of other ethnicities are to do a ballad, it will be played on Top 40 and it will be played on rhythmic. Artists haven’t spoken about it a lot, but I think artists are really getting fed up like with the Oscars and you have Tyrese speaking out about the music. You have artists like Tank. You have different artists speaking about it. It’s very unfair that our music cannot be sold or played on other formats.”
K also expressed her frustrations with the Grammys:
“It’s also unfair that we are living in a time where…Rhythm and Blues is the core of all music. They don’t even announce our category at the Grammys, live. At this point, I think it’s very disrespectful to the African-American artists who can sing.
“I can sing the same song as a white artists, but they’re gonna ship me off to never be heard old land, but they’re not gonna do that to a white artist.”
K then goes on to say that she feels the people in charge of the radio stations are the most responsible. But because of the shut out of black artists on Top 40, K says that streaming services are the platforms that give black artists a chance to get their music heard.
Check out the video below:
I’m glad she’s not afraid to talk about this. What’s happening to black artists is unfair and that is why we only have 3 mainstream artists who are black women right now.
The radio stations won’t be around in ten years.
It will probably be even sooner than that. And serves them right since they single handedly killed off black music and replaced it with Adele, Sam Smith, etc.
Streaming is where we’re headed. And all those payola artists will start to struggle. Watch and see.
Say what you want about K but her music is good. She deserves more shine than she gets but we know how that goes.
She right, and I’m happy she stood up and said something. Streaming music is going to make radio stations obselete in a few years. That’s why Russell Simmons was smart to get in early with his streaming awards show, since those views will soon be counted towards sales.
Great interview.
These are old tricks they are just reinforcing today. The agenda is real.