Some members of the Black community are not “Happy” with Pharrell’s “G I R L” album cover. The 40-year-old super producer came under fire this week for allegedly not featuring a black (or black enough) woman on the cover.
A frustrated Skateboard P called in to Power 105.1’s “The Breakfast Club” morning radio show to address the rumor. He jumped right in and clarified. “The one I’m standing the closest to is black. She’s a black girl from Wisconsin that I used to date over 10 years ago. If they just bothered to listen to my album, they’d know that it is an ode to women.”
Williams’ next single “Marilyn Monroe” combats the superficial standard of feminine beauty. “No matter what color you are, what size you are, your sexual orientation, I respect you as a woman because I know without you none of us would be here. But, unfortunately, they looked at the cover, they didn’t see what they felt like…I don’t know what the definition is…”a light skinned” black woman? What is this conversation?”
Pharrell then addresses his own blackness. “My dad is a dark-skinned man. I’m a black man. I’m the first black person to go No. 1 on Pop radio since Rihanna, but then you’re gonna shoot at me? Of course I’m doing this for us. My mom is a black woman. My business is run by another black woman and I’m married to a black woman.”
This controversy has definitely sparked a conversation across social media about the perception and representation of blackness in the music world and beyond. What are your thoughts on the cover?
Williams’ “G I R L” is available for streaming now on iTunes Radio. The album will officially be released on March 3.
Listen to Pharrell set the record straight below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-OyjTs9NhE&feature=youtu.be
