Rock band Living Colour opened up about their experience as Black musicians navigating the entertainment industry.
In a lengthy statement posted this week on Instagram, lead vocalist Corey Glover shared his thoughts about a recent Lenny Kravitz interview during which the rocker said he felt he was not celebrated by Black award shows.
“It’s come to my attention that people responded to Lenny Kravitz’s statement, that black organizations in the entertainment industry never really sought him out. Retorting that they did make effort to contact him but his ‘people’ said that Mr. Kravitz had no interest,” Glover began.
“That is false,” he went on. “Whether his people made that statement, I cannot say. Living Colour throughout has made a conscious effort to make ourselves available to places like BET, the Source etc. Mind you this was happening simultaneously to us in the rock idiom.”
The Black media publication’s typical response, said Glover, was “that we did not fit in their format. Ironic, that was the same response we got from the Rock n roll / white entertainment organizations.”
He goes on to acknowledge Black musicians’ contributions to other genres besides R&B and hip-hop.
“Celebrating diversity in the entertainment field doesn’t start with the blues and ends with hip-hop. There have been expressions in between. George Clinton Parliament/Funkadelic, Fishbone, Tracy Chapman, Meshell Ndegeocello; even though there has been glancing acceptance of someone like Jimi Hendrix, rocks influence on the diaspora, has very rarely acknowledged.”
Glover believes that “Lenny was right,” adding: “None of us has been awarded let alone acknowledged for our achievements. Living Colour in the past has worked with such historical luminaries as Little Richard and Mick Jagger. We’ve worked with a hip-hop royalty from Queen Latifah, Doug E Fresh, Chuck D & Flava Flav to Run DMC. And yet there’s barely a mention of rocks contribution to what is modern black music, let alone in rock and roll circles.”
He hopes that Black people’s impact on rock is acknowledged moving forward. “It’s been our experience that most people of color have no idea how deep and far reaching the influence of Black people in the modern-day rock ‘n’ roll there are, let alone it’s impact on R&B and hip hop. What we hear is ‘that’s white people stuff’ when in fact, it is not!”
Glover concluded, “It’s hard enough to live in places where you expect white supremacy, but not from your own people.”
Earlier this month, Kravitz appeared on the cover of Esquire and said, “To this day, I have not been invited to a BET thing or a Source Awards thing. And it’s like, here is a Black artist who has reintroduced many Black art forms, who has broken down barriers — just like those that came before me broke down. That is positive. And they don’t have anything to say about it?”
Some called out the brands for the oversight, while some journalists claimed that it was Kravitz’s team who declined to work with the Black publications.
He issued a follow-up statement to clarify that he did not mean to attack “Black media” nor the “Black community.”
“My Black musical heritage means a lot to me, and I owe my success to my supporters who have taken this journey with me over the span of my career,” said Kravitz. “I was specifically referring to Black award shows in particular. Rock and Roll is the music we were instrumental in creating and is a part of our history. We must retain our heritage and celebrate that together.”