Bruno Mars has long paid homage to Black music and his many idols.
From Charlie Wilson to Bobby Brown to Babyface to Michael Jackson. The star is renowned for saluting the icons whose careers have facilitated his.
Despite this, a small set of social media users insist on lambasting the singer – who is of Puerto Rican and Filipino heritage – with claims of cultural appropriation.
Currently on the promotional rounds for Silk Sonic – his joint project with Anderson.Paak – Mars was quizzed on the topic during an interview on The Breakfast Club.
His interesting response awaits below…
Speaking to Charlamagne Tha God, DJ Envy, and Angela Yee, Mars acknowledged the broader issue with people and institutions not giving Black music and musicians the flowers.
He did, however, remind that he has long championed his influences:
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Extremely well said.
Bruno is not new to this, he is true to this. He’s always been so genuine, so vocal, and so consistent about his acknowledgement of his influences. So those harping on with critique are doing the definition of the most.
Watch the full interview:
I think we expressed himself pretty well and he has always paid tribute to many artists. His last sentence says it all « it’s Twitter man ».
Social medias are not so social. People think they have this platform, this window on the world to try to sound righteous and spit their venin, their hatred, mock people and the list goes on and on. That’s why I don’t give a damn about all that, instagram, snapchat etc.
Just look at people at concerts (when that was happening), even freaking fireworks… Geez how horrible.
« Are we crazy, living our lives through a lense… ».
U dirty rat who speaks from both sides of their mouth. U wouldn’t keep this same energy for Camila cabello. Ugly
She has said racist comments, has he? He also is a brown/black man vs being a white passing woman like Camila.
I will say, good for her for getting therapy though. #Growth.
My s e x y daddy! 💅🏿💅🏿💅🏿 Bruno is coming. Hello Bruno, Bye Abel🤳🏿🤳🏿🤳🏿
Well he basically said he is a rip off artist, which he is. His music is pop garbage. There is no spin. Chris Brown puts a spin on it. That’s the difference between inspiration and mimicking.
“Extremely well said.”
Tgj=🤡🤡🤡
He dudnt say shìt in that video. He didnt address his cultural appropriation.
I literally use to think this man was a biracial black man.
Woke Twitter is a joke
If yall like a particular artist u will literally let them get away with murdèr
Timberlake does the same as bruno, but yall give bruno a pass but u attack Timberlake all the time
Same with ariana. This girl literally does brown face but yall pretend like u dont see it. I literally use to think ariana was a biracial black girl little did I know this bissh is whiter than ed Sheeran when she cleans of that brown paint she uses to coat her body
“Biracial Black Girl.”
You suck a joke, lol. There’s nothing like a biracial black girl.
Just say you’re slow and you dont understand what I mean or the point I was trying to drive across
Its nobody’s fault ur a retàrd. I will continue to pray for you.
No one cares about Ariana. Her fan base mostly consists of young white girls and gays. We aren’t paying attention to her.
Bruno on the other hand is consistently played on urban radio and Black people of all ages enjoy his work. He pays homage to his inspirations & at the end of the days he’s still a PERSON OF COLOR (Filipino, Puerto Rican and White).
Timberlake gets backlash mostly because of how he treated Janet during the Super Bowl fiasco and NO Black person would ever choose him over Usher. Like Ariana, Justin’s fan base is majority white.
@Your Name
Your assessment is 100% spot on. Blacks don’t fcuk with Ariana or JT like that. But enough white people do.
I understand everything you said, i jus quoted what I found interesting.
Black people are always crying for representation, but y’all allow biracial people into yo spaces and call them black. I thought yo trolling ass had brains. You wrote a whole paragraph which makes absolutely no sense. You better of sucking you mom’s nipple juice.
Onto the Ariana situation, you claim to have been stanning this girl since her NY Everything era? Do you expect me to believe you didn’t know about her brown face. Just shut the f*** up and go get some breast milk.
He’s not black periodt!!!
We are lucky to have entertainers like him. There was a time when I was wondering if he’d ever pop off. I guess the cream always rises to the top.
Agree
Also for some reason people think he’s Black. I guess people really don’t know him just his music still? I have never looked at him and thought that lol 🤔
Y’all got to remember he initially had eras that tackled certain decades of music. It’s all thematic.
Lastly I stopped stanning for him when they caught him snorting coke in the bathroom. That made me sad lol. Glad he’s still around though.
Maybe other races think that but I never met a black person who thought Bruno was Black. We know our kind. Before I found out his ethnicity I thought he was Pacific Islander/Asian or Hispanic (which he is all three).
I remember a few years ago I was asked to go to a Bruno Mars concert as a date. The guy won tickets on a local radio station and I kindly declined. I just don’t like Bruno Mars. Never have, never will. I always seen through him and when his music comes on the radio I change it. To each their own, he’s just not someone I vibe with 🤷 just something about him that seems fake
I feel the same about his music, it just seems like a rehash. He is a talented guy, but I feel like other than paying homage (loosely) to music that’s been done before we don’t know who HE is musically. My friends think he’s the best ever, but when his music comes on it just makes me meh…
I don’t get it. I get appropriation vibes more from most of your favs
Charlamagne needs to understand that color has nothing to do with culture. You can be black and appropriate Asian culture for instance. Culture is more to do with racial identity. The problem is that none of these influences Bruno is speaking of now were a centrical part of his identity when he was making pop music for his EPs and first studio albums. His attention to black culture did not emerge until it became profitable for him to begin using the same artistic elements that originated as prominent pieces in the careers of African American musicians.
His first album was a mixture of pop, R&B, doo-wop, reggae and Hawaiian styled music. His first hit consisted of him singing the hook of a rap song. It’s not like his music was straight EDM or something. The influence was always there.
I get what you’re saying, but I disagree. I’ve always heard soulful black influences in his style of singing and think his attention to black culture has always been there. But he’s signed to a record label and they call the shots, so he recorded whatever style they told him to. My issue with cultural appropriation is not with the artists, but the entities behind them; large non-black owned corporations. If black artists and creatives had bigger shares of ownership, then we could have real gatekeepers to preserve the culture and its origins.
I find it ironically hilarious that everytime he releases music, there is always some kind of big racial discussion around him and said music. I feel like some ppl have chosen Bruno to be their punching bag because it’s crazy how many artists, big artist of pop, r&b and even jazz, are actually getting away with appropriation and are being praised. Bruno gives credit everytime because it’s right and to avoid this bullshìt yet, there’s always this talk. As someone stated above, social media has given most of you with nothing but unproductive freetime a platform for your stupidity to be on display. Especially those of you supporting Latino and White women for pandering the Black community and our music, using black rappers, singers and songwriters only for convenience and NOT citing their inspiration or giving tribute yet you “stan”
And to the ppl that “thought” Bruno Mars was black or biracial…that’s b*******. You can clearly look him in the face and see he’s not, and once he begins to talk it’s even clearer. A person of color though, yes.
Who really gives a f***? It’s just music. Is there anything black people actually do like? Because they don’t even like each other!