Скачать или смотреть Danyel Smith on how the term ‘unsung’ devalues Black musicians

“I think when people think of ‘unsung’ so often times it’s because, again to refocus history, that is a situation where it’s only the broader population, the white fans are being valued. Those people are not unsung to us. Phyllis Hyman is not unsung to us; Stephanie Mills is not unsung to us, Minnie Ripperton is not unsung to us. But maybe because they only had one top-20 mainstream hit or maybe because they were not as traditionally beautiful as America likes its pop stars to be. Maybe it’s because they had a lot of things to say politically as Billie Holiday did as she was alive…
The Black fan, we are valuable. We are as valuable as the artists themselves because truly we set the trends. What we buy, what we listen to, what we play on stations that are marketed to Black people…It’s the Black fan that moves culture in the United States of America.”- Danyel Smith