Grammy award-winning singer and songwriter Stephanie Mills says that the music industry wants R&B music. They just don’t want it from Black artists. An interview from 2017 has been resurfacing, and it’s just as relevant today as it was then.
In an interview with TV One’s Sister Circle , Mills tackles the issue that white artists have been given top priority in creating R&B music. When asked by one of the hosts, “What is the climate of music today?” The Grammy award-winning singer said:
“I think they want R&B, but they don’t want it from us,” the singer said adding, “They want it from Adele and Justin Timberlake and those people.”
On the topic of social appropriation, the host asked Mills if she thought the music industry was taking “bits and pieces” of what makes black artists great and then cultivating it with a white artist to make a profit. The singer did not hesitate to say there is a clear lack of appreciation of the culture.
“They don’t want to show the respect of where it comes from,” she explained.
Mills rose to stardom as “Dorothy” in The Wiz on Tony award-winning Broadway production in the 1970s. She later produced top-charting albums Home and I Have Learned To Respect The Power Of Love and the hit single “Never Knew Love Like This Before” which won her a Grammy in 1980 for Best R&B Vocal Performance.
Watch the full interview below with the segment starting at 3:24: