A video posted on social media on March 8th went straight for Bruno Mars' legacy. In the clip, activist Seren Sensei rips Mars apart for cultural appropriation. Her video currently has just under 3 million views.
"Bruno Mars 100% is a cultural appropriator. He is not black, at all, and he plays up his racial ambiguity to cross genres," barks Sensei. In her reasoning for Mars' dominance of "black" music and cultural appropriation, she states,“people have realized that they prefer their black music and their black culture from a non-black face. We have artists now that are much more willing to step into black genres.”
Sensei continues on to state, "He's a karaoke singer, he's a wedding singer, he's the person you hire to do Michael Jackson and Prince covers. Yet Bruno Mars has an Album of the Year Grammy and Prince never won an Album of the Year Grammy."
One year ago, Mars' famously stated in an interview with Latina, "When you say ‘black music,’ understand that you are talking about rock, jazz, R&B, reggae, funk, doo-wop, hip-hop, and Motown. Black people created it all. Being Puerto Rican, even salsa music stems back to the Motherland.” Several celebrities have come to Mars' aide on Twitter, including 9th Wonder and Charlie Wilson.
