Is Bruno Mars the greatest black artist since Michael Jackson?

I'm not going to do anything more than touch on the categorization of Bruno Mars and Michael Jackson as “black artists.” An artist's skin color does not define his or her art form. A musician's skin color does not define his or her music. read more

I’m not going to do anything more than touch on the categorization of Bruno Mars and Michael Jackson as “black artists.” An artist’s skin color does not define his or her art form. A musician’s skin color does not define his or her music. read more

"Bruno Mars 100 percent is a cultural appropriator,” Sensei says in the video. “He is not Black, at all, and he plays up his racial ambiguity to cross genres.” She elaborates; saying that Michael Jackson would suffer today because of artists like Mars. read more

Sensei used "Black" with a capital B, referring to the African diaspora rather than the color, as explained by Lori Tharps in her 2014 New York Times op-ed. Newsweek has left her spelling and usages intact. In the Grapevine video, Sensei points to Michael Jackson as a black artist Mars has borrowed a bit too much from. read more