The topic of race and country music is an ongoing conversation in the industry, and will continue to be so long instances like this still happen.
Kane Brown, one of mainstream country music’s most well-known black artists, got candid in a 2018 tweet about the racism he has experienced in Nashville.
Specifically regarding songwriters, he alleges that some refuse to write with him due to the color of his skin.
According to the Tennessean, Kane Brown said the following:
“Damn, some people in Nashville who have pub(lishing) deals won’t write with me because I’m black. Aight… I’m still gonna do my thing 100 (percent).”
The tweet has since been deleted.
And although he deleted the tweet, he followed it up with this one about how being different is the key to success.
Kane, who is bi-racial, told People Magazine that he didn’t know it until he was about 8 years old.
“I’m biracial; I didn’t know that until I was 7 or 8 years old… I thought I was full white, which honestly, I can’t even really say because I didn’t see colors.
I found out that I was biracial and I still wasn’t thinking anything of it, but then I started getting called the N-word. I didn’t even know what it meant. I learned what it meant, and that’s when it started affecting me. I got in fights over it when I was little.”
However, in light of Kane’s tweet about songwriting, The Gatlin Brothers’ Larry Gatlin reach out to him.
“A lot of (people) are racist. It’s that old saying, ‘Is it better to light a candle than stand there and curse the darkness?'”
They have since scheduled a songwriting session together.
