(AllHipHop News) Last year no African American artist had a number one single on Billboard Top 100 all year and the most successful rapper last year was white. The times are changing for the racial makeup of predominantly Black arts and long time R&B legend Tank spoke on how Black artists need to do better.
In a February 7th interview with Black Hollywood Live Network, Tank not only touched on Justin Timberlake and Robin Thicke’s R&B commercial dominance but the incorrect categorization of certain artists. Tank points to Rihanna’s America Music Awards’ win in 2013 for Best Female Soul/R&B performance as an example of erroneous categorization:
We can’t hate on what it is.. we’re where we are… and Robin Thicke and Justin Timberlake are doing R&B music better than us… we need to catch up. What am I gonna do about the fact that the AMA’s in the R&B soul category nominated Robin Thicke, Justin Timberlake and Rihanna?.. What am I gonna do about that? It’s not her fault that she’s in the R&B soul category
Tank, who has not had a gold-certified album since 2001’s One Man says that the music industry has changed and the response to his upcoming single “You’re My Star” will be indicative of that change:
The music universe has finally made its way back around to my strength.. and I think that’s what’s going to be different about the response to the record.
Check out the full interview below: