'UK Baddie' Jesy Nelson talks to Vulture + a Little Mix member and their collaborators react
Who is Jesy Nelson without Little Mix? Talking with @douglasgrnwd, the singer on reckoning with her controversies, past and present, her debut solo single with Nicki Minaj, and more https://t.co/ZG55hck7Xp
- Vulture (@vulture) October 8, 2021
• In the interview she states that she's very passionate about R&B and hip-hop from the late 90s and early 2000s. She also talks about how she would probably still be in the group had the pandemic not happened and the lockdown allowed her to reflect on her role in the group. Nelson reveals that Sunny and Patrick Patrikios who worked on a few songs on Little Mix's fifth album produced the bulk of her solo album.
• Says that Little Mix's team "weren’t the nicest people to be around" but she's happy with her new team who encourages her.
• Nicki's verse on "Boyz" was recorded before her anti-vaxx tweet, but her scenes in the music video were filmed shortly after Nicki posted the tweet. Nelson says that, "I wrote it and realized, If there was a song out there to describe Jesy Nelson, this is it."
• Lots of comments about how unhappy she was in Little Mix, stuff about bullying and now having control and making the choice to strike out alone. But soon the interviewer steers the conversation to the accusations of Blackfishing.
• The writer says that in filtering out legitimate abusive comments and trolling about her body and appearance, Nelson has also filtered out valid concerns and criticism from Black fans. The writer says that Nelson doesn't realize the harm she's causing in using Black aesthetics to launch her solo career, including the use of a Blaccent when she's singing her song.
• Nelson argues that these accusations of Blackfishing didn't exist when she was in the band and only surfaced as a point after she left. Nelson goes on to say, "but I mean, like, I love Black culture. I love Black music. That’s all I know; it’s what I grew up on. I’m very aware that I’m a white British woman; I’ve never said that I wasn’t."
• When asked if she's changed the way she looks or dresses, Nelson says no and says that she changed how she looked and dressed when she was on X-Factor and in Little Mix, and now she is dressing like she used to pre-fame. She tells the reporter, "like I said, I don’t ever want to be an artist who’s being told what to wear or what music to make. I want to be authentic and true to myself, and if people don’t like that, don’t be my fan. Don’t be a part of my journey."
• The interview includes an editors note saying that Nelson's publicist reached out following the interview and told Vulture that comments and critiques about Nelson's Blackfishing had been deleted by members of her team to "protect [Nelson's] mental health"
• Nelson cancelled two follow up interviews that they had planned to discuss the Blackfishing interview in further detail and her publicist sent this statement from Nelson to Vulture instead: “I take all those comments made seriously. I would never intentionally do anything to make myself look racially ambiguous, so that’s why I was initially shocked that the term was directed at me.”
Leigh-Anne, star from “Little Mix”shared a poem to her Instagram story in which contained the line
“You can attempt to imitate, but soul, you cannot buy”.
Is she referring to Jesy Nelson’s obvious black fishing in her new song “Boyz”? 👀 pic.twitter.com/imdbliewpg
- TheHouseGossip (@thehousegossip) October 8, 2021
• The remaining three members of Little Mix have stayed mostly silent about Nelson's new solo career but earlier today, Leigh-Anne Pinnock who produced and started in a documentary about racism in the music industry for the BBC earlier this year, posted an Instagram story a few hours ago sharing a poem specifically highlighting the line "You can attempt to imitate but soul, you cannot buy"
so….. from the heart, I just wanna take this time to promote some talented BLACK female artists who I feel deserve more of the shine than others (others being white people, yes, get uncomfortable) are getting ..
- Certified Batty Bwoy ✨ (@MNEK) October 8, 2021
• MNEK who has collaborated with Little Mix frequently over the past few years, and who had previously shaded Nelson over her blackfishing, took to Twitter to promote Black female artists who aren't getting the same promotion and attention that Nelson is currently getting.
Maybe your final stage of healing is telling people to fuck off.
- KAMILLE (@KamilleXX) October 8, 2021
• Kamille, another frequent collaborator kept it simple and clear.
vulture/ ig story/ mnek tweet/ kamille tweet