Tory Lanez recently shared a post where he blasted a video director for colorism. The incident allegedly took place during Lanez’s video shoot.
In the video clip, Lanez’s is seen rapping alongside a dark skin model until the video director seemingly told the dark skin model to leave. She was eventually replaced with another woman with a lighter skin complexion.
Following the model switch, Lanez stopped production of the video and told the dark skin woman to return to the set and asked the woman with the lighter skin to step out of the shot.
Lanez used social media to share his thoughts on the incident and the ongoing issue of colorism in the entertainment industry.
“This is an ongoing problem in our community of entertainment that needs to stop,” Lanez wrote. “As a Black man, sometimes I’m going to joke about the Black community just like we all do. But what I’m not going to do is allow any of these directors to devalue our Black women. Countless times I’ve seen directors swap out our women of color for women of lighter complexion, or women with straighter hair. It is our responsibility as an artist to stand up and not let this happen. It’s been time to embrace our women of color.”
However, one of the models from the video disputed Lanez’s claim and revealed that he staged the incident. On an Instagram post, model Sultry Shen revealed that it was not the director’s decision to switch out the women because both girls were scheduled to film solo scenes with Lanez. She ended her post with the hashtag, #fakenews.
For decades, the issue of colorism has remained present when it comes to hip-hop and R&B music videos, as women with light complexion skin are featured as lead models more frequently than dark skin women.
Although some commended Lanez for his actions, others have condemned him for allegedly using his platform to stage an incident about an important issue within the Black community.
