Styles P Says He Was Almost Blackballed Over His Single ‘I'm Black’
The Lox’s Styles P revealed that he almost lost his career over the release of his 2006 pro-Black anthem, “I’m Black.” The track was released on his second studio album, Time Is Money, and featured R&B singer Marsha Ambrosious.
Taking to Twitter on Monday (June 8), P tweeted he “almost got blackballed” for making “I’m Black.” Glad I stuck to my guns.”
“SP! love u like a heartbeat,” producer The Alchemist issued on Twitter, to which Styles P replied, “Love you more bro ...we made history with that one.”
Over the years, rumors persisted that the single was banned from radio after it received little airplay upon its release, which P addressed in a 2013 interview with HipHopDX.
“I know it was banned on a lot of radio stations just period. I mean, you can tell by the amount of spins. You don’t hear it [during] Black History Month…too often. You might hear the [track] behind something or one or two people play it. I dunno, I feel it was banned,” he said. He added that he felt the song wasn’t promoted by the label like it should’ve been, although he believes the public’s reception to the song also played a role as well.
“It was easier to put out ‘I Get High’ and get a response than ‘I’m Black’….The reality of it is people like to pay attention more to negative shit than positive shit. And that’s just how it goes. So if you’re a person who wanna drop jewels, if you’re not straight conscious and straight backpack and known for that, it’s like you gotta sneak ‘em in and slip ‘em in,” P continued. “Let’s take movies for instance, is the most violent movie gonna sell the most this week or the most peaceful movie? So I take it like that. I just took it as society wasn’t…ready.”
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