Views from the Edge: Bruno Mars BET Award Should Silence Charges of ‘Cultural Appropriation’

Views from the Edge

So there! Bruno Mars, an all-American singer, who is part Filipino, Puerto Rican and Hasidic Jew, was named Best male R&B/Pop artist at the 2018 BET awards Sunday (June 24). Beyonce easily won the female counterpart of the award.

As the only non-African American winner Sunday, the win validates Mars as one of the best R&B entertainers in the world today.

Let’s hope this puts an end to accusations of “cultural appropriation” that at its most intense earlier this year bordered on racism against the Hawaii-born artist. Even Mars’ multicultural background was used against him.

“Bruno Mars 100% is a cultural appropriator. He is not Black, at all, and he plays up his racial ambiguity to cross genres,” said Seren Sensei, a writer and activist who tackles African American issues in the web series The Grapevine.

Let’s get this straight. Mars grew up in the 90s listening to R&B artists and he’s never denied those influences. He said he cannot help but be influenced by R&B artists like Boyz II Men, Dr. Dre, Diddy, Aaliyah, Babyface, Whitney Houston, and TLC, to pop stars like Michael Jackson.

And he’s made a point of repeatedly crediting those artists who came before him. In an interview with Latina magazine, Mars said: “When you say ‘Black music,’ understand that you are talking about rock, jazz, R&B, reggae, funk, doo-wop, hip-hop, and Motown. Black people created it all. Being Puerto Rican, even salsa music stems back to the Motherland. So, in my world, Black music means everything. It’s what gives America its swag.”

When the accusations of being a “culture vulture” started up after Mars swept the Grammy Awards earlier this year, R&B legend Charlie Wilson came to Mars’ defense. The Filipino American entertainer helps “bring back that classic New Jack / R&B sound to the masses when it was left for dead years ago and hard for artists to get that sound back on mainstream radar,” said Wilson.

The venerable Stevie Wonder had a one-word response to the debate over Mars. He called the whole controversy, “Bullsh*t!”

“God created music for everyone to enjoy, so we cannot limit ourselves by people’s fears and insecurities. He’s a great talent,” Wonder went on to explain to TMZ. “That other stuff is just bullsh*t.”

Early in his career, agents tried to convince Mars to limit himself to Latino songs, even though his musical influences were much wider. If we limited artists to perform based on their ethnic heritage, Mars could very well have been stuck forever singing Tiny Bubbles in some Waikiki bar, or Dahil Sa Iyo at countless Filipino weddings.

The whole debate of cultural appropriation can lead to a swamp of accusations. Is soprano Kiri Te Kanawa, a Maori, singing an Italian song for an opera that takes place in Spain cultural appropriation?
Is Paul Robeson singing Old Man River, written by a White man for a Black character, cultural appropriation?
Is Eminem, a white rap artist, ripping Donald Trump, waving his arms and strutting around the stage like a Baptist preacher, stealing an art form made popular by African Americans?

When African American ballet dancer Misty Copeland performs in Swan Lake, a European art form and European storyline, is that culturally correct?

And the examples go on and on, up to and including Nicky Minaj using Asian costumes and symbols when she performs her new single Chun-Li, which was inspired by the long-running character from the video game series, Street Fighter, which is in itself a cultural mishmash of a Chinese character created by a Japanese game maker.

At the height of his career, Mars has become an easy target. He was not the first to be influenced by Black artists — can you say Elvis? How about Buddy Holly, the Rolling Stones or any rock-n-roller — nor will he be the last. That’s how much we — as Americans — are indebted to African American culture, which in itself are extensions of the cultures from Africa.

During the height of the debate over Mars success, Black Lives Matter activist and writer Shaun King tweeted: “I just want to be practical here. Are people saying that Bruno Mars shouldn’t sing? Or that when he sings he needs to somehow whiten that s— up and sound more like Rod Stewart … I’m dead serious. What type of music is this man ‘allowed’ to do?”

“It’s about burning an artist you don’t like at the stake under the guise of faux intellectualism. White privilege is real, and so is cultural appropriation, writes music critic Stereo Williams in Billboard. “But when you ignore how much an artist has said about his influences; how much said artist clearly loves and reveres both what he does and who inspired him to do it; when that artist has composed/produced for Black artists and made sure to introduce non-black audiences to his faves by shouting out Teddy Riley, Babyface and Jam & Lewis during his Grammys acceptance speech; you’re manufacturing a villain for your own agenda.”

Mars success and the music he loves to perform has opened the door to other R&B artists whose art form has been essentially forgotten by the onslaught of hip-hop and rap on the airwaves and iTunes.

“Fortunately, Bruno (Mars) made it easy for us to be ourselves again,” said Babyface, who said he was “humbled and honored” to be mentioned by Mars during his Grammy Award acceptance speeches.

“I’m very proud of him and his accomplishments,” Babyface says. “I had the opportunity to go into the studio and work with and write with him, and I had so much respect for his work ethic ’cause it was very close to how I did it, and how I do it. I think he’s genius in his approach and one of the best entertainers we’ve had in a very, very long time. I consider Bruno in the same category with Prince and with Michael Jackson; He’s one of those guys who can actually stand with those artists, and there aren’t a lot of artists I can actually say that about and say it with confidence and feel like he would deserve to be on that same stage as them.”

Enuf said!

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