India Arie is finally back on the music scene after releasing her latest single “Cocoa Butter” but the new song came with tons of controversy.
All of India Arie’s fans are still in love with her soulful sound and her new song has them hooked all over again.
The song has a very soothing sound to it as the Grammy Award winning songstress professors her love on the track.
“Your love is like cocoa butter on my heart,” she sings on the chorus of the new single.
The new single is a sneak peak at what is to come on her fifth studio album, SongVersation.
With this being India Arie’s first single in almost four years, you would think all the attention would be on her new song but it seems like the hype of her music got lost in the hype of her “brown skin” … or lack thereof.
The soulful crooner released a promotional flyer for her new song, and fans couldn’t help but notice that Mrs. Arie was looking a lot lighter than usual.
“Is it me or does India Arie looks a lot different [sic],” @DeterminedLeo33 tweeted.
Even Kanye West wasn’t feeling the singer’s new look.
“It’s not the lights, even if it’s makeup!” Yeezy wrote. “Why India Arie!? This isn’t you! Please tweet her and ask her why… I hope her music sells I like her message but lookin like Alicia Keys isn’t the way nothing’s wrong with dark skin [sic].”
When we first heard that India Arie may have bleached her skin or used make up to lighten her look we were beyond devastated… and then we looked at the promo picture for ourselves.
Honestly, it seems like this was a major over reaction.
While she certainly does look a little lighter in the picture, it doesn’t look like anything more than lighting was the problem – if you even chose to call it a problem.
Some people admit that the lighting was the only thing that made her look lighter but still bash the songstress for using the promo since she looked so light. Excuse me?
India Arie promotes loving your skin, no matter what shade it is or what light it’s under. What are these critics proposing she should do?
Should she put darker makeup on her skin in order to make her look darker under the light? Isn’t that still just as hypocritical as if she really had lightened her skin?
She looks fabulous in the promo and she would have still looked fabulous no matter if she was darker, lighter, purple, or tie-dye.
So lets get back to what really matters. A strong independent black woman with a positive message is putting her voice back into the music industry and we’re ready to hear more.
Check out her new single “Cocoa Butter” below:
