16 Racially Ambiguous People Who Successfully Pass For Black

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Bruno Mars

Bruno Mars, whose real name is Peter Gene Hernandez, released his debut album Doo-Wops & Hooligans in 2010. The following year he received a BET Awards nomination for Best New Artist. Mars has cited some of his musical influences as Michael Jackson, The Isley Brothers, and The Temptations. Mars’ father is of half Puerto Rican and half Jewish (from Hungary and Ukraine) descent while his mother immigrated to Hawaii from the Philippines as a child. He has received four BET Awards, three BET Hip Hop Awards, seven NAACP Image Awards and four Soul Train Music Awards nominations over his career.

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M.I.A

Musician M.I.A, real name Mathangi “Maya” Arulpragasam, received her official welcome into hip hop when rapper T.I sampled the vocals from her hit song “Paper Planes” in 2008.  Adam Bradley and Andrew DuBois describes M.I.A in “The Anthology of Rap” as an “unlikely hip hop” celebrity. M.I.A’s mother and father are both from Sri Lanka. She has received two BET Awards nomination.

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