Bobby Shmurda is facing backlash after he says he would sooner bleach his skin and migrate to Jamaica before he goes back to jail.
After a 7-year prison stint through which Bobby Shmurda remained relevant the entire time, the New York rapper has finally returned home. One of his first interviews after being released was with GQ magazine who published an exclusive and extensive take on what prison life was like for the rapper and how he feels about it now that he’s out. During his talk with the publication, the “Hot N***a” made a remark that a number of fans did not take kindly to.
Shmurda revealed that he “didn’t really care too much for” the music even while he had one of the biggest Billboard hits in the country in the summer of 2014. According to the rapper, it wasn’t until he was on the inside and started receiving fan mail that he had an epiphany and began to assume the responsibilities of a role model. The rapper took a call from Meek Mill during the interview, who agreed that it was then that he too would feel “embarrassed every time” reading letters from his fans while serving time.
Bobby Shmurda says a 6-year-old girl wrote him once when he was in solitary confinement and the memorable moment inspired a significant change to his mindset. “I didn’t really care too much for it until I went to jail and I seen how the fans were loyal,” said the rapper about the music. To that end, Bobby asserted, “I’m done with that [jail] sh*t.” However, to prove just how done he was, he drew for an analogy that left some West Indian fans feeling offended. “I’ll be light-skinned in Jamaica before I go back,” Shmurda told Meek Mill on the phone.
While some fans have taken the comment lightly, others are bashing the rapper for not considering how “sensitive” people are these days. In the comment section of the Shade Room post about Bobby’s comment, one fan said, “Bobby this ain’t 2014 society sensitive af now,” adding the laughing and crying emojis.
Fans appear to have come up with various interpretations of the rapper’s remarks, with some finding it more comedic than offensive. “So him a guh bleach out and hide out?” one fan wrote, suggesting that Bobby Shmurda was implying that he would sooner change his look and flee the country before going back to the big house. On the other side of the spectrum, some have interpreted the statement to mean a light-skinned person in Jamaica is a rare occurrence which is actually quite absurd to anyone in the know but perhaps viable to the oblivious. “That boy said he’ll be a shark that can walk upright before he go back,” one untaught fan commented.
Bobby Shmurda is actually a Jamaican-American rapper, so he likely knows more about the culture on the famous island than most of his fans. Only a decade ago, skin bleaching was a common topic of discussion after it was popularized by dancehall mogul Vybz Kartel before his incarceration. While it’s not as taboo as it used to be, there are still a firm set of people who do not care for it. Bobby could very well be inferred that he is against the idea of bleaching his skin and used his conviction to drive the point that he would still rather that than go back to jail.
These days, much of what social media propagates is a far cry from what the artists truly mean with their statements. At the end of the day, we could come up with a dozen interpretations like it’s abstract art, but it won’t change the true meaning behind the words. Sometimes it really is as simple as it sounds but the free space to be vocal on social networks can cause us to overlook that and inject our own ideas. Maybe Bobby was really just saying he would rather switch things up and disguise himself as a light-skinned man (as he is currently dark-skinned) in a different country.
Based on Bobby Shmurda’s remarks and the reactions that ensued, do you think the rapper needs to get it together, or his fans do?
