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DaniLeigh at Universal Music Group 2020 Grammy After Party

Source: Gregg DeGuire / Getty

Singer DaniLeigh received a lot of backlash on Thursday (Jan. 21) for releasing a song celebrating “light skin baddies.” Twitter users seemed very confused about the lyrics of her song, “Yellow Bone,” which includes the singer referring to herself as such in regards to her skin tone. Some even think that the song was an attempt at throwing shade toward her boyfriend DaBaby’s ex, MeMe, who is a Black woman of a darker complexion.

In a now-deleted Instagram video, DaniLeigh shared a preview of the song where she is seen sitting in a chair getting her hair done, dancing to the tune. Her caption read, “YELLOW BONE THATS WHAT HE WANT 👑  🌼  🍋 🚧  💛 .”

Power 106 LA shared a clip they grabbed of the video before the singer took it down. Below in the comments, along with some emojis from DaBaby, DaniLeigh seemingly responded on Instagram to some of the reactions over the video. The singer wrote, “Why can’t I make a song for all my light skin baddies ?? Why y’all think I’m hating on other colors where there are millions of songs speaking on all types.. why y’all sensitive and take it personal .. gahhhh d*mn.”

Along with people trashing the song just from a musical standpoint, Twitter users were quick to pull out some receipts on DaniLeigh, and question what her intentions were in making the song. Many users felt the song had a colorist tone, saying her lyrics perpetuate the fetishization of light-skinned women through promoting the idea that they’re prettier, better than, or more desirable than other Black women of a deeper complexion.

User @TeaTimeTips2 resurfaced one of the singer’s tweets from last summer where she previously identified herself as a non-black Dominican. Speaking on the protests surrounding the death of George Floyd, DaniLeigh said, “I’m Dominican and have grown up with the influence of black friends, culture and music. we stand in unity and love …stop separation and let’s all fight together with our voices #GEORGEFLOYD I say your name !!” Meanwhile, another user posted screenshots of some more of DaniLeigh’s past posts, including a photo of her parents, a screenshot of her ancestry, and one where she referred to herself as “what a n*gga prays for.”

In a series of now-deleted tweets, DaniLeigh addressed the hate she was receiving again. In addition to giving a really bad attempt at an apology, she also said that users typing away from their computer screens didn’t know the real her or her reasons behind making the song.

“Congratulations y’all gotta another thing to say about me when u hate … 👍🏽  it’s all good .. only God can ‘cancel’ me… that sh*t don’t mean sh*t to me bc the people around me are the ones that know my heart and intention and real life … I’m sorry if I offended u .”

She went on to tell detractors, “Ima keep letting God bless me .. while y’all sit back and judge me && sit behind y’all lil phones and type sh*t about another woman .. y’all all HATERS” and “I’m Dominican… I’m Spanish , I’m black I’m white .. leave me alone .”

Even though this isn’t the first time MeMe has crossed paths with DaniLeigh online, DaBaby’s ex, and the mother of his daughter, took to her own social media to address DaniLeigh’s clownery. After saying “Lmfaooo I’m gone , 😭 😭 😭  I ain’t gone dooooooo it 😂 😂 ,” she also encouraged people to listen to “some real playa sh*t” instead, including her own music.

All things considered, it’s clear that many things are wrong with “Yellow Bone” and DaniLeigh’s attitude towards the valid judgments over it. Obviously, it’s wrong that she put out a song fetishizing light-skinned Black women, especially when she herself isn’t really Black. If the song was really supposed to be a dig at MeMe as people think, it’s disappointing that she would use colorism as a tool to jab one of the mothers of her boyfriend’s kids. For her to be posting about being in solidarity with the Black community as a Dominican woman only a few months ago, just to play around in this light-skin black woman persona now when Black people are continuing to be harmed by racism regardless of their skin tone, is really disturbing.

Even if one wanted to play devil’s advocate and defend DaniLeigh by saying, “Maybe it’s possible she released the song without knowing the harmful stereotypes it promotes,” from the way she addressed the backlash, it seems as though she wasn’t even absorbing the criticism being pointed her way regarding why the idea of the song was problematic to begin with. Also, she didn’t even genuinely seem sorry about making the song, or putting it out there. As many pointed out, it’s sad to see another non-black woman feel emboldened and entitled to be problematic, just because they have a Black boyfriend.

Click through some of the best reactions to DaniLeigh’s song from Twitter below:

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