Tory Lanez is calling out colorism in the music industry after experiencing a tough moment on the set of a new music video he was shooting. The Canadian artist alleged that the directors attempted to swap out a woman with a darker complexion for a model of a lighter skin tone.
The video shoot was apparently for Nafe Smallz’s “Good Love” video. In a BTS clip that Lanez shared on Instagram on Sunday (June 17), the rapper appeared to be performing alongside a black woman. During their take, the video crew appeared to motion for another woman – who was noticeably lighter than the current stand-in – to enter the shoot. Lanez then appeared to stop the shoot, saying “she’s already here… you look great though.”
In his caption, Lanez highlighted the music industry’s flaws and the continued problem with colorism. “This is an On-Going problem in our community of entertainment that needs to stop. As a black man, Sometimes I’m going to joke about the black community just like we all do. BUT WHAT IM NOT GOING TO DO IS ALLOW ANY OF THESE DIRECTORS TO DE-VALUE OUR BLACK WOMEN,” he wrote. “Countless times I’ve seen directors swap out our women of color for women of lighter complexion, or women with straighter hair ETC. … IT IS OUR RESPONSIBILITY AS ARTIST TO STAND UP AND NOT LET THIS HAPPEN .. it’s BEEN time to embrace our woman of color.”
Despite Lanez’s initial account of the situation, DJ Akademiks posted a series of Instagrams that refuted the rapper’s claims. “The women who were in the #torylanez video and also the directors are claiming it didn’t go down the way Tory described it on Instagram,” he wrote. One of the women also reported that Lanez staged the video to “to make it appear as if it had something to do with race.”
It’s unclear who is telling the correct version of the story at this time. Lanez has not commented on DJ Akademik’s claims. See Lanez’s post below.