R&B songstress and Dirty Money member Kalenna Harper is happy and blessed to be in a better place now in her career.
Before she became a part of Diddy’s recent group project, she had a few bumps in the road and it wasn’t because of her talent. Kalenna recently opened up to Scene and Heard TV in an interview detailing how her ‘dark skin tone’ prevented her from reaching her dreams.
Kalenna stated record execs didn’t think her skin color was marketable, opting them to close the door on her singing abilities.
“I kind of started off as a solo artist, and I was doing that for a very long time. And you know, just coming up against obstacles; they was like, you know, ‘you too black,’ or ‘you’re not marketable.’ Whatever they came up with in their minds to say that I wasn’t artist material, you know,” Kalenna says in the interview. Later adding, “The way they made it seem was, you black as night girl; you crispy, burnt black, and that’s just not marketable right now.”
Kalenna kept her positive attitude to make her own dreams come true, following in the footsteps of musicians that came before her.
“I just said I’m going to be a businesswoman, and I’m going to be like the Missy Elliotts, and the R. Kellys, and the Keith Sweats,” she stated. “I’m going to write for other artists, and they’re not going to have no other choice but to hear me, and to buy my music, and to respect me as an artist.”
Check the interview out from Scene and Heard TV
