Love & Hip-Hop star Spice shocks fans by bleaching skin – but its a publicity stunt to denounce colourism
Dancehall star Spice has caused controversy by appearing to bleach her skin for the artwork for her new single.
The singer, real name Grace Hamilton, stunned fans when she deleted all of her Instagram pictures and uploaded a picture of herself with extremely lightened skin.
The Love & Hip-Hop: Atlanta star, who is from Jamaica, wore a blonde weave and a full face of make-up in the post, captioning it: Nothing wrong with a fresh start.
Fans were shocked by her appearance with one person writing: Spice whhhy???? please you were much more beautiful when you were Dark skinned, while other argued that the image was Photoshopped.
However, Spice later shared a video in which she still had lightened skin and wrote: Since the photo was photoshopped. How did i video shop this on snap chat?
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The singer addressed her new look during an Instagram live interview, explaining: So I have a song called Black Hypocrisy, where basically… as a black woman, Im mostly called black by my own race. I tried to please them, so Im going to see what they have to say now. Because of them, Ive changed my complexion a bit. Im just pleasing them, they asked for it so Im giving it to them.
Spices fans were heartbroken by the skin lightening and the message behind it, with model Leomie Anderson tweeting: Not going to lie, watching this video of Spice (iconic dancehall artist) on why she bleached her skin is sad. Shes saying that this is what her fans wanted…
Its a publicity stunt but the message is still sad.
Thankfully, Spice has not lightened her skin – her new single Black Hypocrisy is about colorism and how it affects young peoples self-esteem and pressures them into skin-bleaching.
On the song, Spice sings: I get hate from my own race, yes thats a fact, because the same black people say Im too black.
More: Music
Since you say Im too black for you, I please you, do I look how you want me to?
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Spice has been one of the biggest names in dancehall since the noughties, achieving worldwide success with songs including Romping Shop, So Mi Like It and Conjugal Visit.
This year, she joined the cast of Love & Hip-Hop: Atlanta, alongside stars including Karlie Redd, Stevie J and Erica Mena.
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