Daniel Caesar addresses his controversial 2019 statement about black people.
In an interview with Apple Music 1, the Canadian singer-songwriter talked about the criticism he received for supporting his friend, YesJulz, despite her distasteful remarks about Scottie Beam and Karen Civil. Aside from the comments, YesJulz was also heavily criticized for tweeting a photo with the phrase “N*ggas lie a lot.” In addition, she also asked her followers if it would be appropriate for her to wear it at a festival.
Of course, YesJulz faced backlash for her statements with Caesar taking to Instagram to defend his friend. During the live-streamed video, the singer admitted that he was under the influence of alcohol and joked that he was “trying to get canceled.”
“I completely understand the response,” Caesar said in his interview. “And in time, after taking time to get over myself and to really honestly look at myself and everything that was happening, I was wrong. I was wrong, and I’m sorry about that. For a long time, I was like, ‘You can’t do anything, you can’t say anything without whatever.’
The interviewer then mentioned the reason Black women were angry with him was because he was defending someone who they felt had appropriated Black culture without showing any appreciation for it.
“Yeah, it’s really when I think about it, it was like, ‘Yeah, it was the perfect storm, honestly.’ I just mean it’s kind of crazy how awful that was,” he said. “Throughout the process in the last few years it was so often, it’s like, ‘so that was a mistake.’”
He continued, “So either we stop playing the game or we keep playing the game. Those are my only options. It’s like people every day, you wake up and they’re like, ‘You should kill yourself.’ It’s like, ‘Alright, I’m going to kill myself’ or ‘I’m going to keep going.’”
Nevertheless, Caesar says he is putting his focus on music. In fact on Friday, the singer released his latest album “Never Enough.” The album features singles “Let Me Go,” “Valentina,” “Unstoppable,” and the Raphael Saadiq-produced “Do You Like Me?”
