Thoughts: Pharrell Uses A Dark Skinned Girl For “Marilyn Monroe” Cover

You may remember the backlash Pharrell received when he released his album G I R L and there was no sign of a black woman on the cover — or at least that’s what protestors thought when they took to social media to criticize his choice to not involve black women. Pharrell fired back saying that there not only was a black woman on his cover, but that he was disappointed in the way black women reacted, seeing as how his business is run by a black woman, his wife is a black woman, etc. 

Today, Pharrell drops his new video/single “Marilyn Monroe” and low and behold, a black woman is on the cover artwork. Not only is she obviously black, but she is dark skinned. This leads me to wonder, was this Pharrell’s choice or did he feel he needed to appease those who criticized his album cover. Secondly, will they be satisfied or feel that he wasn’t genuine.

Let’s get one thing straight, regardless of who’s choice it is, the girl on the cover(Khadija Nicholas)is simply gorgeous and she actually favors Marilyn Monroe a bit too. Now, if Pharrell did this simply to appease the naysayers, I feel like he shouldn’t have had to. Pharrell has included black women in several of his music videos, even giving dark skinned women lead roles, I don’t see why he would need to justify his album artwork to any one of us. I feel like him doing this for “them” not only puts a bandaid on an issue from women that will never be satisfied, but goes against his entire rant about not wanting to apologize because he did nothing wrong.

What are your thoughts? In the mean time, you can watch the video for “Marilyn Monroe” below.