Mathew Knowles had a real conversation about colorism in the music industry during a guest appearance on SiriusXM’s The Clay Cane Show on June 18. During the interview, he claimed his daughter Beyoncé benefitted from having a lighter skin tone than Destiny’s Child bandmate Kelly Rowland. He claimed her skin tone allowed her to achieve more success. "In the music industry, there's still segregation, as you know," Knowles said. "There used to be the black division, race records, and programmers, especially at pop radio, has this imagery of what beauty looks like. They wanted that imagery to be the same that's singing those records. If you look back, even like Whitney Houston, if you look at those photos, how they lighten her to make her look lighter complexion because there's a perception in colorism…the lighter you are, the smarter, the more economically… all around the world about color, even with black folks, there's a perception." Clay asked Mathew if he thought Beyoncé benefitted from her skin tone. Her father responded, “I think if she would have had darker skin – I think it would have affected her success.” "And I use Kelly Rowland as an example. She's a great example. But you know, the great thing is Kelly did exceptional outside of America, especially in Australia. Kelly sold over four million records. She just got off script." Listen to Matthew Knowles' comments on "The Clay Cane Show"
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