The multitalented Keke Palmer said it’s time to put a magnifying glass on the mistreatment of female artists within the music industry. On Friday, Palmer released her 10-track visual album, Big Boss, exclusively on her platform, KeyTV Network, which also marks her directorial debut. The film showcases her journey of how she learned to embrace the skin she’s in and how she evolved into the woman fans see and love today. Her story also exposes the experiences she’s had with misogyny while pursuing a singing career in a male-dominated industry.
“Bad s**t happens in all industries, obviously, but specifically entertainment,” she said to People magazine in a recent interview. “We know bad things happen in all of them, but it’s almost like the acting world represents a union and the music industry represents non-union.”
The new mother said the #MeToo movement needs to extend to the music industry, not just Hollywood, since most female artists have endured some form of disrespect.
“It’s happening in the actor world but eventually, it’s going to come to a damn halt. Somebody’s going to get called out. Something’s going to happen,” she said. “At some point, we’re going to come to some kind of understanding. With music, it’s like everybody is being paid, and everybody’s a crooked cop. So, it seems like nothing will ever really come to a head.”
Palmer’s recent remarks aren’t the first time the 29-year-old multi-hyphenate has highlighted this issue. She got candid about how isolating of a feeling it can be for women during an exclusive interview with Blavity in March, when Big Boss premiered and streamed on Amazon Music for a limited time.
“It was like I’m alone because the people that I’m trying to get support from don’t respect me, they don’t see me. We [women] all are in that same kind of boat trying to figure out how we are supposed to maneuver in a world like this,” she said at the time. “Whether they’re in suits or whether they’re in the studio or whether we’re in the club, it’s kind of like this world does not make it easy for us to be respected or to be seen outside of just being a vagina. That was a part of my experience, and I don’t think I’m alone in that.”
Check out a snippet of Palmer’s Big Boss project below:
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