Mathew Knowles got completely candid about colorism in the music industry during a guest appearance on SiriusXM’s The Clay Cane ShowOpens a New Window. 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.
Mathew, 67, is a visiting professor at Texas Southern University where his students examined colorism in the music industry. “In the music industry there’s still segregation,” he told host Clay Cane.
The former Destiny’s Child manager added, “Programmers, especially at pop radio, [have] this imagery of what beauty looks like. They wanted that imagery to be the same as singing those records.”
He used Whitney Houston as an example and claimed photographers “lightened her to make her look a lighter complexation.”
Mathew continued, “There’s a perception all around the world about color; even with black folks.”
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.”
