Nija Charles:
It's happened from day one. A lot of Black writers or producers go through this every day. Because we are Black and because they see us working with rappers or R&B singers, they do try to pigeonhole us. You'll go into a pop room, and let's say the people are working with someone like Justin Bieber or Gaga or an artist like that—the poppiest of the pop—and then they'll say, "I want to work on 21 Savage. I want to make a 21 Savage song today.
It definitely is hard, especially as a Black woman. And then also being a Black woman, they usually try to pigeonhole us to just R&B. That is hard enough in itself. Me being a writer, as much R&B as I have on my résumé, I also have hip-hop. So just going into a male-dominated room, it is hard to work around that and break out of any box, honestly, because as much as I'm Black, I am also a woman. There's a constant battle with both of those things.