released the emotional new single “Even.” The song addressed the pair’s respective rise over the last few years. Chinouriri released her debut albumin May and enlisted actor Florence Pugh for the “Never Need Me” music video; Burns, meanwhile, hit No. 2 on theThe song speaks to the double standards Black artists are held to in the U.K. music industry, as well as the mislabeling of their releases.
“We are from a place where we have to work a hundred times harder than the average white guy, because people see as Black artists and just chuck us in the R&B space. It’s a cop-out,” Peace tellsagainst the categorization of his music as rap while collecting a Grammy Award and criticized the use of the ‘urban’ music category. There’ve been similar issues in the U.K. A 2021reported that 63% of Black music makers had faced racism in the U.K.
“On paper when you look at all the achievements you think ‘why would he complain?’”, Peace says. “I wouldn’t say I feel like an outsider in my scene, but do I feel like I’m held up the same way as certain bands or artists? Probably not.”