How She Blew It – Her Career That Is
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Sparky48 — 14 years ago(March 14, 2012 06:42 AM)
The verbatim of her quote is as follows:
She was into gorillas. She married my father, and hes BLACK
The key words here are "he's black" If you can't see that this is a racial slur then you're either a fan girl in denial, delusional or just a flat-out retard.
Given what you've posted so far, I would go with the latter. -
Sparky48 — 14 years ago(March 15, 2012 10:07 AM)
Just like you just proved how incredibly STUPID you are by making that statement, being that you're black yourself.
Vanity was a racist, and you're a total idiot. Case closed.
"There are only two things that are infinitethe universe and human stupidity, and I'm not exactly sure about the former."
-Albert Einstein -
gluserty — 14 years ago(March 24, 2012 02:17 AM)
I think if Vanity was a non-black and made this comment, there would have been outrage. But since she made this comment somewhere between 1985/86, and her career didn't stall until about 1989, I don't think the comment affected her as much as her heavy crack use. Besides, she performed "Undress" live on "Soul Train" in 1988 (appeared live on Mtv featuring the same song that year also), and it seemed like the crowd enjoyed her.
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Sparky48 — 14 years ago(April 07, 2012 11:57 AM)
Believe me, outrage did break out after Vanity made her ignorant remark. I'm about the same age as Vanity, and I vividly remember. As I said earlier, many radio stations across the country ceased playing her records as a protest.
Yeah, I saw that Soul Train episode the other day. But you have to remember that dancers on shows like this are PAID to applaud and cheer the musical guests who appear. -
academas-177-729004 — 10 years ago(July 28, 2015 07:39 AM)
I hate the ways people use the word ignorant. How is she ignorant? She made a comment about her father who she didn't like. What do you know about him? Nothing! Which means you're ignorant to her situation with him. She's fully aware that she's half black. She wasn't talking about blacks, she was talking about her dad. And sorry, but a white guy can look like a gorilla too. Don't play the race card on the poor gorillas
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Sparky48 — 10 years ago(August 10, 2015 07:18 AM)
How is she ignorant?
For 98th time, this is the full context of Vanity's remark:
"She was into gorillas. She married my father, and
he's black
."
If I have to spell it out for you, what she's saying is that because her father is black that makes him a gorilla. If you can't see this as racist/ignorant comment, you're either stupid or a horny Vanity fan boy who's blinded by her sex appeal.
Here's an archived news account of it all:
http://books.google.com/books?id=2bMDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA58&lpg=PA58&dq=vanity+%2B+gorilla&source=bl&ots=sFA1QiLyLw&sig=MckY3DKXSC7o2i13P4obWtwEMJ8&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Mx76U6nZOI6MyASQloC4Bw&ved=0CGoQ6AEwDA#v=onepage&q=vanity %2B gorilla&f=false
"There are only two things that are infinite: the universe and human stupidity, and I'm sure about the former."
-Albert Einstein -
Ceephax — 9 years ago(June 08, 2016 06:25 PM)
Oh shut up Sparky48 you loser. You've been bitching about this for like 4 years now, lol. Get a b68life. I wanted to read this thread to see if there was any legit information on what happened to her and all I see is you just moaning about some racist remark she made on a talk show 30 years ago which for some reason really irks you, especially strange as that woman is now dead.
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HowYaLikeDemApplesWill — 13 years ago(November 28, 2012 06:53 AM)
"Vanity's only strength as an entertainer was her sex appeal. As such, she had created a strong following from brothers who adored her looks and became the bulk of her fan base. However, once word of her racist comment came out, it alienated black men for obvious reasons. As a result, they stopped supporting her, and her career fizzled out and deservedly so."
Hogwash. Prince's fan base was and is, multi-cultural, and probably majority white folk if1c84 you judge by who attends his shows.and you could say the same for Vanity.
To say that her career fizzled because she alienated her male black base of fan support, is just specualtion and no basis in fact.
She worked long after that interview, including some major motion pictures, and it is well-known that Denise became very religious and consciously decided to leave Hollyweird behind. -
Sparky48 — 13 years ago(November 28, 2012 07:31 AM)
"To say that her career fizzled because she alienated her male black base of fan support, is just speculation and no basis in fact."
Here are some facts:
From the early 80s to the mid 80s, Vanity, along with her group (Vanity 6), had major hits on the R&B charts. Tunes such as "Nasty Girl" (w/ Vanity 6)topped the R&B charts, and her solo records, such as "Pretty Mess" and "Under the Influence" became major R&B hits as well during the mid 80s.
However, after she made her crass remark in late '86, her record sales declined considerably, and Motown dropped her from the label. She subsequently signed with A&M Records and then with Geffen Records, but met minimal success with both labels. Shortly thereafter, during the late 80s, her recording career came to a demise.
Yes, Vanity did have some work in Hollywood after '86, because her exotic beauty enabled her to continue to get roles. But even then her career was soon relegated to B-movies and TV guest appearances, and I doubt it very seriously if her decision to leave "Hollyweird" was voluntary.
But her musical career crashed because of her ignorant remark and deservedly so. But don't take my word for it. Do your own research. -
HowYaLikeDemApplesWill — 13 years ago(November 28, 2012 07:59 AM)
You make valid pointsnow as Jules said, allow me to retort.
There were literally dozens (if not hundreds) of successful music acts from the early 80's, whose popularity "crashed" as the decade progressed. In fact, this is the "circle of life" in the music business.
So to directly tie Vanity's waning popularity to her insensitive and racially-perceived comment on a Joan Rivers talk show, again just doesn't make a compelling case to me. She was a beautiful woman who was a mediocre singer, who caught a star when she met Prince at the AMA's in the very early 80's, and parlayed that into her 15 minutes.
It is also well-known that Vanity was a serious crack addict in the mid-80's, so much so that she is now on dialysis for trashing her kidneys.
To be frank, her record sales were never "huge", so to say they declined considerably
after
her comments, is just unsupportable. Neither of her pre-comment solo albums that you referenced, got higher than #14 on the R&B charts, which as I'm sure you know at that time was a significantly smaller sub-set as far as sales went, compared to the overall Billboard sales charts.
b68 -
Sparky48 — 13 years ago(November 28, 2012 10:16 AM)
At the risk of being redundant, I will say again that several of Vanity songs made the top 30 of both the R&B and Dance charts before '86. But the records released after that, such as "Animals" and "Undress," did not chart at all. (Please refer to the chart at the bottomhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanity_%28performer%29)
Yes, Vanity never had any major hits on Billboard, but she was quite successful on the R&B and Dance charts prior to '86. It just so happens that for the most part these two charts reflect the African-American audience. True, success for most recording artists is short-term, but the abrupt decline of sales of her records speaks volumes to the change in attitude toward her.
I know about this situation largely from personal experience, because I was in my mid 20s when she made this racist statement. The16d0 following day after she appeared on the Joan River's show, everyone I personally knew was in uproar about the remark, and Donnie Simpson (a DJ of an R&B radio station in Wash D.C. where I reside) expressed his displeasure about the remark over the air, and vowed that he would never play her records ever again. Other DJs of black radio stations across the U.S. followed suit, and this coupled with the resentment of many of the black population, myself included, caused the sales of her records to decline considerably. And it really shouldn't take a rocket scientist to understand why.
But as Jules also said in "Pulp Fiction," "This is just where you and I differ my friend." So with that said, I'll say that we'll have to just agree to disagree and let it go at that. Peace out. -
HowYaLikeDemApplesWill — 13 years ago(November 28, 2012 10:26 AM)
Excellent retort, and that is the kind of civil discourse that SHOULD occur on message boards, iMDB and elsewhere.
btw, although I went to a so-called inner city HS that was about 80% black, and thus very much into the R&B scene of that timeat the end of the day, I'm a white guy and thus will have to defer to you on this topic.
On a side note: I know of Donnie Simpson well, as he used to host Video Soul on BET and I watched it often thru the 80's.