Willow Smith has said her mother Jada faced death threats when she was younger as a Black artist making heavy metal music.
The Meet Me At Our Spot hitmaker has followed in her mother’s footsteps to pursue a career in music, but pointed out the horrific obstacles Jada faced.
Jada formed the nu metal band Wicked Wisdom in 2002. They supported Britney spears on various dates on her Onyx Hotel tour, and performed at Ozzy Osbourne’s Ozzfest.
Speaking about her mum, Willow said: ‘Oh, my goodness. She was getting death threats. It was a crazy amount of stuff going on.
‘I remember being like, “Yo! People are really upset about this, they’re mad that a Black woman wants to do metal and is in the space.” Like that was activism.’
Willow added to Glamour that when she showed interest in making a rock album, she felt ‘pushback’.
The 21-year-old has been absolutely smashing it, recently performing an epic set at Reading festival and giving us full pop-punk.
Meanwhile, she also recently spoke out on her famous family after Will Smith captured international attention when he slapped Chris Rock at the Oscars.
Daughter Willow now says she viewed it as a ‘human’ reaction, and says because of her family’s celebrity status she thinks they sometimes aren’t viewed as such.
In an interview with Billboard, the musician said: ‘I see my whole family as being human, and I love and accept them for all their humanness.
‘Because of the position that we’re in, our humanness sometimes isn’t accepted, and we’re expected to act in a way that isn’t conducive to a healthy human life and isn’t conducive to being honest.’
Will, 53, later reached out to Chris in a lengthy apology video where he stated he had tried to get in touch with the comedian but had been told he ‘wasn’t ready’ to talk. (Metro)