LisaRaye defends DaniLeigh amidst ‘Yellow Bone’ controversy, then quickly takes it back

‘The Players Club’ actress at first defended the singer, then backtracked

Dominican R&B singer DaniLeigh has been in hot water lately after sharing a snippet of her track, “Yellow Bone” on social media. Now Hollywood veteran LisaRaye McCoy has come to her defense.

READ MORE: What the DaniLeigh controversy reveals about the ‘desirability hierarchy’

During a clip for the latest installment of Fox Soul’s Cocktails with Queens, McCoy and her co-hosts Claudia Jordan, Vivica A. Fox, and Syleena Johnson, unpacked the heated debate about colorism which was sparked from the song which is allegedly meant to be an anthem celebrating lighter-skinned Black women.

The actress pointed out the warm reception that songs like India.Arie’s song “Brown Skin” have received, wondering aloud what the issue would be with DaniLeigh opting to do the same.

“I’m light skin, I’m a redbone, I’m a yellow bone, I’m boney,” she playfully quipped. “I think that you know, India.Arie, ‘Brown skin, you know I love your brown skin,’ — I’ve heard women and men talk about what they have, because I guess, and you can contest to this, that you’ve got to start inward with what you all sing about.”

She continued, “Meaning what your experience is, what you have gone through, and whatever. For her to celebrate her skin, I don’t think that there’s anything wrong with that. I do think that just because it’s Black Lives Matter, is it that Black lives matter because we’re talking about dark skin, Black lives matter? Or light skin and cappuccino and caramel and expresso and all of that.”

But co-host Fox felt the singer had made a mistake that could potentially have an adverse impact on her career, warning, “I think she totally blew it. And I’m going to keep that 100% real being that I’m a person that dated a rapper back in the day.”

“She did that to get back at that baby mama, and to throw that in her face and it absolutely backfired on her,” Fox said, echoing the people who believe the song was meant to take a dig at Meme, the ex-girlfriend of rapper DaBaby — who is darker-skinned. The two women have reportedly been in a love triangle for the past year, and fans have speculated DaniLeigh was sending a not-so-subtle message to the other woman that she’s more his type due to her lighter complexion.

“And then to say ‘I dated a whole Black man,’ this, that, and the third, young lady, be careful,” Fox continued. “Because I’m going to tell you something. If he goes back to that baby mama, he’s going to write a song about you, his artist is going to write a song about you, his baby mama is going to write a song about you, everybody’s going to write a song about you.

Be careful. It was not the place for you to go with that whole colorism and the baby — no. I had to keep that real, guys. Let me tell you something. When you get on them rappers’ bad sides, baby! When I’m telling you — you know I know! And I’m keeping it real! And that’s why I was like ‘Aye baby, go on and get up out of there’ because I know. Imma tell you she did that, to — she was like ‘I got him, I won’ and da da da, and that’s fine now, you know.”

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After hearing all the other ladies share their thoughts, McCoy backtracked, exclaiming “I take back everything I said!”

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