The city of angels takes a less heavenly depiction through Coco Jones’ eyes. The glitz and glamor are part of a façade, and the hustle of Hollywood isn’t like she thought it would be growing up. In just over two minutes, Coco Jones sums up her experience trying to break into the entertainment industry as a Black woman in her new song Hollyweird.
The single dropped last week after she took the internet by storm with her candid YouTube livestream titled What Really Happened, a video collecting 1.2 million views. In the livestream back in September, she catches her viewers and fans up to speed with what happened after her last big project, Let It Shine.
What she shared was less than surprising for many BIPOC artists.
In the video, she talked about how Disney limited her voice as a singer, the colorism in film and television, and the consistent ways people in the entertainment industry tried to oversexualize her image.
“The colorism out here is crazy. Point blank period,” she said in the video. “Y’all already know it. Look at your favorite shows, do you see dark-skinned women? No.”
She elaborates further on the realities of Hollywood in Hollyweird. Her voice softly rests on each word with its rich tone, all while holding an endearing strength behind it. The story of coming to Hollywood to have all her dreams and aspirations diverted by racism and misogyny pushes the song forward. Cymbals tatter over accented snares in a subtle trap beat that accompanies her story, never overpowering the message.
“City of angels is devils just covered in diamonds,” Jones sings in Hollyweird.
After her livestream and song released, her previous singles take on a new meaning. During her livestream, she explains that one of her first singles of her career, Holla at the DJ, had just as much push back and cemented her fight to make it in the music industry. Guided by Disney at the age of 14, she was told to go in musical directions that didn’t fit her style. In 2018, her single Just My Luck proved the pressure was getting to her.
“What you want from me?” she sings in the single. “Is my melanin offensive?”
Her evolving career provides new insight to her life. Hollyweird properly reintroduces Jones to mainstream media after a year-long hiatus from music. She is also preparing for an album release in 2021. With her new popularity on TikTok, her audience is growing quickly, panning out for a successful launch. Not only because of her popularity, but because the music she is now releasing is unapologetically Coco Jones.
She concludes her livestream saying, “Everything that happened, I would do it again because I needed to be me.”
Hollyweird is now available on all streaming platforms.