“Blonde Hair” was the very first song I wrote for this album. I recorded it at my mother’s house not too long after I had officially chosen to become and stay a blond. Around this time, there were only a few people in the industry bold enough to have dyed their hair fully blond (Chris Brown, Elijah Blake, etc), but I had been experimenting with different hair colors since high school. Only this time, I’d found a color and style that felt right.

When I first dyed my hair blonde, I decided to delve a little deeper into some of the comments I’d seen online about black men who had done the same. Tons of homophobic slurs, effeminate accusations, and jokes flooded the internet…some even about me. It caused me to think about the stereotypes that we as black people will put on our own.

There was sense of weakness attributed to black men who don’t fit the typical hyper-masculinized depiction that surrounds other black men. I looked at myself and saw even more differences that would put me into that weak category. But I thought about how I’d never really fit in the past, so why try now?

Once I started writing the song, I started to notice how this aesthetic starting trending and more and more people were dying their hair blonde, using Torpedo Twist sponges to twist it up, and fading the sides with a 1 or 2 from the barbershop. Tumblr was rife with pictures of this style accompanied with various styles of dress and even became a main source of my own style ideas.

Now I’m tryna figure out if I’m even gonna stay blonde or switch it up again!