Transitioning from acting to singing is no easy task, but Danielle Brooks makes it look effortless. The Orange is The New Black actress released a new empowering track entitled "Black Woman" that will inspire everyone to be stronger in the toughest times, especially Black women.
In "Black Woman," Brooks starts criticizing the fetishization of Black women features. Women of other races want bigger lips, thighs and skin color without the hardships Black women face. Times can be tough for Black women, she admits in the song, but there is pride in being a "Nubian queen with the skin that glistens." While speaking to BuzzFeed, the actress said she created the song to unpack her journey in America. "So, I wrote this with two of my friends and one of them asked me if I could talk about anything I wanted to without a filter, what would that be?" She asked. "And, for me, it was the experience of being a Black woman. I decided to write this song, without any filters, of my journey as a Black woman in America. " The song, co-written and produced by She’s Gotta Have It actor Anthony Ramos and songwriter-producer Will Wells, is more than a Black girl magic power ballad. It serves as a reaffirmed truth that everyone wants to be Black until the times gets rough. Brooks takes the listener down memory lane sharing her past breakups and struggles with loving herself. She also shares the difficulty of dealing with a lack of representation of darker women in the media. "I want Black women to feel empowered by this song; I want them to feel on top of the world. I want them – when they're home, and they just had the worst day of their life, or just had the best day of their life – to play this song and feel like they could take over the world," she told BuzzFeed. Take a listen below to hear her powerful message: