Time is supposed to heal all wounds, but even with his latest apology, Daniel Caesar finds that it may never be enough. The “Let Me Go” singer attempts to correct some of his past wrongs in his music and the media. During an interview to discuss his new album Never Enough with Apple Music, the songwriter spoke about his past controversial statements aimed at the Black community.
In conversation with journalist Nadeska Alexis, the musician took a moment to reflect on his 2019’s commentary regarding the Black community’s response to white social media influencer YesJulz distastefully joking about wanting to wear a graphic t-shirt that read, “N***** lie a lot.”
When asked by Nadeska what it is like looking back on that moment, he answered, “I completely understand the response.”
Caesar added, “And in time, after taking time to get over myself and to really honestly look at myself and everything that was happening, I was wrong. I was wrong, and I’m sorry about that. For a long time, I was like, ‘You can’t do anything, you can’t say anything without whatever. You can do and say whatever you want, but it’s like for every action, there’s an equal and opposite reaction. And that’s physics. That’s science. That’s one of those things that the knowledge of that can literally put my mind at ease where I’m like, oh, I did deserve. What happened, happened because I deserved it, because I knocked the domino over and set a course in motion.”
This was a complete about-face from his initial apology, and he also pointed that out, “You learn not to trust what people on the internet have to say and what people that you don’t know have to say,” he said. “Seeing that people that I do know that I care about, them being hurt, then it’s like, ‘ah, damn, all right.’ I was like, ‘okay, you know me.’ It’s because it’s seeing that people that know me, because I felt in my— Clearly my ego is going out of control,” said Caesar.
Fans took to social media to react to what they consider to be his first official “proper” apology since the matter. See some of the responses below.
i was never upset with him lol. terrible people get spins and unwavering support every day. he’s not a bad person and he’s an excellent artist so daniel caesar is good in my book 🤷🏾♀️
— ladidai 📣 follow @heyhearusout (@ladidaix) April 8, 2023
The way he said “I don’t want to hurt anybody” really felt real. He doesn’t try and cause harm
— I’m a LORD… really (@GPCarlo101) April 8, 2023
so we back publicly supporting Daniel Caesar? ….because I was never about to pretend he wasn’t still getting streams from me lmfao pic.twitter.com/a5t240xGNq
— Yan Snead (@YanSnead) April 7, 2023
Nah, he said he didn’t want us buying or streaming his music. I’ll stay on that side. ✌🏾
— Nikki. (@bawgy33) April 8, 2023
It’s a convenient time to apologize when Daniel Caesar dropped music on YouTube.
The thing with these apologies is if they were genuine, he’d interrogate his internalized anti-Blackness and compulsion to be protect racist WW from criticism. https://t.co/FvWSYLquVX
— Ola Ojewumi (@Olas_Truth) April 9, 2023
Watch the full interview above.
Never Enough is out now via Republic. Find more information here.