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James Blake

Singer James Blake urged media to stop labeling him a 'sad boy' amid the male mental health crisis

“It is only ever a good thing to talk about what is on your mind.”

James Blake In Concert - Detroit Marc Nader Marc Nader

LAST WEEK, JAMES Blake released a brand new song entitled ‘Don’t Miss It’.

The 29-year-old’s new song was met not only with praise, but with headlines for reviews that read “Yes, James Blake is still sad.”

James wasn’t too impressed, and released a short statement on Twitter.

He wrote:

I’m overwhelmed by the lovely response to ‘Don’t Miss It’ today. But I can’t help but notice, as I do whenever I talk about my feelings in a song, that the words “sad boy” are used to describe it.

He said that he has always found that expression to be “unhealthy and problematic” when used to refer to men openly talking about their feelings.

To label it at all, when we don’t ever question women discussing the things they are struggling with, contributes to the ever disastrous historical stigmatisation of men expressing themselves emotionally.

Blake referred to the “epidemic of male depression and suicide”, and said:

We don’t need any further proof that we have hurt men with our questioning of their need to be vulnerable and open. It is only ever a good thing to talk about what is on your mind.

jamesblakeproduction / YouTube

The singer then added:

Please don’t allow people who fear their own feelings to ever subliminally shame you out of getting anything off your chest, or identifying with music that helps you. There is no great victory in machismo and bravado in the end. The road to mental health and happiness, which I feel so passionately about, is paved with honesty.

He also said that he was sorry that he had to write this letter, but he had “seen enough friends drown in this” and has suffered himself from bottling things up out of fear of appearing “weak or soft”.

I now see the great strength, and benefit for those around you in actually opening up.

British singer SOHN spotted James Blake’s tweet and wrote “Be well man.”

Meanwhile, James Blake’s fans defended him from Pitchfork, who had labeled James Blake as ‘sad’.

Calvin Harris simply said “Spot on.”

Tweet by @Calvin Harris Calvin Harris / Twitter Calvin Harris / Twitter / Twitter

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