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The Black Lives Matter movement has helped shine a light on several areas of society where discrimination and prejudice exist beneath the surface, not least the music industry. Singer Fleur East, who rose to fame after coming second on the X Factor in 2014, and Grime rapper Lioness MC spoke to Woman's Hour to share their experiences of working in music...

"[In the past] no one would have an open conversation about racism in the music industry," says singer songwriter Fleur East. "But that’s what I’ve found fascinating since the Black Lives Matter conversation’s opened up, because you’re seeing everybody speaking up about this stuff. Misha B, Alexandra Burke, Leona Lewis, Leigh-Anne from Little Mix – they’re all going on their social media and openly sharing all their experiences.

"Now for me, and I’m sure for many other black artists in the industry, this isn’t new to us. This isn’t a surprise or shocking, it’s not groundbreaking, we’ve all experienced similar things - so for us it’s just like, 'Oh, okay, wow - we can talk about this now, this is cool now.'

"So we’re feeling empowered to share these stories, we're feeling more confident to share these stories, and I think it's really important that we do. Because the minute you hear one story, you realise, 'Okay, I'm not alone in this. This is a thing, it's real."

"We can't just go back to getting on with it," adds Lioness MC. "If there's something unjust that happens, we need to call it out immediately. I think we need to stop shying away from being the complainer. People are going to expect that from us, and that's fine because we have to talk about things that are unjust, or it's just going to continue to happen."

Lioness MC has been making Grime music for more than 10 years, but blames the way she was treated early on in the music industry as the reason behind a six-year hiatus from the career she loved.

She remembers a time someone told her she'd be "better" is she was lighter-skinned.

“At the time, I just was like, 'That's not a nice thing to say, I don't really like that.' I was 20 years old and I just thought, 'If that's what people think, that I would be better if I was light-skinned, well, I'm not.' So then I just stopped doing music. I stopped for about six years. And it's so mad, because the 30 year old me would be like, 'Why do you think that? Let's delve into this, why do you actually think that I would be better if I was light skinned?'

"It becomes about whether you're more marketable if you are light-skinned. And then why is that? And who was it that said that black dark-skinned females are not marketable? Or they won't sell?"

Fleur adds: "You get comments like, ‘Oh you’re so talented, honestly this country’s mad. If you were white, you’d be 10 times more successful.'

"That’s so frustrating to hear, because you kind of know there’s an element of truth to it, but you know it’s something you can’t prove, or even something you can really explain. The minute you even bring that up it’s like, ‘Oh you’re pulling out the race card, that’s nonsense.' And to be fair, there’s so many other elements that contribute to your success besides race, like being a female in the industry, timing, the platform you launch into the industry via."

Lioness says it was tough to make her mark in Grime initially, as the genre's so male-dominated.

"The men in the scene, they expect you to not be good because you’re just a girl," she says.

"Back in the day we used to go on pirate radio and get on the mic, and they wouldn’t give me the mic, as a girl. I’d have to get through the crowd and grab the mic and show my worth.

"I find it fun though because they expect me to be rubbish, so when I come through and I’m giving it some, they're like 'Uh?! What's this?!' And I like the fact that sometimes people expect me to be a singer, and I say ‘I’m actually rapping!'"

"When I was in a group there was me and another black girl who also had big afro hair," Fleur says, remembering her early days in the industry. "And the management team said, 'You're going to have to straighten yours. Because we can't have two black girls with big hair. One's enough.' And I was like, 'Huh?! Why can't we both have our big hair and why can't we both celebrate our big hair?'

"Then when I was on my own [as a solo artist], it would be comments like, 'It'll be sleeker, more appealing to the market, more marketable, you know? Your hair's a bit distracting, a bit unruly.' I was like, 'What do you mean? This is how it grows out of my head!'”

"Whenever you see other black artists, you don’t even have to open your mouth," says Fleur. "You just look at each other and go, ‘hmm’. It’s [been] an unspoken experience, but it’s shared, and everybody knows what’s going on."

"We've kind of been desensitised to it," adds Lioness MC. "Like this is the way it is so we just crack on with it.

"[Now] when you’re hearing everyone’s stories, it reminds you of your own stories. And I’ve been like, ‘Oh yeah, I forgot that happened!' Because you just get on with it - and it’s actually not right that we do that."

Listen to Fleur East. Lioness MC, and music journalist Jacqueline Springer talk to Olivia Cope for Woman’s Hour on Â鶹ԼÅÄ Sounds, where you can also listen to any of the episodes you may have missed. Follow us and join the conversation on or @bbcwomanshour.