Jameela Jamil has hit out at critics who claim that she didn’t work on boyfriend James Blake’s new album.
The actor and activist is credited as a producer on nine of the 12 tracks on Friends That Break Your Heart, which was released on Friday (8 October). You can read The Independent’s review of the album here.
In a tweet posted on Saturday (9 October), Jamil, who has been in a relationship with Blake since 2015, shared her frustration at fans who didn’t believe she was actually involved in the album’s production.
“A lot of mostly women insisting I couldn’t possibly have actually worked on my boyfriend’s music, and that he must have just credited me to be nice… I was a DJ for 8 years, and studied music for 6 years before that,” Jamil tweeted, adding that the comments were “part of the problem of why women don’t pursue producing”.
On Instagram, The Good Place star doubled down on her stance, saying that she’d faced similar criticism for her work on Blake’s previous albums.
“Man. James had to fight me to take credit on this album because I was so Preemptively sick of the internet,” she wrote. “An additional hilarious side to this misogyny is that they only don’t believe in my musical input when they love the songs. If they don’t like a song then suddenly I CAN produce and it’s all my fault, and I produced the whole thing alone!”
Jamil told her fans: “I hope you’re taking credit for your work wherever you are in the world right now. I hope you know that if you’re not being believed over your achievements… that it’s not a reflection of you… it’s a reflection of people who are so underachieving, cowardly and insecure that they can’t fathom that you could be impressive.
“It happens at every level in every industry. Even to me. Even when I don’t credit myself, my boyfriend just quietly credited me. We are in this s*** together. Representation matters. It is not our responsibility to be believed, liked, understood or approved of.”
Friends That Break Your Heart is out now
