Illustration: Davide Barco for LEVEL

Black Users Made Clubhouse a Phenomenon — How Will the App Treat Them in Return?

The voice-chat social platform skyrocketed in popularity last fall, largely due to an influx of Black users. But we’ve heard this song before.

Keith Nelson Jr
Published in
16 min readMar 10, 2021

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Update 6/7/22: Level has a new home. You can read this article and other new articles by visiting LEVELMAN.com.

It was the night of December 8, and a group of Black users on Clubhouse were threatening a boycott.

Meezy, 21 Savage’s manager, had created a room on the voice-chat app expressly for that purpose; from its virtual “stage,” he proclaimed in his vehement rasp that he was willing to delete Clubhouse from his phone if the company didn’t act on his demand within 24 hours. Dozens of voices spoke up, pledging to follow his lead. Even legendary DJ Clue voiced his commitment to the cause, despite being in the middle of his radio show on New York’s Power 105.1. Voices crashed over one another. Emotions were running high.

Days earlier, producer Cardo Got Wings — best known for his work on the Drake song “God’s Plan” — had found his Clubhouse account suspended without warning. That suspension led Meezy to create the room, but it was also a symptom of something much larger. What the congregation really…

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Keith Nelson Jr
Keith Nelson Jr

Written by Keith Nelson Jr

Writer by fate, journalist by passion. Bylines at: REVOLT, Grammys.com, Discogs, Vibe Magazine, Okayplayer, REVERB, LEVEL Mag https://linktr.ee/KeithNelsonJr