6lack Is Nominated For An iHeartRadio Award & Here's How To Say His Name
6lack is up for Best New R&B Artist at the iHeartRadio Music Awards, which will take place on Sunday, March 11, at the historic Forum in Los Angeles. It's a seriously tough category this year. The singer will be up against Kehlani, Kevin Ross, Khalid, and SZA (who is favored to win). But there is one burning question I know you probably want the answer to, so here's how to pronounce 6lack, in case you were wondering. Because I know I definitely was!
The 25-year-old Atlanta singer blew up in November 2016 when his debut album, Free 6LACK, was released and hit number five on the Billboard rap charts. OK, so here's how you don't pronounce his name: It's not "six-black" or "six-lack" or "slack." It's just simply, "black." I guess that's kind of cool since the six at the beginning sort of looks like a lowercase "b," right? I mean, I totally get what he was going for here. But meanwhile, 6lack's fans were are all kinds of confused, so the singer took to Twitter to try and set the record straight. "Pronounced black," is all it says in his Twitter bio. So brilliant. He even asked his fans for a little help spreading the word:
Will do, sir. Oh, and in case there was any remaining doubt, 6lack also retweeted this pic from Chad Johnson of Bachelorette and Bachelor in Paradise fame wearing a "6lack Pronounced Black" shirt.
So dope. But now I have so many questions. Are these two friends? And where can I get one of these bad boys? Although TBH, I still have a hard time saying "black" instead of "six-black." My mind just gets all caught up in that numeral six at the beginning, you know? And apparently, I'm not the only one.
Me freaking too.
But whatever you call him, it's clear 6lack is having a moment. He was nominated for two Grammys in 2018, he's signed on to perform at Coachella in April, and he released his new single — a breakup song called "Cutting Ties" — on Valentine's Day to rave reviews.
"It's been awhile," he shared in a Twitter update on Nov. 8, written from an Airbnb in Utah. "Crazy to think that so much has happened in my life in just two years. From homeless to never home. From broke to can't stay out the Gucci store. From always alone to surrounded by people. From floatin kid to responsible a*s father — a lot has changed. I find myself in my head now more than ever."
Pretty deep.
"You don"t make your dreams a reality only to get there and say 'this is perfect. I'm good here,'" he continued. "You mark it as a mission completed and then you set a new goal. Since FREE 6LACK, life has taught me a gang of new lessons. Some I’ve learned on my own slowly, some hit me like a ton of bricks; yet and still — I’ve never been more thankful.”
Such beautiful words. I love when an artist is not afraid to get real with his fans. 6lack also shared that he was postponing his upcoming European tour because he wanted to take time off to focus on being a father to his one-year-old daughter Syx. (Another 6!)
"I've missed being the father I always wanted to be to my daughter," he explained. "As many of you know, and for the some of you who don't, this year I was blessed to have a daughter named Syx. For the 8 months she's been alive, I have about 2 months of pieced together memories of us together... So I've made the decision that right now the music needs to be finished and I want to feel what it's like to be a dad."
Family over everything!
Tune in to watch the 2018 iHeartRadio Music Awards live on March 11 at 8 p.m. ET, 5 p.m. PT on TBS, TNT, and truTV, and on the iHeartRadio app.
