Promotional posters for I Think I Spoke Too Soon, the second studio album from British singer-songwriter Rachel Chinouriri, were plastered around London in the weeks leading up the record’s Oct. 16 release. In a viral post from a since-deleted or suspended X account, an embittered fan tore the ads down to reveal the poster underneath it: promotion for the Adéla single “Ain’t in LA,” which read, “The Baddest Bitches Are in London.”
Returning from a brief social media hiatus, Adéla revived the conversation with an Instagram post defending Chinouriri and encouraging fans to be more respectful of other artists. “Came across this way too late but u guys this is so fucking ass,” she wrote. “Please don’t do this. Don’t take ppl’s posters down. Promotion costs money, Rachel’s posters cost money, they deserve to be up and seen.”
Adéla also added that “it’s alr hard enough to make sure ur art gets out there & is heard… ESPECIALLY as a Black woman.” The fan who proudly recorded and shared a video tearing down the posters from I Think I Spoke Too Soon captioned the post, “That one time I tore down the Rachel Chinouriri poster to take pics w the Adela one but left Tyla’s one up cos she tanked.” Other fans were quick to highlight seemingly recurring threads of anti-Blackness within Adéla’s fast-growing fandom.
Chinouriri addressed the original video shortly after it was uploaded. “Hey so this isn’t okay,” she wrote on X in a direct quote response to the post. “It’s tough enough for black artists in pop to get exposure but ripping down a poster I paid a lot of money and put 10 years of hard work convincing people I’m good enough for this marketing…is just quite mean and makes me pretty sad right now 🙁 … especially because you’re ripping down a poster just to take a picture next to another poster?? atleast try and keep the poster?”
On her private TikTok account, Chinouriri went into more detail and explained why she was confused that the fan tore down her promotional material.
“I’ve had to put so much forward to pay for so many of my own things. But it’s just ’cause I want to do well and I’ve tried to go above and beyond for this album, ’cause I think it’s a really awesome album,” she said. “You can say you hate my music, you can say you hate the singles, you can say you’re not interested in me, you can say all those things and actually that’s fine. I can just close my eyes. But ripping down all of my posters that I’ve paid for to hope that more people can discover my music is a little bit crazy. It’s kind of mean and this kind of a bit sad.”
She added, “I also feel sad for you that that’s the attention that you’re enjoying. Like, I’m imagining the people walking down the street watching you just rip this shit down and the looks you were getting. And then for you to get your mate to record it and then post it online and then see what reaction you got. I’ve seen it, babes. You put my full name on there. Like, I’ve seen it. This is my reaction. This Is my response, and I don’t know what more you want me to say.”
