Dawn Robinson Speaks on 3 Years of Homelessness

Source: Vinnie Zuffante / Getty

Dawn Robinson the voice behind some of the most timeless R&B harmonies En Vogue—just dropped a bombshell: she’s been living in her car for three years. And not in a down-bad, woe-is-me kind of way, but in a this is just my reality kind of way. The question is: how does a legend, a woman whose voice defined an era, end up like this? And more importantly, why does the Black community keep letting its OGs fall through the cracks?

In a candid video blog, the Grammy-nominated singer revealed that she’s been calling her car home since 2020. While she didn’t go deep into the specifics, she mentioned that after moving in with her parents in Las Vegas, tensions with her mother pushed her to seek shelter in her vehicle. For a brief moment, a former co-manager stepped in, renting her a hotel in Los Angeles for eight months. But when it came time to secure a stable home, she was back to square one—her car. By March 2022, she was fully back to living on four wheels.

How is it that someone who helped shape the sound of the ‘90s—who gave us classics, sold millions of records, and paved the way for today’s R&B divas—ends up with nowhere to go? And before you hit the comments talking about “bad financial decisions” or “mismanaging money,” let’s be real: the music industry has a long history of using Black artists, wringing them dry, and then leaving them to fend for themselves. Labels have profited off Black talent for decades, and yet, time and time again, we see our legends struggling to make ends meet while their music continues to make millions for someone else.

We saw it with TLC, we saw it with New Edition, and we’re seeing it now with Dawn. So, at what point does the community step in? At what point do we stop letting our icons fade into obscurity—or worse, poverty—while their legacies continue to thrive? Dawn Robinson isn’t the first and, sadly, won’t be the last. But it’s past time we ask: what are we doing to protect the people who gave us so much?

Because if the answer is nothing, we have to come up with a better game plan.

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