Zayn Malik Raps About Facing Racism During One Direction Days in New Song Teaser

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As the only person of color in One Direction‘s lineup, Zayn Malik — who was the target of widespread racism and Islamophobia in the 2010s — had a very different experience in the public eye from his bandmates.

And in a teaser for an upcoming song posted Friday (July 4) on Instagram, the musician appears to address the discrimination he endured during his time with the group. Rapping over a sauntering hip-hop beat, Malik — who later posted the lyrics on his Instagram Story — spits, “Do you remember every conversation?/ ‘Cause I have been conscious of every connotation.”

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“I’m a convert to the concert, and I did that for inflation/ ‘Cause I worked hard in a white band, and they still laughed at the Asian,” he continues on the track, seemingly titled “Fuchsia Sea.” “If my granddad could go back, lad, there’s a fat chance of a backhand/ Just a young man with his own kid and a wife now, in a new land/ I know he dreamed hard, cause they’re my dreams/ And I grabbed hard with these two hands.”

Malik didn’t share when the song will arrive, but in text over the video, he wrote that it is “coming soon.”

The “white band” in question is presumably 1D, which Malik joined in 2010 with fellow X Factor auditioners Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Louis Tomlinson and the late Liam Payne. The original lineup released four albums before Malik announced his departure in 2015, after which the remaining four members released one more LP (Made in the A.M.) before going on an indefinite hiatus in 2016.

But as the group shot to fame at the beginning of the decade, the public was quick to project hateful narratives onto Malik, who was raised Muslim by a Pakistani father and English mother. At times, the internet was rife with offensive and baseless rhetoric about the musician supposedly being involved with the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks or joining ISIS, something he spoke about in a 2015 The Fader cover story.

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“I’m just a normal person as well as following my religion, and doing all the normal things that everybody else does,” he told the publication at the time. “I feel proud that people actually look to me and can see themselves in that … I always felt good that I was, like, first of my kind in what I was doing. I enjoyed that I brought the diversity.”

Malik last dropped music in 2024, unveiling album Room Under the Stairs and reaching No. 15 on the Billboard 200 that year. The LP also features a track titled “Fuchsia Sea” with different lyrics from the ones he posted on Friday.

Check out Malik’s “Fuchsia Sea” teaser below.

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