Who would’ve ever thought that Kino, the once-dreadlocked lead singer of Phantoms, would lighten his skin? Nowadays, Kino’s skin seems so much lighter than it was in Phantoms' heyday during the 1990s that  people are wondering if he is bleaching and, if so, why he would desire to attenuate his origins. Woyyy!

The practice of skin lightening, a very present custom among some Haitian women, may be crossing over to Haitian men too based on this development. King Kino seems to obtain the “desired” complexion, a vestige of colorism because according to some people lighter skinned races are treated differently, and this could mark a social elevation within the group to which they belong. ’Kino’s skin has followed a scale of tones for a couple years and his fans think that he is more handsome than the darker skin tone he had before. Woyyy!

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Ralph Delly is an award-winning music and entertainment journalist with extensive experience covering the Haitian Music Industry and the Haitian-American community. He has worked in Haiti and the United States at such media organizations as Radio Metropole, WNWK/107.5 FM, Radio Soleil d’Haïti and The Haitian Time – where he penned the popular “The Delly Dish” gossip column. Dellys has worked with numerous artists in the HMI, including Zin, Lakol, Phantoms, Zenglen, Sokute, Jam, See Well and 509 – to name a few. Delly graduated from Carlos Albizu University of Miami and City College of New York (CUNY)