Motown veteran Smokey Robinson is not happy with the film adaptation of “Dreamgirls,” which is based loosely on the rise of the Supremes under the stewardship of label founder Berry Gordy Jr.
Robinson says he is particularly disturbed by the Jamie Foxx character Curtis Taylor Jr., who is supposedly based on Gordy and engages in illegal payola to get his records on the air.
“Nobody was paying us,” Robinson told NPR’s Elizabeth Blair on “Morning Edition.” “So he (Gordy) borrowed $800 from his family’s fund and started Motown, so that we could be paid. And for him to be maligned and made out like this villainous character is very, very, very offensive to me.
“I am really kind of upset about it (“Dreamgirls”) because there’s a lot of false information in there, and millions of people are seeing it every day,” the singer added. He fears that today’s generation of R&B stars will have a diminished view of the Motown era because of the film.
“Motown is Beyonce’s heritage. Motown is Jamie Foxx’s heritage. Motown is Eddie Murphy’s heritage. You know what I mean?” Robinson said on the radio program. “They’re young black people. America should be proud of Motown because Motown made a statement all over the world that America could be proud of.”
