Leon Bridges told HMV.com that he's very proud of this song. He explained: "I wrote that about my ex-girlfriend, but the song can be applied to all the girls of color. It's important for me to shine light on them."
Despite the critical and commercial success of Coming Home, Bridges failed to target his own demographic - the young black crowd - who thought his style of retro soul music wasn't "black enough." It was particularly disheartening to see a sea of white faces during a tune like "Brown Skin Girl." The singer told GQ: "It's uncomfortable live to look out into the crowd, and during my song 'Brown Skin Girl' - that's part of my patter, the whole thing is like, 'Where's my Brown Skin Girls at?' - and... there aren't any."
Bridges on the universality of songs from the album (Interview magazine): "Those songs come from such a specific time in my life, but now they're on a bigger scale. You look at 'Brown Skin Girl' which can be applied to all girls of color. I wrote it because of my ex-girlfriend, but when I get up onstage, while it's still a personal song, I look at it as art more than anything else. I can connect with the crowd, even on songs like 'Lisa Sawyer,' which is about my mom, because people can look at that and think, 'I love my mother too.'"
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