Kali Uchis Mistakenly Called Out Sleep Token For Blackface

Kali Uchis covered Sleep Token frontman Vessel in a now-deleted Instagram story after mistaking the band’s corpse paint for blackface.

Sleep Token’s massive chart success has apparently confused more than a few casual listeners, including Grammy winner Kali Uchis. The artist faced criticism last week after covering up the band’s name and image in a Billboard chart she shared to her Instagram stories.

Uchis, who was celebrating her own appearance at #4 on the Billboard Artist 100, shared a screenshot of the chart but covered Sleep Token, who were in the top spot following the release of their new album Even In Arcadia. She placed a white heart emoji over both the band’s name and a press image of their masked frontman Vessel.

A fan called out the omission on TikTok, writing: “Imagine being so petty that you censor the #1 band on an IG Story, Sleep Token is better.” Uchis responded bluntly: “To be honest I didn’t feel comfortable posting a photo of someone in black face it really wasn’t deeper than that, doll.”

That comment triggered a wave of replies, with one user pointing out the double standard in leaving Morgan Wallen unedited in the same image. Wallen, who appears on the chart below Sleep Token, was infamously filmed using a racial slur in 2021.

“So you’re not comfortable posting Sleep Token on your story because of alleged blackface, but you are comfortable with showing Morgan Wallen‘s face and name, when he is a known racist. So are you comfortable with posting racists on your story?” they wrote.

Uchis replied: “I actually know nothing about either person I just saw a photo that made me uncomfortable and covered it.”

Despite Uchis’ assumption, Vessel’s makeup is not blackface. The imagery used by Sleep Token draws from black metal corpse paint traditions and stage theatrics, not racial caricature. Vessel and his bandmates maintain anonymity through masks and dark, symbolic visuals that are central to the project’s identity.

Sleep Token are continuing to dominate global charts off the back of their #1 debut on the Billboard Artist 100 for Even In Arcadia. Meanwhile, screenshots of Uchis’ deleted stories (and comments) are still circulating on Reddit, fuelling an ongoing debate about whether the band’s use of paint on-stage is harmless or a deeper issue.