I view this site largely as a community. And in a community, I prefer to have some manners and respect for people. Those manners and respect typically preclude me from overtly saying that people are stupid.
But a few of you are really testing me.
As Stephanie points out, being “positive” isn’t enough to make a good record, nor is “negative” enough to make a bad one. Before doing anything else, music should be entertaining and interesting. Whatever message that someone chooses to drop within that music is cool, but I don’t give a damn what it is if it isn’t entertaining. To me, India.Arie isn’t entertaining. And from the looks of it, she’s not that entertaining to her defenders, either.
Where many of you seem to stray is by assuming I blasted her message. In fact, I did not. Quoting me…

I guess I understand that women are forced to deal with so many negative images of themselves that there’s some measure of empowerment that comes from someone blatantly rejecting that stuff.

Is that blasting her message? I don’t think it is.
But I went further and challenged you to do more.

So without talking about the positive qualities of her music, could someone please tell me what there is about India.Arie that deserves anyone’s attention?

And interestingly enough, only a couple of people could do that. Thanks, Rex.
I don’t feel one way or another about what Arie’s out there trying to do. I think her message of self-love is good, even though that “queen” bullshit is just too much for me. So let’s say that all us dudes are “kings.” Somebody in Nubia had to take out the trash, yanno? If it was just a bunch of kings, then that would be like a King Family Reunion.
Have you ever been to a family reunion for the King family? If you have, you know that shit don’t look like a gathering at the kingdom of Kush.
Anyway, I’m okay with her message. In fact, I’m okay with pretty much any message people put out there so long as it’s done in an interesting manner. Compelling would be nice, but I’ll take interesting and entertaining. On this site, I’ve publicly mentioned my personal attempts to curb the destructive images I consume. However, I will not replace those images with boring stuff because its “positive.” The following people figured out how to make positive stuff while still being entertaining.
Stevie Wonder
Bob Marley
Aretha Franklin
Sly and the Family Stone
Public Enemy
Living Colour
Lauryn Hill
The Beatles
Neil Young
Queen Latifah
Kanye West
Jill Scott
And I listen to all of them fairly religiously (except Latifah, who I dig but don’t love). But not because they’re so positive. I listen because they’re music is good. If I want to consume something primarily to educate me and enlighten me, I’ll go read a damn book. Entertain me first. That’s something Aaron McGruder dropped on me in an interview, and it has stuck with me. If an artist is not entertaining, he or she is useless.
If I were pooh-poohing Arie’s message, then I would have been one of the first people to champion Jill Scott when she dropped in 2001. While folks were barely hearing about her, I was talking to her backstage with my man Cory Brown trying to figure out ways to get her music to more people and to spread the word. Why did I do that? Because her music is great! Her methods of presentation are unique, her voice is incredible, and she can sing her ass off. But if the music wasn’t great, I wouldn’t try to listen to her a second time. That’s not a rejection of the message. That’s a rejection of the music.
My man Kobie went so far as to call me a chauvanist for this view I have. This is a months after he sent me an e-mail essentially calling me an Uncle Tom. Clearly, he came around on that one so I have faith he can come around on this one. When did not liking someone’s music make someone a chauvanist? If I’m a chauvanist, tell me why I’m into Jill Scott so much (even though her second album was booooooooring). Thanks.
Others of you have asked how I could criticize Arie and then praise No Limit. Anyone that asked that, quite frankly, is either illiterate or just doesn’t read close. The entire No Limit post is littered with digs at the label. In fact, I couldn’t even finish teh whole damn list. That’s praise? What are you talking about? No Limit was historically significant, and all of you know what a buff I am for music history. You also know that most of you had never heard half of the songs I listed, and you know I like to list things that people might be interested in learning something about. None of that qualifies as praise. The responses sound like a bunch of people that just didn’t read. And my very good friend alldaydre who left that post just to sound crazy and pick on me, and a couple of you were dumb enough to ride along with him (and I know he feels that way because we talked on the phone about it last night).
I was hoping that more people would get the underlying point of the Arie post, and it seems most of you didn’t. Every day, I hear somebody complaining about how music isn’t creative anymore and how people just find a theme and talk about it over and over again and how bored they are.
But then those same people love India.Arie, who does the exact same thing!
If you’re going to say the problem in this is a lack of creativity, be real with yourself. It’s just like those underground hip hop fans who claim to be so enlightened because of the music they claim to like, even though they’re sheep to beats like everyone else. You know those folks–the ones that claim to be so positive but listen to MOP three times a day.
And I don’t knock you for listening to MOP or India.Arie. I personally wondered if there was something about Arie beyond the “positive” schtick that would make her compelling. And for all this “you have to be a black woman to understand” noise half of you talked, only a white man in Hawaii offered something other than “she makes me feel good.”
I appreciate those that said she made them feel good, because that illuminated something I alluded to in that post but didn’t fully flesh out. If anyone needs an indication of how hard it is out there for black women, it seems you just need to peep the success of India.Arie. After being battered and bruised by people and the media for centuries, all it takes is something saying “love yourself” to make many black women happy. That’s all it takes. And it’s not because the message is unique or profound. It’s just because someone’s actually saying it instead of saying things that are obviously harmful and heartless.
And if all it takes is someone saying something nice to you to pull you in, we’ve got serious problems. The sad part–I don’t blame folks for jumping on her for that reason. It’s just a damn shame we live in a world where people will willingly embrace someone as boring and pedantic as India.Arie simply because she exists.