MISS B SAYS...

In full disclosure, I write this post with New Blue Sun playing and nodding my head like that Jay-Z meme. For context: your girl has listened to every OutKast album and André feature. I was looking for the same album from Dre that you were.

But know that ya girl will schedule a reiki session, meditates to sound baths, goes to therapy, believes in Jesus and chakra cleansing, digs Eastern medicine more than Western, wears crystals, has been in the orchestra (cellist), and choir (church and competition).

I was raised in a home whose parents are from the Motown, barbershop quartet, James Brown, negro spirituals-in-college-choir-era. In our house, we heard Take 6, Commission, The Winans, The Aeolians, Anita Baker, Stevie Wonder, Sade, and Luther Vandross. Suffice it to say, I have varied musical and life experiences and just wanted you to know what kind of bias you are working with because my opinion on the album rooted in these facts.

Now that you know a little more about your author, let’s get into this new music by one of the greatest emcees of a generation (we can debate this later).

The album has brought me much joy and has been on repeat since Friday at 12:06am. One of the homies described it as “what a Basquiat painting would sound like” and that cemented this album as revolutionary for me because in that moment, I saw it making us listen differently and have different conversations. Conversations bridging art mediums, cross-pollinating, if you will. But before I go down the wormhole of awesomeness in art discourse, let me stay the course of this post. As I watched the posts start to go up, I saw an all too familiar trend emerging as it has done so many times before. So I want to nip it in the bud before y’all ruin this for us, too.

So while you thought this was going to be a think piece on the album, it is a think piece on the commentary surrounding the album.

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So, I did the cliché thing that all writers have done that seems corny, but is really a way to get your thoughts off without it coming across as a sermon, tongue-lashing, or otherwise condescending message, I wrote a letter to us. LOL. I know, I know, but just go with it. Click here to read it.

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Ultimately, what’s crazy to me that we are the first ones to say we are the origin of mankind, the originators of so many imaginative things — that we ARE the culture — but then proceed to knock every thing avant-garde, new, or not status quo introduced to the culture. Like, make it make sense.

We either are or we are not the blueprint. Either we love our creativity and value it, or we don’t. We know everything created isn’t for everyone, but damn *Kevin Hart, Don Cheadle interview inflection* you don’t have to take it to the extreme and start assessing souls and annihilating spirits as a result of it.

“Black is not a monolith” was going to be the title of this post, but I decided against it because it’s become the cornerstone phrase of every Black think-piece post 2019. So then it just ends up being a phrase slapped on any alternative-to-status-quo-Blackness statement made. When the real challenge is, most folk don’t articulate how to LIVE, BREATHE, TALK, and ACT LIKE Black isn’t a monolith. Because really, truly embodying this requires us to act on this belief in every day life and language, in thinking and in doing. But, you can check out the “How To” about this in another post. Let’s stay focused.

The moral of this story: stop talking crazy on these posts making this an “us” vs. “y’all” conversation. It’s too much — now y’all in the comments talking about each other’s mamas, correcting each other’s grammar, roasting profile pics, and saying “you probably allow cats on your kitchen counters while you cook” and “that’s why your BBL doesn’t match your thighs.”

We don’t have to do this.

This is art. Art is subjective. Arguing about Blackness and calling each other unenlightened means you are missing the whole point. It’s designed to bring out the best in us, give us a multitude of creative avenues and outlets to explore together…and something to talk about other than those bomb-a$$ wings at Magic City, trips to Tulum and Cancún, RHOA, and Kevin Lee’s dismantling of Atlanta’s “is-this-a-club-or-is-this-a-restaurant” scene.

Andre 3000 is an artist. You either FW him right now, or you don’t.

Either way, I still wanna get brunch tomorrow. For clarity, I will be playing New Blue Sun in the car when I pick you up.