We are all very aware that r&b itself is overcrowded. We are even more aware that it is overcrowded with women. I ran across a video by a singer, I believe her name is Brooke Valentine, is singing a song about fighting in the club while shaking her weave with Lil' Jon is chanting behind her. Then I started thinking, is that Ciara, no wait its Ashanti, nope that's that girl that sings that country boy song. Then I came to the conclusion that this is ridiculous. All you have to do is take a semi-attractive girl, give her some long weave, one catchy song, let her dance to it with background dancers to make her look like she's a professional, mix and serve. Bam, you got a new "artist". Ciara to me did open my eyes to a few things. If you think about it, she followed a similar formula that made Beyonce a huge star. She took a catchy song, put a rapper on it who currently had a hit record, took a producer who currently had a hit record, breathed some lyrics and soon, she had a huge hit. If you think about it, Goodies and 1,2 step are almost the same song. Its like the producer decided to change 2 notes in Goodies, swap petey pablo for Missy, and changed the words. We have another really overplayed crappy song. I hope Ciara realizes that this is her last hurrah because she does not have the vocal skills at all to keep her on top.
Among the Monicas', Faith Evans', Brandy's, Nikole Ray's, and Tweet's. You have the three who arguably are the top girls, Beyonce/Destiny's Child(same thing), Ashanti(?), and Alicia Keys. I will explain why each of these girls have made it.
1. Beyonce.
Beyonce's gorgeous, like universally beautiful to black and white men. Not many black women have this kind of beauty that can make the stiffest most corporate KKK member stare at you with their mouth cracked open when they walk into a room. On top of her being that pretty, she can sing. Not just sing, but she can sing in church. That's weird. On top of that, what really drove her to the top was when she started dating the Jigga. I mean she's not just dating him, that's her boyfriend. Jigga's not rich people, he's wealthy. He's also a huge star. Huge to everybody, not just the urban folk. I wasn't even aware of how huge he really is until he debuted at #1 with that mash-up crap that he did with Linkin Park. Linkin Park! Huge. The more she refuses to talk about how she got with him, the more records she sells.
2. Alicia Keys.
Blah, blah. Alicia is talented, she can play piano and sing. You know what, doesn't impress me, a lot of people can piano and sing. What makes Alicia so special? That her record company promoted the hell out of her saying that she was some phenom, some child prodigy, who is so wise beyond her years. Her young age with such an old soul. Guess what, she's not so young. In fact she turned 27 yesterday. That would have placed her at about 24/25 when her first album came out. But every press release said she was 20. Why does this make a difference? Songs in A minor was a shitty album. It won 5 grammys, and every person that I know who bought that album agrees wholehartedly that its terrible. And she's pretty, not like Beyonce pretty, but she's a "light-skinned girl who looks like the pretty girl who went to my high school" pretty. That always helps. If alicia keys was some average looking 25 year old black girl with the same voice and credentials as the famous one now, she wouldn't have sold. The grammy people wouldn't have bought it either. We see what happened to India Arie.
3. Ashanti
So I know you're thinking why is she even included in this category. She can't sing and she can't dance. well, neither can Britney Spears and we see how poor she is. She's cute, not stunning. She really doesn't have any star quality either. Sure, we know that now, but what made her a star in the first place is that fact that being a female singer on an all-rap label was like, unheard of 3 years ago. Murder, Inc. was the shit, just like bad boy used to be, just like no limit used to be, just like death row used to be, just like....you see the list goes on and on. Foolish was cool, you have to give credit where credit's due, she can write, and her first solo hit didn't have a rapper on it. True enough, it was over a beat that was already a classic, and so was every song on her album, but that's beside the point. She's the one who actually started the trend for the solo marginally talented female r&b singer. Record companies started to catch on that they can make any black girl, give her a couple of vocal lessons, color coordinate their clothes, give her some ready made beats and instant star. After she hit, every other record company would pull every black female off the street they could find give her some long weave, and put her in the booth to sing. You see without Ashanti, there would be no Ciara.
So if you think another random girl in some video who looks like she should be a backup dancer as opposed to singing lead, you never know, she may be the next Pebbles....oh, wait who is she again?
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