Who's That Lady

While on one of my favorite blogs, they chose to talk about one of the most championed women of R&B in the 21st century. The cultural phenomena that was so big she had to create an alter ego just to cope with her immense popularity. The one and only Mrs. Beyonce Knowles-Carter. She is a music and fashion icon. But one thing that the average person who isn't a Beyonce Stan will tell you is that they have the sneaking suspicion that all that Ms. Knowles does is part of a large masquerade. With all the hair and makeup. The lights and the wind. The loud speaker and the flying harnesses it's hard to remain a "plain old you" when the whole world is telling you that the things that make you ordinary are too mundane to even fit in the shoes that you have to slide into one at a time like the rest of us. It's no wonder these sort of "superstars" have trouble trying to remain in the stratosphere when their feet are never truly permitted to touch the ground.

Don't get me wrong. Beyonce is an amazing woman. Business savvy. Speaks pretty well if prompted and prepped beforehand. Carries herself with decency. Smiles an awful lot. And as a man I can still say, she is sexy as all get out. But who the hell is she? Underneath all the makeup, weave, airbrushing, eyelined, plastic surgery, overly exercised, body sculpted image of a beautiful package I think there is the soul of a broken woman. A black woman who for whatever reason decided to take the world's oldest profession to a grander scale. She prostituted her gift. Her voice. Made a deal with the devil to sell her Gift from God to the highest bidder. A long time ago when people might not have known the "ghetto fabulous leader of Destiny's Child" they might have been able to simply say "yeah, her voice is pretty strong." But now, her staying power is undeniable. She is so popular that she could release the same album four times in one year with an extra song and video each rerelease and still go platinum on each disc. But with the stacking or hanging of each shiny, metallic disc what does she really gain? And what do we, the consumers of this product, her product, her music and her iconography gain from her? It's not a deeper understanding of ourselves. No, she could never really go toe-to-toe with India.Arie telling us not to be average or determine our worth by materialistic values. No, Beyonce can't go to the depths of her soul and sing the jazzy blues like Queen Latifah and tell us she's not in love, but the feeling was still good. And perhaps Mrs. Carter cannot go through the five steps of grieving with her Green Eyes as Erykah Badu did. But she can give us many of what I'll call "stock R&B songs." They sound pretty, but they don't really make you feel anything. And when it's all said and done what does Beyonce have left to show for it all, besides tons of money? Is she happy? I think beneath it all she's hurting. Real R&B is about rhythm and blues. Rhythm, like the movements of life. And Blues, like the murky water that sometimes is Life's winding stream. And when Beyonce goes into the studio or onto the stage for that matter instead of tapping into those feelings, she does what she has been taught to do well. Lie. Lie with her lips. Lie with her hips. Lie with the conviction that one day she will be able to shed a skin that is choking her secretly. Suddenly, her introversion becomes more and more frantic. And in a dire need to hide her authorial voice further she fabricated the psuedonym for yet another author to the story of her life. That's why people's minds invent multiple personalities isn't it? Because one of the personalities cannot handle the emotional and psychological pressures on it, but the subconscious knows it must survive. That's what Sasha Fierce is in my opinion. Sasha Fierce is Beyonce's armadillo roll. And until she gets out of her ball she cannot and will not be able push in some substance behind all of her musical creations. Until such time, she is simply rubbing dirt in a laceration that goes all the way deep to the white meat. Don't cry. I know it's hard. But you have to get yourself together because no one else will volunteer to do it. I'm just sayin.