Hot Sauce

I wanted to wait until I got home to write today's post so I wouldn't be rushing, but then I came across this one. In many ways, it echoes my sentiments. Read it here:

http://www.lovebscott.com/news/piers-morgan-i-feel-uncomfortable-about-beyonce-using-grieving-mothers-to-sell-albums

My use of the word "overall" in my previous post was due to several things that didn't jive for me in the "Lemonade" piece. The inclusion of the mothers of recent victims of violence was a major one. I remember hearing a few weeks back that she was going to feature them in an upcoming video but when I saw that it was this project, it really didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. Like..... what's the correlation to even the bigger picture story here? I can't find one that isn't completely forced and this is one of the issues I have with Beyonce too. She somehow always finds a way lately to attach herself to something that's going on in the most synthetic way imaginable. While some see her as an activist, it comes off quite contrived and opportunistic to me. To a lesser extent, it's the problem I've always had with her; she never felt genuine.

But let's say she's an activist. Go activate LOL. Like physically go and show up and SAY something to the masses. Don't mask it in a song that creates a line you can straddle called art when convenient. Be seen actually DOING something other than cutting a check (although good look on those LOL) A supporter, maybe. Activist? No.

I actually have a lot of feelings about this project, as I said in the first post the other day. Most positive, but some not so much. The grieving mothers thing didn't sit well with me at all, so I'm glad I'm not the only one who was thrown by it, even if my constituents are the likes of Piers Morgan - Sheesh LOL. But even assholes make good points sometimes. *shrugs*

The most positive thing I can say about "Lemonade" apart from that I really liked it (which, if you know me, is a huge compliment) is that if nothing else, it started conversations. Yes, most began with her - about her - but my timeline last night was full of really deep banter among men and women of all kinds of backgrounds. They were discussing everything from the perception of the black woman to cheating to ... sheesh, everything. There were some really strong opinions thrown out there from all positions and some of those conversations got really intense, but at the end of the day, there can be no growth without exploration. In order to progress, we must have these conversations, and positive or negative, I think that's the most IMPORTANT thing this project achieved.

See, Bey? Now we're getting somewhere.