I figured that rather than being one dimensional and commenting solely on my rather poorly executed (but admittedly funny in hindsight) sexual experiences, I should expound on subjects du jour like music, art, other books, other people's blog (meta-blogs if you will) and basically anything else that peaks my interest. Gasp!! Single scoped blogs be damned! Let us raise our glasses... "to the potential for friends and random strangers to waste time by reading my blog when they could be doing something else much less interesting, but probably more productive."
*clink, clink,clink*
Now that we have this established, Let me discuss something that's been on my mind.
Why has Me'Shell Ndegeocello been routinely denied the accolades that she so clearly deserves? Now, i'm not talking about the respect that members deep within the music community give her, nor her, admittedly, underground following of devotees. I'm referring to her being repeatedly nominated for grammy's, yet never walking home with the prize. Is the measure of an artist determined by what he/she wins or what he/she does not win? I smell a catch 22 in the works. If she doesn't win a grammy, it shows how the little she may be actually appreciated by fans, music execs and artists alike, however if she actually does win a grammy, it compromises the unique position that she has in the music industry of being an overly talented, undeniably respected artiste who doesn't need the Grammy folks up there on Mt. Olympus to validate her opus with a small, gilded paperweight.
To win or not to win...
I feel that if she did win, it would be for an album that clearly did not underscore how brilliant she is. For those of you in the know, forgive me for making the following references and for those of you who don't know, please allow me to explain (briefly).
Say that she won a Grammy for her next album or even for her latest one...
Now, this album is probably good and all, but after having listened to a few songs from this one, I was a little underwhelmed. Don't get me wrong. Some people will see this as one of her best albums. A nod to her versatility as an artist given the fact that it has a "punk-ish" feel despite her funk roots. I, however, feel that albums such as this...
...clearly deserve the Grammy nod.
Yet we all know how the industry works when it comes to incorrectly rewarding artists for their works
No Oscar???
Clearly more Oscar worthy...:-/
Or...
Noteworthy performance. Unfortunately, she was tapped for this...
Let me be clear. The works that these artists won the award for were creative works and had the history of each actor/actress not preceded them (A list-ish actors before the nomination) it would have been a little less harsh to digest. Be that as it may, they received the nods for the works they did in these years and not for the work before hand which, at least in my opinion, had greater dramatic value without implicity validating negative stereotypes of black people (that in and of itself is a different conversation that i'll spare you of for now. Tune into later posts for more...)
Basically said, my fear is that Me'Shell will succumb to a similar fate. My fear is that if and/or when she is recognized for her talent, she will not be defined by a sub-par piece of work, but rather that this is how she will be remembered. If there is any hope that i can depend on, it's that Me'Shell cannot be easily classified as an artist. Hopefully, the very versatility that may help her win a grammy may also help her avoid being defined by the album that brought her to that point.
One can only hope...
And now i've gone and upset myself. Let me give you an exquisite Me'Shell song I came across recently. Enjoy and see you next time.
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