Did Rap Kill The Black Male Singer?
By Pearl Jr.

How many of you know who the best selling Black male singer in the world for 2008 was? I bet you'll never get this right, without a few clues. Well, he's 50 years old, considered washed up and too controversial to sell, plus the majority of his songs are more than 25 years old. It's Michael Jackson, who sold more than Usher, Chris Brown, Ne-yo, John Legend, and Seal. The King of Pop sold nearly as many records worldwide as the #1 best-selling artist in the US regardless of race, Lil Wayne, whose genre of hip hop lost nearly 19.8 percent in sales from the previous year. Michael Jackson's song catalog sold 2.9 million copies with Thriller 25 topping over 2.3 million by itself, plus Michael didn't even promote it and performed nowhere! Shocking isn't it! (Lil Wayne sold nearly 3 million)

Before the 1990's, it seemed one could find a million-selling Black male recording artist on other every corner, and, at least, 20 in every Black church. Today, it's becoming more and more difficult to ignore the facts that Black men are headed to the bottom of, yet, another statistical chart.

Music, the savior of the Black race, made bearable the horrors of slavery, soothed during Jim Crow racism, and bonded in segregation. This type of Black love and togetherness ushered in the perfectly pitched passion of singers like Smokey Robinson singing countertenor (a male soprano), Michael Jackson a solid tenor, David Ruffin a baritone, and Barry White, the maestro, bass singer. Even now writing this article, name after name of remarkable Black male singers come to mind like Nat King Cole, Ray Charles, Otis Redding, Jackie Wilson, Marvin Gaye, Donnie Hathaway, Stevie Wonder, Ronald Isley, Al Green, Teddy Pendergrass, Luther Vandross, Jeffrey Osborne, and singing groups like The Temptations, The Four Tops, The Spinners, Stylistics, Chi-lights, Jackson 5, Earth Wind and Fire, The Moments, The Manhattans, New Edition, and Boys II Men. The list goes on and on. But today, where are the Black male singers that made Black women buy every Right On Magazine and scream with excited hysteria whenever their favorite artists appeared?

In today's world of rap music, the last solid genre created in the Black community, seemed to have seduced too many Black men wishing for their spot on the top of music entertainment fame, to speak rhythmic poetry instead of singing the melodies of love and longing.

The irony is that while the loving lyrics of Motown dominated the Black airways for decades, Black love was in bloom, and so was the growth of the music industry. Now too many Black men in the game of hip hop slop are volunteering to label Black women bitches and hos, promote criminality, excessive spending (bling), and speak of love making as purely a one night stand have contributed to the widespread decline of Black love and progress. It's no coincidence that Black love is down at the same time Black music is at its lowest levels ethically and well as financially. This decline has little to do with the recession because these declines started to manifest 6 years ago, and ringtones along with 99 cent downloads just ain't paying the bills.

Could the absence of Black male singers be correlated with the lack of decency taught in rap crap chants? Does it take the desire to love completely and thoroughly to enhance the singing style of Black men?

Throughout the history of television, there have been numerous talent shows, such as the competitions at the famed Apollo Theater and Star Search. But the last few seasons of American Idol have not produced one top Black male singer and I think Simon is in shock due to this! Season Eight of American Idol's top 12 doesn't have one Black male singer and only one Black male singer was in the top 36. Season two winner, Reuben Studdard and the like, are now extinct for six straight years. He was the only Black male winner in American Idol history.

Black men have lost their way in so many more different categories, such as low high school graduation rates, high incarceration rates, high rates of low self-esteem or undeserved self-gratification, and too many Black men are not in the home taking care of their children and not marrying their baby's mothers. There are simply prices to pay for not loving and respecting your women! Nature just wasn't meant to fail like this! Perhaps, the Black male's continual downfall spiral will be due to too much bad karma.

Have Black males lost their singing dominance with their souls and are now out of the emotional loop of wanting to give true love to a Black woman? What happened to lyrics like, "The Way You Do The Things You Do", "Just My Imagination" , "Your Precious Love", "Maybe Tomorrow", "Try a Little Tenderness", "Lonely Teardrops", "Isn't She lovely", "Love Ballad", "I Can't Help Myself", "Mighty Love", "Reasons", "Stop, Look, Listen to Your Heart", "Oh Girl" and "Ooh Child". Even later group like Boys II Men released hits like "I'll Make Love to You" and New Edition's "Can You Stand the Rain" seems like those were the last true love song that touched the heart in just the right place to make herds of girls run to the record store and lay out their, many times, strapped money to experience love's possibilities through music.

Even, Michael Jackson, the best-selling artist in the world achieved his greatest heights when he was filled with Black pride and surrounded by Black people, especially his Black mother and sisters who lived at the family home with him, because all of his brothers had married and moved away. One might wonder if Michael Jackson still has Black fans. Well, as the owner of one of the largest and most successful Black-themed and Black-owned bookstores in Los Angeles (Eso-Won) told me that Thriller 25 was the best selling product in his store. Remember, the last women the world saw Michael with was a Black woman named Raymone Bain, his spokesperson.

All is not totally lost. There are a few Black male singers, but only one comes to mind. Usher, who is the last best selling new Black male singer, remains on the scene, but he is a rare reminiscent of days long past. Usher's album and song, "Here I Stand" earned him the #2 best-selling Black male singing title of 2008 because that love song exudes the unrelenting emotion every Black woman needs to hear to believe that to be loved, honored, and cherished is attainable. By the way, Usher is married to a beautiful Black woman. It's always been Black women that have purchased nearly all the recordings by Black male artists, period!

Examine the recent careers of post-platinum selling artists akon, Baby Face, Brian McKnight, John Legend, and Seal who are all good singers, but once they are found out to not chose Black women as their mates, those sales dropped like hot potatoes. No one else will have the guts to say this or ASK THIS SERIOUS QUESTION. Is it the Black woman who brings out the natural emotional PASSION in Black men or is it Black women that feel abandoned by the very artist they put in the rich house AND stopped buying their music because now it is difficult to imagine that singer is singing to directly to them? The answer to both is probably a big yes. Either way, the Black male singer is the loser in all this when he chooses to abandon the already abandoned, use the already abused, and fall prey to manipulations that tell him to be wrong is to be right.

Men are natural providers and protectors of their women, children and community, therefore, when Black men refuse to do their jobs as men, nature jumps in and creates a cataclysm of castigation. The Black race will not improve until Black men OVERWHELMINGLY take their responsibility seriously.

Even with the latest abusive disaster with singer Chris Brown against his girlfriend Rihanna, whose first albums attained platinum, one of Chris' first music videos (from his second album) shows him chasing non-Black women and even jumping over Black girls to get to a non-Black girl. The highly publicized relationship between Chris and Rihanna jump started Chris' quickly declining records sales, because sistas just wasn't having it. Now, why would Black females purchase an album from a guy who blatantly disrespects Black females like that? They don't and they won't. Chris' career will never recover from his felony charges for allegedly beating his girlfriend Rihanna-and Rihanna doesn't even realize that she does not possess enough love to save him. Rihanna's latest album has sold over 6 million copies worldwide, while Chris' latest stands around 2 million. During their heavily publicized crisis, Rihanna continues to sell, but Chris' sales are pretty much dead.

It seems to be a trend for Black men to be with non-Black women in entertainment, but much of the Black female audience is tired of trying to be racially fair when it's obvious that union is in direct contrast with Black love and the returning of Black men to their male lacking homes and communities.

This may be hard for many to hear, but it is the love between a Black man and a Black woman that unveils the often imitated, unique melodic beauty of Black music?

Yet, the Black female continues to deliver love songs at her emotional high, but Black men apparently, have done too much wrong to be righted by the God's of good singing and good fortune.

As the author of the book, Black Women Need Love, Too, at a glance one would think this manual was written for the sole benefit of Black women, not so! It is basically for the savior of Black men via love for Black women. Isn't it quite obvious by now, that not loving hasn't rendered any real long lasting cultural benefits? Rap Crap artists are the biggest losers in the music industry-they lead in deaths, incarcerations, and lost fortunes.

It was always the Black woman that supported the Black male singer, but how many Black men appreciated it? So now, it has been taken away. When will the majority of Black men realize that to not love Black women, will only deliver more massive declines.

White women have the best PR because White men demand it and realize that if they don't love their women and represent them as valuable; big declines will be the result. You see, men are innately motivated to thrive for success when they want to be loved by a woman--take that away and chaos is the consequence. Berry Gordy, the founder of Motown, named his autobiography "To Be Loved" because that is what motivated him to succeed. At that time, he only dated Black women and Motown was filled with Black married couples--a correlation that supports this hypothesis.

The old divide and conquer methodology, used by the non-Black music executives who have hired too many uneducated weak-minded sell-out thug-able young Black male performers to do their dirty work, has succeeded once more. How else did despicable words like the "N" word get into Black music? Motown didn't use it, Casablanca Records didn't use it and both these companies that Black men had ownership and control of hired tremendous Black talent and made lots of money. My man is the son of music executive and part owner of Casablanca Records, Cecil Holmes, who also worked in the record business and was kicked out in the early 1990's with a group of others, because they were too nice and decent for the massive mental corruption that was on the horizon. The Rap Crap Treason Act then took full effect. Now, the Black male singer seems to be a relic of the past.

How many trick bags are we going to jump in?

Do right by Black women, and Black men will see their own lives massively improve, which is attached to the upward mobility of the Black race! Hopefully, what was lost will one day be found again!

Source: www.mediatraffic. de

Pearl Jr.
Author, Black Women Need Love, Too!

Rap has killed a lot of things.....

HELL YEAH!!! More than that it was the merger of Hip Hop and RB during the 90's that ended real RB. People dont like to admit that the 90's killed off two genres (RB and Rock) but they did. But anyone who can say that singers like Joe,Brian Mcknight and others who were headed towards a more classic soul sound all of a sudden started doing tracks with Mase and G Unit and others, you cant tell me that, that whole mindset didnt kill it off.

The R&B male singer is still around, it's just that no one wants to sign him unless they're a clone of someone else.
[Edited 3/12/09 13:22pm]

Timmy84 said:

True or "manufacture" one to be just like him.

2elijah said:

Sooo true. It started in the 90s with a "formula" and it has continued today. The biggest problem is that it is the SAME FORMULA. None of the new acts add anything to the equation.

daPrettyman said:

Well this can be said of everything from hair metal bands in the 80's, to hard rock bands releasing their second single and it ALWAYS was a power ballad, to the trend that Boyz II Men started for the most part, and when they blew up, you had everything from NEXT to Men of Vizion.

It didn't just kill the black male singer, it killed black music altogether.

oh please....quit tugging at the heart strings...2008 was a solid year for several black dudes: musiq, kenny lattimore, raphael and anthony hamilton.

vainandy said:

Right! I think the same can be said of black female singers, to a slightly lesser extent. Sure, we still have Mary J, Mariah and Alicia Keyes who have tried to keep more traditional R&B alive. But, as far as riding the top of the Billboard charts, these types of singers are few and far between.

Graycap23 said:

Practically ALL singers.

No melody = No singer needed.


tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431

I'm not going to follow others that say that rap is the main cause of everything bad with Black music today. Rap/Hip-Hop's foundation is about being yourself, taking elements of other genres of music and making something out of it. The mistake was when R&B tried to incorporate too much hip-hop sounds as well as style into their music, they weren't being true to themselves. R&B is about suits/costumes, dance steps, musical instruments, great emotional singing, sex appeal, etc. Hip-hop is baggy comfortable clothes, beats, saying or doing whatever was on your mind.

daPrettyman said:

None ?! ... based merely on what is programmed in the commercial charts ?
How generalising does that sound if one can't back that up without being up to date about the number of commercial and independent releases which are launched frequently worldwide ?
I dare people to open their eyes and ears a little more and try to explore on sites such as cdbaby, myspace and others , especially in this digital era when much info and music is available with a few clicks on your pc.
Yes, a lot of quality indepenent stuff won't get played on commercial radio, so that's not a source you should depend on if you wanna discover new sounds.
With the growing web, there have been started many independent companies and datbase-sites who represent new artists :

www.soulunsigned.com/

http://soulchoonzartistsl...gspot.com/

www.firstexperiencerecords.com/


Not everything that is launched in the commercial charts is what it's all about. Quality also exists beyond the big selling acts.

Does anyone remember seeing Anthony Hamilton perform on the BET-tribute for Al Green ?
I tried to find the clip but BET removed it unfortunately. That Anthony-moment was magical imo, pure quality soul.
His voice is very distinctive, and you could see Teena Marie in the audience standing up and applauding during his contribution to Al's tribute. THAT aknowledgement is something i take i high regard.


[Edited 3/12/09 14:44pm]

Shango said:

I despise Anthony Hamilton. His voice annoys me. Maybe if I see him live, my opinion might change. I did see the BET tribute performance and I wasn't impressed.

Maybe I should have worded my statement differently and said that RECORD COMPANIES have used the same formula.

I have to agree this article is pretty much on point. There's really no such thing as a "love song" anymore in R & B. There's a word that rappers call soul singers, I just can't remember what it is. (a BeeGee?)

One person who is a complete disappointment to me is Trey Songz. His first album was pretty good and it was a solid effort, then somewhere along the way, he decided he wanted to be a rapper....then got confused and didn't know what the hell he wanted to do

bboy87 said:

he's trying to push too many envelopes - cater to the ladies but try to be hard too. what are we on album #3 and barely a register. a few tracks here and there but cmon really the new track "i need a girl" is terrible. its sounds like some prepubescent chris brown rip off and the stargate production is just lazy.

viciuzurban said:

when I heard the first single of the second album along with the mixtapes, I was like "FAIL"

dannyd5050 said:

The article-writer and more people should be more open to what's happening beyond what's released in commercial charts.

So these following recent tracks don't apply to quality soul since The BeeGees were the last saviors of soul ?

[Edited 3/12/09 15:38pm]

We'll we got Black females singing I don't need a man, all my singles ladies, take a bow just man hating for no reason! Blame the females who love having those thug rappers on there tracks instead of making passionate love making music. The only true rnb cat i can think of is R. pervy kelly

tamewar said:

dont forget about busting windows too...that shit is not on!

The subtext of this article is that Jungle Fever Killed The Black Male Singer. But the pretextual premise of the article is interesting.

I said this a few weeks ago, that young black men no longer wanted to be singers, or musicians, but MCs. Because to many, it seems like an easy route to instant success for the less talented. And unfortunately, the music audiences have proven that right.

The fault ultimately lies with the audience, if the premise that the Black Male Singer is dead, is true. If so, we have killed him.

But some blame is to be placed on the singers themselves. Black Male Singers of bygone eras were far more prolific than the ones now. That isn't all the fault of the BMS, things happen. But some of them who can be more prolific take 8-10 years between releases. That's several generations of music in today's world, where 2005's star is 2008's old news. Hard to usher in a new generation of BMS's when some of the best talents stay on the sidelines.

And finally, the BMS has spawned another breed. The Black Male Artist. Guys like Martin Luther, Van Hunt, and other black male acts aren't traditional "singers," per se, but they are making interesting music. I guess we won't mention that one of the most creative acts in all of music, TV on the Radio, is a mostly black band. They play "white music," right? But I digress.

Generally, I agree. Try to be a true BMS in today's music scene and you're as close to an outcast on the larger music scene as anyone. Hip-hop is a huge reason explaining that, but I don't think it's the sole cause.

Shango said:

Agreed.



I think dannyd was referring to "beegee" as slang for a soul singer, which I guess so-called MCs these days are calling them.
[Edited 3/12/09 16:06pm]

namepeace said:

Aha otay thanks
[Edited 3/12/09 16:09pm]

Y - E - S

namepeace said:

I resemble that remark.



tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431

theAudience said:

its all about the youth market. kids and young adults like the rap and hip hop while their parents, aunts/uncles dig the balladeers and soul singers. I don't believe the black male singer is dead, he just aint selling as much as lil wayne and young jeezy cuz the fan base is different. younger consumers watch videos, swap music, get on the net and download, go to house parties and clubs to dance...older consumers go to best buy and borders and buy the CD as it comes out every 3rd year so they can listen to it while driving the kiddies to school. this no surprise

bboy87 said:

co-