ernestsewell said:

Because white is to suburbia as black is to ghetto? What an IGNORANT comment.

My on Alicia -

It's obvious that with each new album Alicia has been shaped to appeal to a more mainstream audience. However, I was done with her after her debut. That was the first and last album of hers I purchased. I found it VERY boring and uninspired. I just was not impressed. The hype set expectations that were not, and to me still have not been, met. I appreciate her for attempting to bring live instrumentation and performance to the forefront, but she is not that great.

Also, seeing live performances of hers further solidified her wackness to me. I agree with those of you who said she isn't a great pianist. I noticed in her early shows that she usually had a second player doing the heavy lifting. I don't know if that's changed. However, I think that because she is the only female R&B singer out there playing an instrument people think she's a goddess on the keys.

Finally, when she speaks, she comes off as VERY contrived and disingenuous to me. For example, I know people (Prince included) loved her introduction of Prince at the RRHOF, but it was too much for me. It came off as trying way too hard. Also, I heard her on Steve Harvey Friday talking about the new album and how it was all her, all her vision, that she did everything on it. Then he asked about the "sleeping with a broken heart" song and what inspired her to write that, and she said some up and coming writer wrote it. Granted, she later said she liked to collaborate, but prior to that, she was trying to make it sound like a self-contained, one woman production.

ernestsewell said:

Because white is to suburbia as black is to ghetto? What an IGNORANT comment.

I just skipped over that comment by Ernest altogether.

bellanoche said:

My original statement stands as truth. If you want to twist it into your own game, then that's on you. The truth always prevails.





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[Edited 12/20/09 20:14pm]

Vendetta1 said:

Nah, you read it.

ernestsewell said:

Without sending this thread to P&R, unfortunately the music industry thinks in those terms..Mariah used to have two versions of the same song and the B-Side always had the version with the rapper on it..they call it going for a target audience.After her first album,Mariah's hair went long and blonde and the songs went POP.Alicia's lacefront wigs have gotten longer and straighter and her songs are going pop..especially this album.This album sounds like it could've been for some Disney kid...even the two Prince-sounding songs..Unfortunately Ernest is right..

ernestsewell said:

I read it but chose not to make a comment to your ignorant statement. I didn't know us black people had a lock on being ghetto.

Alicia is one strange woman I give you that. I've been actually turned off by her music since "Diary".

Vendetta1 said:

If you weren't so hell bent on creating drama and being a drama queen, and just reading something and using your noodle for more than a hat rack, and memorizing Lady Gaga lyrics, you'd get what I was saying. The statements were:

"I think she looks cute in the first picture but i don't
know what she's trying to prove in the second."

Mine: "That she's white enough for suburbia, and black enough to be ghettofied."

It's SO the truth. She's just white enough (like DeBarge and dozens of other black acts who happen to be lighter skinned, and have more white-friendly features) that she's not threatening to the soccer moms out there. She's not coal black, tattooed and carrying a banner of "SHOT NINE TIMES!" THAT scares 32 year old moms in the suburbs. Black people are scary! They steal! They are violent! They'll rape your daughters and shoot your sons! (We know it's bullshit, but people still think that way.)

She's just black enough to try to get some ghetto street cred. Even Csharp57 made the note that she IS from Harlem, and despite the growth in the past 20 years, people still equate Harlem = ghetto. She comes across, AS NOTED IN THE THREAD IF YOU'D READ IT ALL, as some chick from the ghetto who rose above living in a cardboard box in a back alley to suddenly become some piano phenom discovered by Clive Davis (as if Clive is walking around Harlem hanging w/ his homies), randomly looking for talent.

In short, she's white enough for white folks, and she's black enough for black folks. She's still boring as shit musically and otherwise. Even after 10 years, we have no real idea who Alicia Keys is because of her "act".

ernestsewell said:

unlike you I do not equate being from harlem with being ghetto. And you can gtfooh with the drama queen comments because no one lives to cause as much drama as your know-it-all ass.

unlike you I do not equate being from harlem with being ghetto. And you can gtfooh with the drama queen comments because no one lives to cause as much drama as your know-it-all ass.

Vendetta1 said:

damn what is going on in here?

Vendetta1 said:

Well I can see that your hatred as blinded you to the truth of the situation. The thread is about Alicia Keys being a fake ass, and you've attempted (but failed) to turn it around about me. My point stands, and when you decide to take your Ern Hater Blinders off and read it with unbiased eyes, I'm glad to have a conversation with you.

I'm not out to have a with you. It's just at this point.

PS I never said, claimed, or think that I know it all. But I appreciate that you think I'm as brilliant as I'd apparently like to think I am. It's cute of you.

Uh, since when Hell's Kitchen became Harlem?

She ain't no from motherfuckering Harlem, and she ain't from the pojrects either(not that it would've been a badge of honor) but Clive billed her as this "round-the-way" chic because thats what most R&B singers are back in 2000-and-before, stuck on the "Mary J" mode.

She's from the working place, her mother was a teacher and part-time actress,,,but she kept being billed as this "ghetto princess" as a way to appeal to some folks.

Here go the 12 year old hater comments. you are not important enough to hate. And you do think you know it all.

You can have your thread back now.

Vendetta1 said:

Vendetta! Dude knows that was an ignorant comment, and he tried to clean it up but is digging a deeper hole. Whatever! You have him pegged to a tee. That's why I usually avoid responding to this drama queen, but that comment really irritated me.

Alicia's music evolved from R&B, to Soul, to Adult Contemporary. I've never heard a song in her catalog that sounds like Pop music. I don't think she could be Pop even if she tried.

WaterInYourBath said:

Go listen to Element of Freedom again and have another listen...unless you have a different definition of Pop music,then so be it..But pay close attention to the singles and videos that are released in the future and then think about your post...

SavonOsco said:

"Element of Freedom" is the new album, right? I don't have that yet. I'll be very surprised if I hear a Pop track on that record, lol. I can't even imagine what it will sound like with her voice.

I'll post a review on one of these threads when I hear the album, no doubt, lol.

WaterInYourBath said:

well get yourself ready lol...and that whole evolving to adult contemporary comment you made earlier?..you might want to change that also..she's definitely not going into "John Legend" status...yet