The Shea Butter Baby Deserves More Than Remnants of The Soul Train's F***** Up Pillows
The Soul Train Awards are historically a platform to honor Black entertainers specifically in the often overlooked and ever-so-changing boundaries of Rhythm and Blues and neo-soul.
Over the years the award ceremony has undergone some changes by way of networks that produce the show, and the heart of an era with the passing of Don Cornelius BUT the show kept the soul. Unlike other award shows crafted by white gatekeepers and voting regulations by tone-deaf culture vultures, Black award shows (for the most part) seem to get it right – right?
“If A Soul Artist can’t win for her undeniably Black Soul Album at the BET Soul Train Music Awards where the hell can she win?”
Ari Lennox made a Black ass soulful album! She created a thought-provoking, heartstring-tugging, hilarious body of work that oozed vulnerability and sensuality from beginning to end. It wasn’t a half-baked attempt at an artist trying to relate to Blackness or Black womanhood but an honest journey to self-discovery in a charming, imperfect way. Lennox shows us a few bumps along the way to making sense of her life, sharing inner dialogue as she contemplates the realities of one not “meeting the love of their life” or that moment an elementary school crush asks “don’t I know you?“, all the while checking on those “damn garbanzo beans”. Yet and still, through all her transparency and the few years it took to bring this soul masterpiece to light, Lennox gets snubbed by THE SOUL TRAIN AWARDS.
Shea Butter Baby was released May 7th, 2019
Every time the Shea Butter Baby was up for an award and her fellow nominees were named, it was as if Lennox fans knew to hold their breath. As vocal as Lennox is on her social platforms and as soothing as the crooner is on SBB, the album is not the most critically acclaimed R&B album especially amongst albums released within this final quarter of the year. Artists that are notably “underground” are often overlooked at award shows especially by categories that are televised.
Allow Black Women To Express Anger
Ari took to Twitter to express her frustrations and although most seemed to agree with her sentiments, the less pleasant side of Twitter felt Ari (like any expressive Black woman) was being ungrateful and entitled.
Artists are sensitive about their work and rightfully so. It is the only form of expression on earth where one is not only freely awarded to share their thoughts and innermost secrets but whose livelihood depends on it. Imagine spending the greater half of a year or two working on a project, in Lennox’s case entirely for Black people AND BLACK WOMEN and being overlooked by the very people and award show in existence to honor your contributions? We’d expect this sort of thing from the Grammy’s or well, any other award show that usually misses the mark, but not by BET and especially not by The Soul Train Awards.
To complicate matters even further, the cruel depths of Twitter criticized the Dreamville songstress for taking to social media to express her frustrations, as if she is not on Instagram live nearly every other day speaking to her audience directly about recent buffoonery that has gone on in her life. Black artists are either overreacting when they express disappointment by losing awards that we know belonged to our culture and people, let alone women expressing their pain and angst. When it comes to Black women – forget it.
“Shea Butter Baby, f****** up your pillow”
-Ari Lennox
Black women rarely speak up about the lack of respect and recognition their art is receiving, their “reactionary outbursts” are irrational and unwarranted, especially by other Black industry folks that feel the need to remind us all that we should be appreciative of the crumbs we do receive, word to Monique. Ari Lennox is an authentic artist, who wears her heart on her sleeve but is completely aware that her music and artistry will not be easily digested by every being whose ears are graced by her sultry melodies, and that her sensitivities may wound her up as an artistic martyr. Although, shea butter really does mess up your pillow, so for anyone who is asleep on Lennox’s art, prepare to purchase some new bedding because the Shea Butter Baby is just getting started on ‘em deep conditioners.
Check Out an Ari Lennox sit down with Ebro of Hot 97’s “Ebro in the Morning” and Beats 1 radio, where she acknowledges her niche sound all the while praising other artists she belives are incredibly slept on.
