“In Ohio seasons are theatrical. Each one enters like a prima donna, convinced its performance is the reason the world has people in it.” - Toni Morrison

We’ll start with Ohio. We’ll end with Beyonce. I’ll tie the two together using Tracy Chapman. We’ll embark on this grand journey by way of Toni Morrison. I know this makes little sense. It’s late and I’m a bit inebriated but just follow me.

Toni Morrison is one of the most cherished voices in my world. Her voice, quotes, and books play in my mind at key moments. It’s like she had a word on everything. Her pen was divine. She was a native of Lorain, Ohio.

I just got back from Cleveland, Ohio. There’s something about that place and the people it creates that sticks with you. Morrison once stated, “Ohio offers an escape from stereotyped Black settings. It is neither plantation nor ghetto.”

That reflection has stuck with me for years. Ohio is a liminal space or sorts and that liminal space births innovative Black artists. Ohio is the type of place that births a writer named Toni Morrison. It’s also the type of place that birthed a writer named Tracy Chapman.

“Give me one reason to stay here and I’ll turn right back around.”

Tracy Chapman dropped Fast Car at 24 years old. The folk rock song’s melancholic, cyclical melody serves to reinforce the déjà vu the young woman at its center is experiencing. That repetitive song structure drives home how strikingly similar her poverty striken life is to that of her own mother. It’s a masterpiece.

It’s also an important example of the contributions Black folks have made to American music. Black folks have a long history in folks music dating back to the very first enslaved Africans that brought their African folks songs to America’s southern shores. Black folks can be found in the origin story of nearly all genres of American music -  gospel, blues, rock and roll, rock, jazz, Pop, R&B, soul, disco, funk, house, techno, hip hop, rap, bluegrass, and the list goes on…

One thing about Black music is that it transcends.

That’s how a young Luke Combs gravitated toward the song and created a #1 country cover of it recently, introducing it to a fresh audience that felt the same as folks did 36 years ago when it was released.

It felt soooooooo sweet when Tracy Chapman took the Grammy stage with Luke Combs and her smile raised her cheeks so high that it lit her eyes up as the crowd cheered so loud you could hardly hear her first few notes of the song. She couldn’t contain the joy. The crowd couldn’t either. It’s been years. It felt like justice because Black folks started country too and I still have a sour taste in my mouth from how the CMA’s did Beyoncé and The Dixie Chicks a few years back.

Since this nation’s inception, it has worked tirelessly to dispossess Black people from the very things we create.

A Renaissance is a Reclamation

The impact of Beyoncé’s Renaissance album is well documented. House is Black music. That feeling that vibrates up your brain stem when the beat drops at the perfect moment is an inextricable byproduct of Blackness.

In act i, Beyoncé sent a notice out to the world. It was a reclamation of house music as Black music. A declaration of house music as QUEER Black music. It was a glorious ode to allll who came before and crafted and shaped the sound. It is a masterpiece from a master of the craft.

Well now it’s Super Bowl Sunday and I’m typing these mere hours after Beyoncé announced act ii, accompanied by 2 new singles. Baby, this is country music! It is not country-inspired. It is country music and now I see the vision!

When we try to narrow down Blackness to certain genres or sounds, we join the work of dispossessing ourselves from the very things we created, innovated, and perfected. We dispossess ourselves from our very history. A history that dates back through space and time to connect a global diaspora.

Country is Black too and Beyoncé is on her way to reclaim that too. Something about that is firing me up!!!!! How long do you allow someone to take, dilute, and weaponize that which you created. A scene is being carefully set. Beyonce, the most Grammy award wining artist of all time, has never won Album of the Year. Her husband, Jay Z, the greatest rapper alive made sure to note that in his Grammy Achievement Award speech. The most awarded AOY artist at this time, a country artist turned pop star with an equally cult like following. A far less refined one though, let’s be serious.

Beyoncé gets fired up when someone tells her she cannot do something, as do I. They told her years ago they didn’t want her touching the genre of country, she said hold my purse. I intend to tell my detractors the same. Reclamation precedes a reckoning and next year’s Grammys are gearing up to be a sweet one. Some have claimed it is an apples to oranges comparison, the AOY Grammy. Well what happens when it’s apples to apples?

I’m calling Rock for act iii now and the collaboration potential is already incredible. Lenny Kravitz and Beyonce?! Puhhhleeasseeeee. I LOVE IT HERE!

Happy Black History Month!

💼 Bidness

Whatever your dream or your goal is, keep at it. Keep putting one foot in front of the other. You’ll thank yourself later.