The main reason I'll always prefer Jon B. and JT over Robin Thicke
The main reason I'll always prefer Jon B. and JT over Robin Thicke
Loving music from black artists doesn't make you 'of the culture'
“Lost Without You”
“Teach You a Lesson”
“Shooter”
“Complicated”
“Pretty Lil Heart”
“Blurred Lines”
I could spend my entire day just playing Robin Thicke songs. Pretty much all of his discography is incredible. And I met him once — briefly — at an after-party for a news event. He mistook the lady next to me in the VIP section for a broadcaster and walked right up to us to shake her hand. Both of us were sitting there, completely confused and wondering why he beelined to her to say, “Nice to meet you.”
I sorta smirked at him mistaking the woman sitting next to me for another black woman. They were totally different builds, heights, hairstyles and complexions. I still shrugged. We were in a club at night, and I wasn’t trying to immediately go to the, “Do all black women look alike to you?” theory. After all, he’d married biracial* actress Paula Patton, who I adore in movies (and thought she was hilarious on “Desus & Mero”).
I wasn’t even phased when his security guard walked up to me to ask me to stop taking photographs of the artist for our newspaper. (I was managing a blog team for the reporters at the time, and he was going to be one of our latest posts.) I just put my camera away and partied the rest of the night, ignoring that Robin Thicke was there altogether.
Even after both incidents, I still think he’s an amazing singer who understands soul. It’s damn near impossible for me to change my mind on that. There’s a 16-inch Marvin Gaye painting in front of the desk I’m typing on, and I still took Robin Thicke’s and Pharrell’s side in the Marvin Gaye lawsuit. With that said, Robin Thicke bugs the s**t outta me in interviews.
First reason, the name-dropping (watch “Drink Champs” and “R&B Money”) weirds me out. I would understand it so much more if he was talking to an everyday entertainment reporter.
But it’s peculiar to brag about your network to Noreaga, Tank and Jay Valentine as though the “Superthug” artist couldn’t hit up Pharrell right now, as if Tank doesn’t regularly work with Babyface and as though Jay Valentine wasn’t hanging out with the Jackson 5 in their Indiana childhood home. Damn near every artist he name-dropped during “R&B Money” was someone Tank already knows and a few Noreaga could call during his liquor-fueled interviews. (Songwriter Jay Valentine tries to play the background outside of the podcast, but we know that he knows a gang of artists.)
Then there’s the other thing Robin Thicke does in every single interview that wears me out. He has a nonstop habit of telling black people how he’s “of the culture” and “wants to be black.” You laugh at first — thinking he’s joking — until he goes off into all the pats on the back about what slang he knows and how engrossed he is in black music from his early days. After a while, it’s like, “All right, all right, all right. We heard you — and you still look like Elvis Presley.”
Recommended Read: “If you have to tell black people you’re an ally, you’re probably not ~ Real allies show and prove, not self-identify”
White R&B lovers can enjoy the music all they want, and black people will absolutely show up to the concerts (for artists we solidify). (Maybe not the black folks who were riding for Marvin Gaye’s family with that $5 million lawsuit after “Blurred Lines.”)
But loving the music does not mean you’re “of the culture.” You can throw out as many hip nicknames and claim you love “chocolate” — although neither of his wives are chocolate. But if you’re totally silent about the unsexier parts of being black, stop claiming us. (Comedian Ken Jeong was the one who stormed off “The Masked Singer” set when he saw Trump’s attorney Rudy Guiliani. Robin Thicke left to find his TV friend, not because he was upset about this consistently racist attorney.)
While I proudly admit that being a black person — a black woman — is cooler than a motherf**ker to me, it’s not always one big party. And Patton’s flood of posts bringing awareness to HBCUs, Juneteenth, Edmonia Lewis, Maya Angelou, Tyre Nichols, VP Kamala Harris, etc. apparently didn’t make her ex-husband anymore aware of the best and most challenging sides “of the culture” he claims.
And then there is Jon B.
“Someone to Love”
“They Don’t Know”
“Are You Still Down”
“Pretty Girl”
“Can We Get Down”
“Don’t Say”
“I Ain’t Going Out”
Jon B. is somehow pulling a Marvin Gaye and getting finer with age, and he still looks like a light-skinned black person instead of an everyday white boy. (I don’t know how he’s managed to keep this going, but I stopped counting the amount of people saying, “Are you sure he’s not just light-skinned?” when “Someone to Love” released in 1995.) As much as everybody else loves his Tupac Shakur collaborations and the main Billboard hits, “I Ain’t Going Out” has been on repeat since my sophomore year of high school. “Pretty Girl” is the only one that’ll make me turn it off.
In all fairness, Jon B. is publicly as vocal about politics and social justice as Robin Thicke (read: never). And I would much rather hear Jon B.’s views on equality than what he thinks of Justin Timberlake’s “No Angels” video. I’m hoping him being married to a brown-skinned black woman makes him more aware of black people holistically — and not just our catchy tunes. Politics aside (because again, I have no clue of his stance), he doesn’t make a huge deal about loving chocolate or want us to pat him on the back for it, but we see it. His wife looks like his fanbase, and he’s not asking for brownie points.
ANNOUNCEMENT: Jon B and Tweet will be performing in St. Rogers, Arkansas on Sept. 5. One day later, he’s scheduled to perform at the Taste of Chicago on Friday. Ceelo Green will also be performing at the Goose Island Main Stage in Chitown.
We’re also not hearing about his resume nonstop. Jon B. leans more toward the Tracee Ellis Ross school of thought — the celebrity who tries to appear perfectly normal while being surrounded by superstars. He doesn’t use nonstop slang or try to tell black people how he’s “of the culture.” I’m fairly certain he wouldn’t cackle about having the one-up on other white people because he knows slang terms from bank robbers. (Refer to Robin Thicke’s “R&B Money” interview again about the creation of “Shooters.”)
But there was a part during Jon B.’s interview that solidifies him in a way I respect. Skip to the 1:11:11 mark of the “R&B Money” interview when he discusses a meeting with Canadian record producer David Foster and songwriter Diane Warren. Look at his facial expression when Warren tells him, “Gosh, you’re so black.”
Although Tank and Jay Valentine cracked up laughing over Warren’s response, Jon B. was not amused. If Warren had said that to Robin Thicke, my guess is he’d temporarily stop name-dropping, put his champagne glass down and did a few cartwheels. But Jon B. had already equated that people telling him “you can sing for a white boy” is like telling a short man that he plays basketball well for someone so small. I get it. It’s a back-handed compliment.
Straight-faced, he called Warren and Foster out for working with Whitney Houston and Earth, Wind and Fire and basically said they should know better than to rest on those kind of stereotypes. I didn’t really understand what those two artists had to do with anything. If the two had worked with Tina Marie and Bobby Caldwell, Jon B.’s point would’ve landed harder. But I understand that his larger point is he’s been in the business long enough that being a white guy shouldn’t be the primary talking point.
Do I agree with him that his race shouldn’t be mentioned at all? No. But would I find it annoying for it to be the primary topic when trying to do music collaborations? 100%. Either you like his music or you don’t. You can’t force the man to cross over to a non-black audience.
And then there is Justin Timberlake
This music list would be entirely too long. Just assume it’s anything that Timbaland produced, or he collaborated with Beyonce, Missy Elliott, T.I. or Jay Z on. Then add all the songs from NPR's “Tiny Desk.” And those Tennessee Kids are top-tier funk!
While Justin Timberlake, who is a happy medium between the two, jokes about how he “thought I was black” in the 2011 film “Friends With Benefits,” he’s not been afraid to lose some fans while calling out sexism, racism and all the phobias. (Glance at pretty much any scene in “Supplies,” ranging from the “Pussy Grabs Back” T-shirt of the lady lifting a car to the protest signs in support of Freddie Gray and Eric Garner.)
I have no idea whether someone’s guess at Robin Thicke’s “I Ain’t Saying No Names” is about Justin Timberlake. What I do know is bringing up the Pepsi Challenge (after inexplicably name-dropping Rihanna and Jennifer Hudson for no reason relevant to the story) at said artist was not subtle.
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All three artists are incredible talents that bypass being “blue-eyed soul.” (Note: Not all three have blue eyes.) And there are a few others who have firmly stamped themselves within an R&B world and don’t sound like the, “I don’t like rap but I love Eminem” crowd. They really do love R&B from legendary artists, ranging from Nina Simone to Alexander O’Neal. And Justin Timberlake being able to dance well on top of his music (and the Tennessee Kids) adds another layer of razzle dazzle.
But what I like about Jon B. and Justin Timberlake (regardless of whether they like each other) is they’re not trying to convince us we should invite them to “the cookout.” They’re not beating us over the head with how much they know about black culture. They’re just existing and letting black R&B lovers appreciate them for who they are. If you like it, you like it. And if you don’t, they’re still going to appreciate the culture and make the music that they connect with most.
* Although her mother is white, Patton does not self-identify as biracial. She has consistently said she’s “black.”
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