Beyonce--The Argument: Part 2

(before anyone starts, yes, I had time on my hands to write this last night, lol; I wrote it while watching tv all night so it took a lot longer than it should have lol; oh and I'm tagging other Bey lovers [as well as those that agree with me on some level] on purpose)

Let's start.

Beyonce--The Argument: Part 2

Ms. Camille Travis, just like millions of other girls around the world, is a Beyonce fanatic. It's no surprise that anyone who counters her belief and says that the new Mrs. Sean "Jay-Z" Carter is admittedly overhyped, overdone, and overrated, she'd get up in arms. As a matter of fact, it's expected. That doesn't take away from the fact that I'm still going to stand by my belief regardless. Anyone that knows me knows that with anything that I feel adamantly about, I have strong supports for my claim. And thus, "Beyonce: The Argument Pt. 2" has come to fruition. This is long but I think it's also informative and entertaining as well. Read on…

Before I begin, Ms. Travis has done the first part—the Beyonce Fanclub version entitled, "Beyonce: The Argument". It's much shorter and I encourage you to read her points as well.

Now make no mistake—I am not a "Bey hater" at all. In fact, I do believe that she can sing. However, as I said in one of the comments in Travis' note, "to say that Bey is the best thing since the creation of the Post-it is poppy-cock". I may upset a few Bey worshippers but that matters not. Bey is nothing more than a pretty girl that can sing. That's it.

Beyonce is indeed overdone as well as overrated as an entertainer. She's something like a—a Weezy in the game. Only two diffs: 1. She's a female and 2. She actually has talent. She was like a Visa card—everywhere you want to be—but with her being "everywhere" and not taking breaks as needed, an artist becomes overdone. People tire from them. She's been cooking for too long and had become burnt out in a sense. The last few awards shows, she was nowhere to be found. And that's a good thing, believe it or not, because when she comes back, the public is ready for her again and won't get a headache.

Wait. I hope no one took that the wrong way. Let's look at it from this angle. Okay, everyone loves chocolate, right? Okay, I know that not everyone loves chocolate, but I do, lol. I love chocolate to death. Can eat it all day long. However, if I keep eating it day in and day out, even though I looooove it the way that I do, wouldn't I get sick? *crickets, anyone?* Yes, I would. Same with Bey. She was everywhere, doing everything, popping up at awards shows, videos, the radio every third and seventh song, making her own songs, featured on other people's songs, "acting", doing "Bey tributes" on VH1 Soul, CoverGirl (or is that L'Oreal?) commercials—everywhere! Like with anything in this world, good things are better in moderation. Too much of anything is harmful. I think someone finally gave her the memo of this rule because she took a break. Finally. Glad she's back though. But, like Nakia said, "people act as if Bey is our Savior and bled, died, and rose for our sins." Chill. She is just a person. A regla person at that.

(I think her shirt is dope!)

I also said that Bey is overrated. Like I said before, Bey is a just a pretty girl that can sing. She's got additives that make her bigger as an entertainer than she should be. Additives including: the hourglass figure thing and the light-skin thing to name a few.

Sex sells and anyone who chooses to argue that isn't too well versed on how our society chooses to work when it comes to entertainment. Hence, Bey's sex appeal factor. She's got curves and every man loves curves, no? She instantly win males popular vote and the crowd goes wild.

And as painful as it is to admit, lighter complextions are looked on to be "more beautiful" in our society. Is it right? Not at all. It's wrong, but that's the scope of the society. Bey is of lighter tones. Add to that an hourglass figure that every man lusts after every four seconds and you have…a goddess. Since the world tends to delve more deeply into what they can see rather than any other of our God-given senses, Bey wins by default. Even though she can sing, it really doesn't matter either way. Even if she had the non-existent voice of Rihanna or Ashanti, she'd still be looked on as a "goddess" based on visuals alone. (see: Janet Jackson. She can't really sing at all. However, she is iconic because she blends her singing with her awesomely awesome dance moves. If she weren't such an awesome dancer and part of the legacy family, she'd be a regla girl that thinks she could sing lol [like my homegirl, Rihanna lol]. In fact, Jackson can just be a mute, busting out with these ILL dance moves and guess what? She'd still win). The point? Visuals distract and/or magnify what's in front of us. Bey's got the body, the skin, and the hair. Who cares if she can sing, right? But take away the good body, the light skin, and the faux pas hair and keep her good singing. What do you have? Any artist that's out that isn't as popular because they don't possess these visuals.

(Visuals, anyone?)

According to my trusty, dusty dictionary.com website, the term, "entertainer" is defined as, "a singer, comedian, dancer, reciter, or the like, especially a professional one." In her case, Bey is a singer, a dancer, an actress, and a songwriter. Let's go from there.

Bey the….singer.

As I said in the beginning, Bey can sing. However, being able to hold a note is only a small fraction of being an all-around entertainer as Bey is trying to be. Ms. Travis states that aside from (who she names here), no one can touch Bey vocally. Really? I disagreed profusely with that claim. There are a ton of artists who can and do outsing Bey on a grand and quite uncomparable scale. Some of these artists are: Jill Scott, Ledisi, Chrisette Michele, Jazmine Sullivan, and Mariah Carey (who is seriously one of the best singers of all time, period. [this does not include actual song content which I will get into shortly.] Her range alone is unmatched and is compared to the late Minnie Riperton as well). Bey isn't compared to Minnie, Aretha, Mariah, Whitney, or Billie Holliday (as Chrisette Michele is). The past 5 women mentioned are timeless and have literally unmatched voices that will and have gone in the Hall of Fame for some of the best singers to have ever done it. To say that Bey is on this list and is one of the best singers just isn't true. Because she isn't. She can sing though. She's just all visuals.

Bey the…dancer.

(This is probably a bad pic but here she is doing her infamous booty, thigh, and hip jerk dance she made popular in 1972 in Crazy in Love)

Where do I start with this one? I'm going to keep reinforcing visuals in this whole thing to further prove my point. Bey is about as average a dancer as the people in the clubs getting it in. For real. She's done nothing spectacular dance-wise. Ciara is a dancer. Bey? Not so much. She can try, but so can anyone. Her visuals reign so high in the dance-department that I'm sure that the Bey worshippers are reading this and gritting their teeth at me on some "how dare you talk about my homegirl Bey and her awesome dancing" stuff. Spare me, please. I've been dancing forever (though I'm guilty of not performing in the last 4 years lol) and I can do anything that Bey can do (but so can anyone). I can not do any ol' thing that Janet can do and I'm still trying to do that back-lean thing that Ciara did in her Goodies video back in 1958 when she first came out (but I'm close; almost got it right; my flexibility is awesome though lol). Get my point? To further drive this point home, Bey's visuals on her beauty is so strong that she can do a simple 2-step and people will go blogging after her next concert comparing her to Debbie Allen. Please.

Bey…the actress.

:-| Camille, you already know, missy and I'm quite sure that others do too. Hell, Bey herself should even know. But just in case someone wants to have on their Deny cap, I'm gonna go in…but only a little bit because I really don't think that Bey's lack of acting skill is a surprise to anyone lol.

Though I liked the movie, Bey was horrible in Carmen. She was worse in Goldmember and she wasn't all that hot in Dream Girls. She was only nominated for the Oscar because J.Hud was nominated for supporting actress and since Bey had been in the game longer, they didn't want to slight her. But back to her actual "acting ability"--am I lying? Did her lines not sound practiced and on some terrible mechanical tip? I encourage everyone who disagrees to re-watch those movies. Then get back. Again—she is gorgeous—who cares if she can act, really?!

She does need to fire her acting coach though. I'm serious.

Bey…the songwriter.

(I couldnt find a picture of her in the studio or writing to save my life, but a pic with her with a sword-like image in her hand to represent butchering work nicely, dont you agree? lol)

Okay. This subject I'm going to try and make as short as possible because this note is already mad long. Also, I understand that this subject may go over some people's heads. But……

Bey can't write songs, yo! Period.

*I'll wait til the readers calm down from shock.*

Now, if you listen—and I mean really listen to what she likes to shout out to the world that she wrote (that has undoubtedly been made a hit nonetheless), you'll find that the lyrics make no real sense. Think about it (and I'm totally about to bite off of a blog that I read on the subject a long time ago lol). Think about—um…..let's take "UpGrade U" for instance, shall we?

*ques UpGrade U* Sing with me, y'all….(first verse):

I hear you on the block

But I'm the lights that keep the street on

*record scratches* Stop singing, please.

I want everyone to look at those two lines. "The lights that keep the street on" doesn't make sense. If you think I'm wrong, read it again. Play it if you have to and sing along. But stop when you get done with the verse at least.

Let's think about this for a second. So, Bey, you're saying that the street is operated by the lights? For real, Bey?! Damn, I didn't know. Maybe I'm the dummy. K

Look, I understand the point of UpGrade U. It isn't a difficult concept to grasp at all. But, Bey, that shyt made no sense. Per-i-od. I'm gonna need for you to make sense in your lyrics. Please and thank you!

Even the chorus to "Bills, Bills, Bills", though a catchy song, didn't make too much sense. And she wrote it. Let's look:

Will you pay my bills

Will you pay my telephone bils?

Will you pay my auto-mo-bils

If you did, then maybe we can chill

K Stop there. As much as I liked this song when I was like 13, I am not in agreeance with the concept (a man to pay your bills, etc…that whole gold-digging concept, etc….) and those lyrics sucked! She thought she was being crafty with the "auto-mo-bils" line, eh? Crafty, schmafty. That shyt doesn't make sense. It isn't a double entendre and even still…..does she know what a double entendre is? *sigh* That brings me to my next point….

Bey's been accused of not being the brightest lightbulb in the package. And it's true in her lyrical content (*coughs* and interviews *coughs*). True enough, her songs are catchy as all get out and it doesn't matter what she's saying—she's Beyonce-flipping-Knowles for crying out loud. Plus no one's trying to think that hard. They just want a beat they can jive with, am I wrong? She could have been saying baby gibberish over a Dr. Dre-esque beat and folk would have called her Heaven Sent. Next!

Ms. Travis was right about one thing. Bey IS an entertainer and she's even one of the top. However, one of the best? Negative. Just because you're on the A-list, doesn't mean you are A-list. (just look at Weezy…and Weezy sucks, yo!) And as I've just proven, she isn't the best singer, dancer, actress, or songwriter—all of the components which label her an "entertainer". However, she is one of the most beautiful…and that's why she's hot © Mims. It's all in the visuals and Bey has taken heed to her visuals and been able to dupe her fans into believing that she's filet mignon, when really….she's only Popeyes. Delicious chicken, but not the best. Period.