If there was any confusion about the seriousness of the state of Hip Hop and R&B we need only look as far as the recent scandal with Akon. I have been wondering for quite some time what the fascination was with Akon. To me he was always just a mediocre singer, I found his voice annoying. I felt betrayed by Akon a long time ago, the first song I heard from him was "Locked Up" and I have to admit I definitely rocked to it. I thought it was soulful and groovy. It touched something in me, but when I heard "Smack That" and "I Wanna f**k You" I was offended. I did not think either song met the threshold to be considered artistic. What I heard when I listened to both of those songs was a pervert publicly advertising his disrespect for women. The shocker was that women were jamming to these songs that portrayed them as sexual objects only there for the satisfaction of men. They blasted it from their cars and danced to it in clubs. When I complained, they said "it's just a song; you're taking it too serious."
To me it was serious, and there was no way I was dancing to Akon. I was appalled when I heard him on India Aries’ "I Am Not My Hair" and wondered why she would even make a song with someone like Akon. I have since forgiven India after seeing her explanation on "Oprah" (of course she was pushed by the label into the duet with him because they claim it was hotter and more marketable, I question the integrity of the label -MOTOWN- a historically black label) and hearing her say that she has since dropped the Akon version from her albums future copies.
