India takes it a step further – she’s stayed natural and just shaved the whole thing off. How dare she hack off those beautiful curls that I would kill to have? But her journey is different, and so is India’s. I’ll admit, when I first saw the Kelis video for Bossy, I was mad. That quote really made me think about how much black women obsess about their hair, how much we spend trying to rectify our hair issues, how the ultimate goal is length by any means necessary. I’ll choose how I express myself.” Preach on, sista! “The concept for the song was sparked when I decided to cut my locks, and all the different attitudes people had about it. I read this explanation for the song on her website: “As a Black American woman, a lot of your integrity is dictated by how you wear your hair,†she explains. I had no idea there was a remix of “I Am Not My Hair” featuring Akon until I saw the video. I love the original, but I would bump this in my car.) (For those of you who don’t think India is hip-hop enough, peep this remix. I’ve loved her since “Video.” She’s always dared to be different. At the end of the song, the DJ announced that it was India.Arie’s new one.Īh, India. Plus, it had a decent beat and I was totally feeling it (I mean, a song by a woman getting radio airplay that isn’t about love, dancing, or being sexy? That’s practically unheard of nowadays). I was instantly enthralled that someone, anyone would make a song about the complicated relationship black women have with their hair.
I digress.Īnyways, Steve was flipping stations and I heard a husky female voice sing “thirteen when I got a relaxer, I was the source of so much laughter.” “Waaait!” I said. Can I just tell you guys, the radio stations in Chicago are so much better than what we’ve got here in Miami! At least in Chicago there’s real diversity – you’re likely to hear classic soul, neo-soul, old school rap, alternative rock that isn’t the same ten Nirvana/Pearl Jam songs that they always play on the “alternative” station… I had to quit the radio in Miami because it got too monotonous for me. Steve was flipping stations, trying to find something good.
I was in Chicago with my husband and my sister-in-law, driving the minivan to the mall the day after Thanksgiving (Wow, I can’t believe this year has flown by so quickly!). And so I am working to have it pulled down.I distinctly remember the first time I heard “I Am Not My Hair.” And it's not always my job to educate people about how I feel, although I try. And I'm a little bit nervous about it because I know people are gonna conflate the conversations and some people are gonna judge me and they're gonna say it's not my business and you know all these things because it is a little bit of a different reason than Joni and Neil but also, it's my truth. And so I've been doing that since maybe around May, and so when this came up, I had to do it. "I made a commitment with myself, after reading this book by Martha Beck called The Way of Integrity – she challenges the reader to an integrity cleanse and it means telling the whole truth all the time and see what it will make of your life. And so artists are underpaid and Joe Rogan gets paid all this money and it's hard for me to, these days, just sit back and go, 'Oh, well, that's how it goes.'" One is the Joe Rogan conversation and for me his language around race and some of the things I've seen and heard, but also coupled with that, there is the treatment of artists by Spotify. "Yes, I decided to pull my music and my podcast from Spotify but it's dual. India.Arie on her decision to pull her podcast and music from Spotify: