Please Go Away

After a very short hiatus, Justin Timberlake has decided to reemerge and grace us with his presence. Like Beyonce, he just cannot stay out of the limelight.

I certainly had my fill of JT after he ripped Janet Jackson’s breast out of her costume during the infamous Super Bowl 38 Halftime Show, and followed it up by throwing her to the wolves. Never mind the Michael Jackson rip-off that was his first album, or that incredibly annoying falsetto that he, along with other white male artists feel compelled to use when they want to show that they “got soul”; exposing the pop icon in front of the world and then placing the blame solely on her was simply unforgiveable.

A couple of years have passed and my levels of disdain for Mr. Timberlake have slowly subsided. I thought his performance in Alpha Dog was not half bad, his comedic timing during his hosting gig on Saturday Night Live was pretty spot on, especially the infamous “Dick In a Box” sketch, and after hating myself for it, I feel in love with “Sexy Back”. I was willing to forgive his overly priced yet uninspired clothing line, along with his sleep-inducing HBO concert, but I was relieved when Justin decided to take a little bit of a post-tour hiatus from the media spotlight.

Well this past Saturday, Justin made an unexpected appearance on Saturday Night Live. He was featured in a sketch in which he, along with 2 white male SNL cast members, dressed in leotards and high heels and pretended to be the back-up dancers for Beyonce’s “Single Ladies” video. In the skit, all three males fumbled and bumbled around sans-rhythm, giving the appearance of 3 feminine white men that were without any notable dancing skills. Here were my two problems with this sketch:

The first was not so much with Justin as it was with Beyonce. If I were her, I wouldn’t be caught dead sharing a single frame, stage, or song with Justin Timberlake. I know that it is vital to one’s career to work with “current” artists, but without Janet, there would be no Beyonce, so to perform with Justin is, in my book, to side with him. Secondly, let’s face facts here Justin, we all know that if necessary, you could’ve hit every single hip shake, every floor sweep, every weave toss of that “Single Ladies” routine, so to pretend like those days of 8 counts you performed as a member of N’Sync didn’t teach you anything, is just disingenuous.

After going through the SNL experience, I then had to suffer through Rhianna’s new video for “Rehab” in which Mr. Timberlake is featured as both a vocalist and as the man that she is lusting after, or trying to get over, or something or other. I was left wondering if Chris Brown or Usher were too busy? I somewhat like Rhianna, but when I put the video on in surround sound in my living room, the combination of both of their whiney voices gave me an eerie feeling that someone had hidden a gang of pound puppies behind my couch.

I realize that many people that read this will think that I’m a hater, or that I just don’t respect Justin’s “artistic capabilities”, which is simply not true. I just hate that in an age where despite our obvious achievements, it has become increasingly difficult for black artists that truly have soul within their songs or refuse to commit acts of buffoonery in order to receive airplay continue to struggle to stay afloat in the entertainment industry, while this dance move stealing, falsetto abusing pop tart continues to rape all forms of media. We condemn our own artists for being unique and label them as being “weird”, while we continuously line up behind JT and shout, “that white boy shol can sang!”