I Am Not My Hair

I think it’s about time to add this lovely voiced lady to my blog. I have been a peripheral fan of hers for a while now, really ever since I heard her first single “Video”. I was really impressed with her lyrics, sense of melody, and her velvet voice. There have been some songs that I wasn’t all that fond of but she always snatched me back with a new song with a message of self esteem for Black women, a new single or video. This song covered all of those bases as far as I am concerned. “I Am Not My Hair” sounds like an odd song title for a pop song but when you listen to the lyrics it definitely makes sense. Hair has been and continues to be a huge issue in the African-American community and this song really asks why since our hair doesn’t determine who we are or what we are worth. Basically she’s saying get over it because it’s really JUST hair.

She’s not alone on this song, she collaborates with rapper Akon who has never really impressed me but his verse on this song helped me to appreciate his talents a little more. The song opens up with him telling you how hair affects a Black mans life and it’s rather profound. He talks about how “nappy headed brothers never had no ladies” and how he couldn’t get a job because the corporate world wasn’t hiring if you were rocking dreadlocks. He goes on and indicates that he really didn’t see any kind of success until he cut all his hair off. Then India comes in with that sultry throaty voice of hers over a beat, handclaps, and a pretty piano backing her up. She takes you on a trip through her youth and her harrowing hair experiences from gheri curl to getting a relaxer to her hair falling out to her going “natural”. She takes you right up to her revelation that she is not her hair. Akon comes back in with another poignant verse about how he got harassed for having waves and how he’s never “seen nothing like that in all my days” which leads into India into the beautiful break.

In my opinion this song didn’t get the amount of appreciation it should have received for the musicianship, arrangement, and subject matter as I think it should have gotten. If you weren’t careful this song could have slipped right past you but I wouldn’t let that happen to you. For those that know this song, enjoy it again and for those hearing it for the first time, enjoy!