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Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you should know about the shade that’s being thrown at Beyonce regarding her pregnancy and music. Instead of a giving Beyonce a round of applause, people are slapping her in the face. The same folks who practically begged her to get pregnant have all but turned their backs on her, calling her everything but a child of God. Listen to the media and you’ll be led to believe she’s wearing a prosthetic baby bump... which in itself is just ridiculous (she’s Beyonce, why not just go off the scene for ten months and then say she was away because she was pregnant?). Then it’s she got pregnant and is being covered by the blogs for attention because her album sales are low (which I don’t quite understand how selling 300k records the first week is low. It may be lower than her past sales, but other female singers would kill or die to sell 300 thousand total).

 I can imagine Beyonce’s job description sounding a little something like this: “Sing, dance, perform, be happy, travel, be away from your family, deal with ridicule from fans, bloggers, the media and critics without retaliation, without lashing out and disrespecting anyone, always be in the studio—simultaneously on tour—and put out an album people love, yearly.” Of course, “other duties as follows” would be tossed in at the end. That includes interviews, staying fly and made up even while on vacation.

It’s amazing to me how people who can’t even walk an hour in Beyonce’s stilettos have so much to say about how she chooses to live her life. I’m biased. I’ll be the first to say it. The truth is, I JUST became a Beyonce fan. I wasn’t sold on her being a great singer and felt that I knew girls in the hood who could dance much better than her. What changed my perspective were the facts. People downplay 15 successful years in the music business, especially as a singer. The reality is, singers of our generation don’t have the same consistency as legends of the past—Mariah, Patti, Madonna. Beyond that, when is the last time a girl group split up...wait...ANY musical group split up/went solo and was successful afterwards? Don’t worry, I’ll wait. Xscape...No. SWV...No. Changing Faces, Total, Envogue; the list goes on. It’s not something that happens. So the fact that Beyonce has been able to go from a girl group of 4 to 3 to an international solo artist...the odds of that happening and her being successful at it are slim to none. Give the girl her props for beating the odds.

She’s done it all while not having any public meltdowns, not being arrested, not killing anyone, NEVER throwing shade on anyone, even though, she could. She said several years ago she wanted to become a mother at 30, she’s doing it. Even though most of her critics are women, she still makes music for them, empowering them. That in itself is deep. She has the money, the time and the resources to really write, sing and perform some killer rebuttal ish, but she doesn’t. You say she’s an attention whore and she’s trying to teach you a lesson on how to run the world. It’s been said time and time again that women need to stick together and uplift one another. Maybe we should start with uplifting Beyonce. After all, all she’s trying to do is pave the way for women to be successful and live and enjoy her life in the process. She happily gave a piece of her life to an audience who wasn’t entitled to it and didn’t deserve it; the least you could do is let the girl shine. Enough with the shade.


Each one teach one. Live and Learn!