Remember back in 2007, when there was a singer named J. Holiday?
He had two major hits —”Bed” and “Suffocate”— and put out three albums over the next seven years. Well, he’s back and had a mouthful to say about the current state of music and Black women.
“So apparently the Black men are still losing to the women—I get it,” he said in a video posted to Instagram. “No disrespect, I was raised by a woman, I have two older sisters, man, I have absolute, all respect for Black women. But with that being said, understand this, man: Black men, African-American men, men from the hood, we go through everything to make sure that who we care about are taken care of.”
Holiday goes on to criticize three top Grammy-nominated artists who he thinks are profiting from pain.
“Beyoncé, Cardi B, SZA—all y’all motherf**kers—stop using that f**king pain to make it OK to say some bullsh** on your record, and get nominated for a Grammy for going through some bullsh**. Because so have I as a Black motherf**king man.”
So, he’s clearly mad. And apparently, the upset stems from 10 years ago when he lost the 2008 Grammy Award for Contemporary R&B Album to Mary J. Blige’s Growing Pains.
Holiday neglects to mention that all five 2018 Record of the Year Grammy nominations are from men who used their personal pain to make their records. In fact, JAY-Z’s 4:44 is considered his most introspective album ever and Kendrick Lamar literally has songs named “Feel”, “Love” and “Fear on his album, DAMN.
Old grudges live long. Unfortunately for J. Holiday all the women he called out — and especially Mary J. Blige — are doing just fine regardless of his off-brand two cents.
