I understand that Justin Timberlake is the great White hope of R&B music. People are comparing him to Sammy Davis Jr. and calling him Memphis soul and other grandiose and inapplicable labels, in my opinion. I don’t deny that he has talent. I don’t think he is talentless. I do think he siphons off Black music, Black men’s style and mannerisms, and as of recent, Janelle Monae’s wardrobe. However, he isn’t the first nor will be the last to appropriate Black culture and style.

I am not talking about Justin Timberlake’s actual tracks now. I would gladly buy an instrumental album if Timbaland is involved. As one of my mutual follows on Twitter mentioned, When Timbaland is for you, who can be against you? However, in terms of sheer vocals, Justin Timberlake’s voice sounds incredibly weak and barely post-pubescent to me. It does nothing for me. It’s not sexy. It’s not dynamic. It’s not creative. It’s very mundane to me. It’s not terrible, now. It’s fine, I guess, on a radio on a drive. It’s just not in my iPod. It’s just not worth going wild over. I have a few of his old songs, but when I thought about it, I really was into the tracks themselves and not his vocals.

I don’t enjoy his films. I believe that I’ve seen every film he’s starred in at some time or another. He seems like Justin Timberlake in a film, never the actual character. I believe that his off-screen grandiose personality rivals the characters that he portrays.

I don’t like his public personality. He is what I think of as an extreme extrovert and he always seems “on” no matter what. I find watching him with Jimmy Fallon to be extremely exhausting, for example. It causes me physical exhaustion to watch such a personality; it’s not pleasurable to me.

Unlike the mainstream obscuring Jill Scott while hailing Adele as the greatest, I don’t automatically prefer Justin Timberlake over Black male R&B and soul singers. I know that I am supposed to like Eminem not Jay-Z, Adele not Jill Scott, Amy Winehouse not Erykah Badu, Duffy not Chrisette Michele, Lady Gaga not Beyoncé and follow all of the other comparisons that I have seen. I think it is possible to like both (or neither) in each juxtaposition, but honestly, I prefer the Black artist in each one. They’re…better. No matter what the comparison is, I’ve seen both White and Black people hail whomever is White as the better artist and then avidly proclaim race is not a factor. This is kinda funny to me, actually; not “haha funny” but “you cannot be serious” funny. After I saw people refer to Jazmine Sullivan as “bitter” but Adele as “hurt” last year, I was reminded of how White supremacist thinking impacts everything. (This isn’t to say that I don’t like any White music artists, I do. I totally stan for Stevie Nicks, Ann and Nancy of Heart, Dolly Parton, Amy Lee of Evanescence, and Bonnie Raitt, for example. Their vocals slay.)

One good thing that I can say about Justin Timberlake (which actually isn’t truly controlled by him at all) is that his stans are quite pleasant. Timberstans are usually nice about things. And yes, there are some fans of his, especially Black ones, who like whatever they think is “good music” and aren’t about solely applauding anything “Black” in a White package. They aren’t as passionate (like me) or violently irrational (like some I’ve seen on Twitter) as Beyoncé stans (I love Bey but I also act right), or as problematic and irritating as Quentin Tarantino stans and Chris Brown stans. That’s a good thing, right? I dunno.

Anyway, I saw a post that perfectly sums up what irks me about Timberlake:

buddyx: justin timberlake seems like the type of nigga that’ll chill with black people but when the cops show up, he dont know u wretchedoftheearth: he already did that to janet

And there you have it. Any chance I would have given him as a star died at the Super Bowl. DIED. (And this very dipping in and out of Blackness concept that they allude to was discussed in a great piece on Colorlines.)



See, to many people, Janet Jackson is Michael Jackson’s sister who purposely flashed her breast and did nothing before or since. To me, she is an innovative genius in music, one who Michael Jackson said inspired him frequently, one with vision, style and uniqueness rarely matched. Her influence can be seen in so many artists’ work. Kelly Rowland straight up channels her. As far as I am concerned, she did not have to create another album after Rhythm Nation in order to be iconic. Yet she continued to give us life with album after album after that. That album came out fifteen years before the 2004 Super Bowl incident. The Velvet Rope? Genius. Yet many reduce Janet Jackson to Timberlake’s stunt and subsequent betrayal (Janet said she felt hurt by a friend) while applauding him as a White god here to save R&B from itself.



So no, I am not a fan and definitely not a stan. I won’t Twitter search his name to find Timberstans to attack. I haven’t tweeted about him except for a handful of times since his recent album release. But sorry, there’s no Timberlake vigil in these parts. I don’t wish the man any harm but I can’t stand in line to blow smoke up his butt. I’ll be too busy listening to other music.

I understand that because of Timberlake’s record sales (and his Whiteness), people are going to say that he is “better” than any Black male R&B and soul singers. Capitalism and White supremacy win again.