When Black Music Ain't Black

The British media snubs black artists: that's the gospel according to singer Estelle, and she's preaching to the converted, as far as I'm concerned. The list is long: Justin Timberlake, Joss Stone, Amy Winehouse, Robin Thicke - artists who are given huge media coverage simply because they're white artists doing soul. Now don't get me wrong - although I don't like white soul artists myself, I don't see why white artists shouldn't rap or sing soul, in principle. It isn't a case of black artists should stick to hip-hop and white artists to heavy metal. But there's a problem when amazing artists are overlooked because Justin Timberfake is stealing the limelight from, say, Nathan. As Estelle says,

"I'm not mad... but I'm wondering - how the hell is there not a single black person in the press singing soul? Adele ain't soul. She sounds like she heard some Aretha records once, and she's got a deeper voice - that don't mean she's soul. That don't mean nothing to me in the grand scheme of my life as a black person. As a songwriter, I get what they do. As a black person, I'm like: you're telling me this is my music? F*** that! They keep trying to tell me in the media what soul music is and I'm like, we know what soul music is, stop f***ing around with us! You're taking the p*** out of every black person in the country! And then they say, 'Oh, don't bring race into it.' We're not stupid, stop it."

There's dozens of talented could-have-beens littering the British music scene: Shaun Escoffery, Lynden David Hall, David McAlmont, Kevin Mark Trail (right), Beverly Knight, Tunde Baiyewu, Ephraim Lewis, Omar, Damage, Nine Yards... and the question remains: why would anyone want to waste a second on Justin Timberfake when you can have the real thing?