==========
Pictures:
A photo from the Millie Jackson "Back To The Shit" album cover photo shoot.
My homage to Millie Jackson taken in February 2007.
Millie Jackson's iconic "Back To The Shit" album cover.
==========
.....
**Background singers repeating** "Whooo-o-o-o, Whooo-o-o-o..."
"Due to the fact that there are... some people
Like the lady over there say she was...
Who thinks I'm dirty...
I really couldn't give a shit, but.
'Cuz y'all buy my records... um hummm.
Them same ones be talkin' 'bout I'm dirty...
Be buyin' my shit and hidin' it."
-Millie Jackson
from the "Phuck U Symphony"
Monday night I was talking to Joey Bahamas, a blogging buddy of mine, author of The Rake N' Scrape Chronicles (click here to check out his blog) and I told him that as controversial as people think my blog is (because it's really not so controversial to me) I've never gotten much negative feedback about it. All I get are people giving kudos and saying how wonderful it is and how it has helped them become more comfortable with themselves being young and gay. Well Joey, I spoke too soon.
After I got off the phone with Joey I went back to my laptop. I was looking at post I left for my home girl Angie, the moderator of the Official Janet Jackson Message Board, with a link to the blog. In the thread someone questioned whether I should divulge so many intimate details of my life. This was my response to that person:
"I'm a very open person about my life.
Each of my blog posts has a lesson attached to it.
And believe it or not it helps people.
Especially gays who are ashamed of their lifestyle.
I get emails about it all the time.
That's why I do what I do."
A few replies down someone else chimed in with this sentiment, aimed at me:
"Dirty gays only apply [their] life to yours because it is quite similar!
And gays who are ashamed of their lifestyle couldn't learn anything from you I'm sure!
There are a lot more positive "real" examples to learn from."
Wow, so they think I'm dirty... After I responded and read that queen like the New York Post my mind jumped right to Millie Jackson. I felt so akin to her at that moment. Then I remembered that spoken word intro to "Phuck U Symphony" and the picture I had taken of me back in February, it was fate. Like Millie I was being called dirty for just keeping it real and talking about my own life. Mindin' my own dayum business.
Millie Jackson is a very underrated soul singer who released most of her albums during the 60's, 70's, and 80's. While people like Diana Ross, Patti Labelle, and Aretha Franklin were hitting it big on the R&B and pop charts much of Millie Jackson's brand of soul music mixed satirical stand up comedy-ish spoken word interludes (like the one I began this post with) about life, relationships and sex were a little too raw to be fully accepted by pop audiences. Her realness often kept her songs, with a few exceptions, under the radar. You may remember one of her few TV appearances as Florine, Martin's mother's friend in a Thanksgiving episode of the Fox sitcom "Martin", (season 3, episode 11, aired on November 24th, 1994). The highlight of her appearance was her performance of "Pass The Peas Like We Used To Do" with Martin's mother (played by Martin Lawrence) and Pam (played by Tichina Arnold).
Even though people often said that her music was dirty and raunchy. Millie Jackson never let what people said change her, often the adversity would make her come back harder. In the midst of performing songs such as "A Child Of God (It's Hard To Believe)", "If Loving You Is Wrong I Don't Want To Be Right", "If You're Not Back In Love By Monday", "A Little Taste Of Outside Love", "Never Change Lovers In The Middle Of The Night", and "Phuck U Symphony" her spoken word interludes often reflected what was going on in her life. She pulled no punches and was no stranger to openly talking about sex or using profanity. There would be no Lil' Kim without Millie Jackson, Kim actually sampled the spoken word piece from the top of this blog post in her song "Durty" from her last album "The Naked Truth".I'm not even sure why someone call me "dirty", why? Because I talk about sex, something that we all do (well, maybe not that person), something is as natural to human beings as breathing air and drinking water. Society and religion has brainwashed us into thinking that sex is dirty and that even our sex organs, our dicks and pussies or penises and vaginae, if you will, are dirty and don't let me get started on the gay thing...
Like Millie Jackson I tell the stories of my life with humor and candor
with the purpose of entertaining and informing my audience. I don't write about sex in an effort to titillate, any mention of sex in my blog is because it was an integral part of the story I'm trying to tell and of the message I'm trying to convey. We're all adults here, we've read the disclaimer in big red letters at the upper left corner of the page. A little sex should be such a shock. It's a part of life, grow the hell up and accept it.
My greatest satisfaction comes from the comments and the emails from people who enjoy the blog and those who tell me that it has helped them. People leave here feeling better about themselves and life in general whether gay or straight because they know that somebody is going through some of the same things they're going through. They can avoid some of the pitfalls and drama I've been through by reading about what I did and doing the opposite. And while most people aren't as vocal about their lives as I am I'm sure that some of you have stories that make mine look like child's play. Every generation has it's story tellers and I'm proud to be one of them.
If you hate me so much lemme tell you what you should do... Ya ready? Ya listening? STOP FUCKIN' COMING HERE! The worse thing you can do to a web blogger is just to make the personal decision not read his blog. You can't tell other people not to read it 'cuz that's gonna make them only want to read it even more, you'd only be doing free promotion for me and why would you want to do that? But the funny thing about haters is that as much as they'll try to go away they can't stay away. For this hater to even make such a half-assed assessment of me would take reading a few of the more sex related entries (because they're not ALL about sex). So continue to read my blog and hide it, I won't tell if you won't.
If you wanna hear me go off on another hater read this post.
LINKS:
- Millie Jackson's Official Website & Record Label: Weird Wreckuds
==========
Playing In The Background...
"Phuck U Symphony"
by Millie Jackson
from the album "Totally Unrestricted! The Millie Jackson Anthology"
and
"Durty"
by Lil' Kim
from the album "The Naked Truth"
and
"Dirrty"
by Christina Aguilera
from the album "Stripped"
and
"Still Dirrty"
by Christina Aguilera
from the album "Back To Basics"
==========
