Jilly From Philly Gets Silly

This weekend saw the continuation of the diss track, in which Chris Brown disappoints his anger management coach and unleashes a furious track directed at Quavo from the group Migos. The track mentions the death of his loved one and the thinly veiled mention of Saweetie, Quavo’s ex-girlfriend.

In the song, Brown mentions that while Quavo dated his ex-girlfriend, Karrueche Tran, he alleges that he was having a sexual relationship with Saweetie during her relationship with Quavo, messy and unnecessary, but whatever is provocative and keeps the people going.

Oh, and he did not mind mentioning that Quavo beat up his girlfriend in an elevator.

Chris Brown mentioning someone else being a woman beater is like the pot calling the kettle black and blue. While I am not quite sure if this was in response to some backlash, Jill Scott decided to tweet about how wonderfully talented Christopher Maurice Brown is, but here is the thing: that was never up for debate.

Chris Brown has been famous longer than he hasn’t and his entertainment level is top-tier but bringing up someone’s talent as a reference to how much we should forgive them or overlook their nefarious past is an insult to not only their victims but that person’s journey and evolution as an accountable person. Admittedly, Jill’s tweet does bring up a great point; we are all complex individuals in need of grace and forgiveness, but how much forgiveness does one person need? How much self-destruction is no longer about just oneself? Brown’s bad behavior towards women is well documented, but so is his mass appeal.  It’s pretty universal and simple to understand that the more we like someone, the harder it is for us to dislike them.

Brown is undeniably talented. A man standing over 6 feet and doing front flips in his 30s clearly has something special about him, but how many songs about hoes does it take for a man to be cemented into our psyches as untouchable? Speaking of cement, Jill Scott uses the example of her mother’s ex-husband, whom she asserted was abusive but stated that he was still well-loved because of his ability to lay concrete. That is apparently all it takes in order to be an honorable human; you have to be good at laying concrete, pipe or tracks.  

Jill is a Gen X neo-soul star who is just as male-centered as Lauryn Hill and Erykah Badu were during their primes.  Lauryn Hill’s magnum opus was inspired by her love affair with a married man. Erykah’s video for the song “Window Seat” featured her stripping naked in a public area in Dallas, TX, in the presence of unsuspecting people, including families with children. While Lauryn Hill does not partake in social media much, she does have a reputation for thinking that her importance outweighs her need to be considerate to her fanbase she has been essentially rocking with her because of one and a half albums that were made over 20 years ago. The other two women’s opinions on social topics, especially about abusive men, have consistently failed to miss the mark.

While we are all human, Erykah’s bid to see the good in everyone has left some questions about where her allegiance lies. That good in others has even included Hitler. Her statements about him were later clarified as her seeing the beauty in his paintings because genocidal maniacs need their art supported, too. Erykah has also been vocal about her support for Bill Cosby and R. Kelly, two serial rapists. Erykah may have felt the need to defend R. Kelly because of a personal friendship and professional relationship with him, but that does not take away from it being completely tone-deaf.

The ladies of peace and love seem to forget that love is an action that works best through reciprocity (no pun intended), and these men caused a lot of wars in the lives of their victims. 

Twitter user Ernest Owens brought up a good point about Jill’s defense of Chris Brown: when, if ever, have you seen Chris defending a Black woman the way they defend him? 

While he is allowed to like whom he chooses, other than Rihanna, Chris does not even date unambiguously Black women, but from the way he treats women, that is definitely a win for us. But what about the way these unambiguously Black women treat the community by defending men who harm women? Their support of abusers is almost just as damaging and just as justifying.

When women who are considered thought leaders and role models in the Black community speak up for abusers, it encourages abuse to continue. Talent is not a spokesperson for abuse, and to that, I say, Jill should stick to her talents or just be silennnntttt.