India.Arie’s music celebrates diversity and embraces unity. It has since her 2001 debut.
India.Arie’s music celebrates diversity and embraces unity. It has since her 2001 debut.
But the Acoustical Soul singer, songwriter and musician was feeling a bit uneasy within, just before working on her latest album.
The R&B dynamo went to Hawaii to rejuvenate her soul, reconnect with the self she celebrates in her music and get inspiration for new songs.
“There was too big of a gap from where I was and what I wanted,” she told the Defender.
The chasm created a “tension” and the award-winning artist said she was “tired of trying to walk (a) fine line.”
She emerged from the 10-day retreat with a renewed sense of herself and new songs for her album, "Testimony: Vol. 2, Love & Politics," which was released in February and has topped the charts ever since. India.Arie’s music is known to serenade cultural diversity and let women know that different is not only all right, it’s all good.
But she knows that such good news music is not always popular. In an industry where sex sells, women are often objectified, and guns, drugs and money are glorified, India.Arie points out that her own music is “kinda on the fringes of what is popular.”
She explained that the industry often made demands of her that just “were not me.”
“I have a certain taste,” the internationally acclaimed India.Arie explained. She said her taste often disconnects with what the industry prefers to push. As a result, she admits that she gets a little less backing.
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