Alicia Keys and Jay-Z -- Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images

There’s a quote I like though I cannot remember where I heard it. The quote is “what we don’t understand we fear and what we fear we attack.” I love the quote but — and this is unfortunate — I am often guilty of attacks based on fear or because I lack understanding.

Case in point is rap, gangsta rap, and hip-hop music. I don’t get it. I’m not the only one which makes attacking the music easier when you have partners in crime.

Having said that, returning to the quote, it’s hard to understand something when you have partners in crime. Likewise, because of those partners in crime, it is hard to like the music because I fear, oh let’s say, rejection from those partners in crime for liking the music. You see, sometimes fear is hard to recognize and thus, here comes the attacks: “oh God, can they please turn that noise off!”

Yes, I am truly guilty because, as I am wont to do, I will play classical music — loud enough to compete with the threshold of pain — on my acoustically tuned speakers in order to drown out nearby nitwit who is playing some deep base beat accompanied by misogynist lyrics. Often, said nitwits play their music so loud, on jacked up improperly installed speakers, the deep base beat ends up sounding more like very irritating reflected sound which borders, in my life, on nails scratching a blackboard. Equally so, watching said nitwits bob and weave like large farm animals is equally annoying. There, I’ve said it and now you know why I’m guilty of “what you don’t understand you fear and what you fear you attack.”

Okay, so, I don’t watch music award shows these days because I really don’t want to see improperly dressed individuals bobbing and weaving like . . . you get my drift. Instead, I wait for highlights the next day and hopefully, in doing so, I will miss the drama one might encounter watching the show. I cannot sit through bobbing, weaving, and folks shouting unintelligible words into a microphone so close they appear to be eating the thing, really, I cannot. YouTube to the rescue.

I knew I could catch videos on YouTube and I did. After first reading about certain performances, I went to YouTube to search them out. I first wanted to see Whitney Houston’s performance — which I will talk about later — and I wanted to see Alicia Keyes. Why? Because they are the two women out today who really do have excellent voices. They are trained singers and they use their voices wisely. They are not off-pitch, nasally singers like many of the female performers today. Shocker, they actually sing from their diaphragm.

One of the songs performed by Alicia Keyes was “Empire State of Mind.” I understand this song is the No. 1 song in the country and, dropping my fears and lack of understanding for a moment, I actually like the song. Admittedly, I was hesitant because Jay Z is featured on the song with Keyes and, to be honest, I’m not fond of Jay Z but he was actually dressed very nice, did not bob and weave, and though I did not understand a word he said, I liked his added grittiness. Basically, it’s a song about New York and I love New York for its grittiness. It is a city that is both classy and gritty, kind of like Second City, also known as Chicago.

Another selling point were the grand pianos lining the stage. Granted, no towering arpeggios were heard from the line of beautiful black grands but, as with any eye candy, they were beautiful to see and hear.

So, in my attempt to understand the music and thus, overcoming my fear — standing up to my partners in crime who simply hate anything that screams of Jay Z — I will admit liking this song and the presentation of it at the American Music Awards.  Alas, there is hope for me yet.

New York State of Mind