ladybusiness | (Reply)

From:

1990-1999, but I did spend a good hour searching youtube on my own for other songs I remembered. Due to where I was I wouldn't have had access to things that were niche or not showing up on top 50 charts, because I listened to the radio mostly and had secondary access via caregivers who bought tapes (TAPES omg), and they also mostly listened to popular stuff. I have Brandy (Monica was her contemporary but I didn't listen to her much), Toni Braxton, Boyz II Men, Erykah Badu, Janet Jackson, Michael Jackson (it took me until I was an adult to understand the nuances here), Mary J. Blige, TLC, Coolio, Aaliyah, Tracy Chapman, Des’ree, Vanessa Williams, Shanice...there were probably more whose names I don't remember.

I definitely listened to plenty of white people (I loved some country music with a fierce passion) but the amount of black music I was allowed to have access to, listen to, and that was purchased for me feels so strange when I look back on that time period and see how bogglingly racist it was (frex the one time I brought a black friend home—at the time the only black student at my school—my father pulled a gun out to "show" him...needless to say we did not stay friends and I do not blame that kid at ALL).