Destiny's Child
Destiny Fulfilled (Sony Urban)
Playing July 12 at Gaylord Entertainment Center
Destiny's Child would have the coolest sorority. Imagine big sisters Beyoncé (Knowles), Kelly (Rowland) and Michelle (Williams) at a standing-room-only rush briefing the new pledges through song: "In this sorority, you'll be seen in nothing but the latest designer clothes ('Bootylicious')," they'd begin. "You'll learn how to catch your cheating boyfriend and handle it with dignity ('Say My Name'), you'll give those 'good for nothing type of brothers' ('Bills, Bills, Bills') and those annoying zeros ('Bug a Boo') the boot and finally attract that baller you've always wanted and fall 'Dangerously in Love.' " And all of it by being "Independent Women," à la their 1999 pop-feminist anthem of that name, a multi-Grammy-winner and theme from the movie Charlie's Angels II.
The secret to DC's bumpin' "Independent Women" is the mantra-like passage that leads to the chorus: "The shoes on my feet (I bought it) / The house I live in (I bought it) / The rock I'm rocking (I bought it) / 'cause I depend on me (If I want it)." The song's female protagonist is a materialistic "honey" with game galore: "I buy my own diamonds and I buy my own rings / I only ring your celly when I'm feeling lonely.... When it's all over, please get up and leave."
All of which makes Destiny Fulfilled, the trio's latest and apparently final album—they've announced that they're breaking up after their current tour—all the more perplexing. In many ways, Destiny's Child embody a very affirming black female confidence, an elegant mix of self-respect, beauty, intelligence and power. Currently, their vocal blend is more textured and moving than ever, yet with this record, the trio seem more concerned with subscribing to traditional, highly sexualized and limiting roles for women than with promoting that spirit of autonomy. They seem less concerned with singing about female self-actualization than with recording sentimental or danceable songs about finding and keeping Mr. Right—or getting rid of Mr. Wrong.
One of the chief offenders on the trio's new album is their current single "Cater 2 U," written by producer Rodney "Dark Child" Jenkins. The record is pretty enough—a winding slow jam with dulcet guitars; its message, however, is what really grabs your attention. The three women play ultra devoted "wifeys" to fellas who just "blow [them] away" as they teasingly recount all the swell things they're going to do for "their man" when he gets home from a hard day's work. "Your wish is my command," Michelle coos at one point.
Of course, women who truly love a good man can relate to this song and the desire to make him a nice meal, even to "help him put [his] doo-rag on" or give him a "foot rub" or a "manicure." Such women sing along to "Cater 2 U" in the name of real love. Ultimately, though, the single devolves into a sappy, '50s-housewife male fantasy, with Beyoncé, Kelly and Michelle playing it more subserviently than June Cleaver, singing how they'll take off their man's cufflinks, fetch his slippers, run his bathwater and roll over for him in bed—the whole nine. Beyoncé's verse even goes so far as to tell her male companion that her "life would be purposeless without [him]," and Kelly sings, "If you want it, say the word...'cause I know another woman is willing."
The album's third single, the subdued "Girl," invokes sisterhood, but it doesn't really celebrate sisterhood in and of itself, but rather the role of sisters to serve as temporary refuges who help each other get over bad relationships or who empower each other to find better men. Produced by 9th Wonder, the record's slinky Dramatics loop intrigues, but not enough to make up for the song's limp melody. A much better track from 9th Wonder is "Is She the Reason?" Here, hooked by a heavenly interpolation of Melba Moore, the three women deliver poignant lyrics that pretty much any woman who's been hurt by love can feel.
The trio seem to "get their mind back," as well as their groove, on the Rockwilder-produced ballad "Free," which, like the infectious "Lose My Breath," is one of the true hits on the disc. DC's singing recalls the votive sound of The Emotions à la their 1977 hit "Don't Ask My Neighbors," as well as the windswept harmonies of the Jones Girls' "Nights Over Egypt." Even better, Beyoncé qualifies the submission of "Cater 2 U" when she adlibs, "I'll cater to my man, if he'll cater to me," underscoring how true devotion requires reciprocity. And with the inward-looking "Through With Love," a dancehall-tinged bit of rock-gospel produced by Mario Winans, the trio get spiritual, singing, "I found a new love / I finally found it in God."
But then the women lose their minds again with the chicken-head logic of "Soldier," probably the most troubling song on Destiny Fulfilled, replete with some formulaic crunk from producer Rich Harrison. DC shamelessly capitalize on the war in Iraq by calling the song "Soldier"; the lyrics, however, aren't really about the men or women in the nation's military, but about the desire to date a "street" soldier—a high rolling, gun-toting drug dealer, a "rude boy who's good to me with street credibility." Someone who is "always riding big on the freeway" in the cars with "candy paint" and is "known to carry big things (if you know what I mean)."
Sure, grown women know better than to take Beyoncé & co. too seriously, but the song's glamorization of thug life can be dangerous to the young urban girls who idolize DC. An alarming number of young women are killed or put in prison every year by getting involved, often unknowingly, with the drug dealings of their men—for example, Misty Carter, who was shot to death in her apartment in Atlanta last year. Alas, contrary to DC's early, inspirational notion of "independent women," the female protagonists in "Soldier" are looking for fighters who "know to get dough" and can "take care of [them]." So much for autonomy.
