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“R&B Divas” recap (3.6): Dresses and Da Brat

Last week on R&B Divas, Monifah and Terez settled on Hawaii for their wedding location; Keke, Syleena, and Mo celebrated their Grammy nomination; and Angie Stone had one hell of a birthday party. Fun times! Music! And there’s more of that this week: more wedding talk, more singing, yay! But as opposed to last week, so much of this episode just felt full of a whole lotta awkward.

We start with LaTavia meeting with a music producer she’s known forever, Jazze Pha. Since she has no new music to perform at the One Night Only divas event, I think maybe she’s expecting Jazze to magically give her a bunch of new songs. But when he asks if she’s been practicing or writing and she says no, he gives her a stop-with-the-bullshitting talk, which surprises her. She says she didn’t expect him to be so hard on her, but I think LaTavia needs some people to start being hard on her at this point. Over at a different studio, though, with an artist who’s actually serious about her career, Syleena Johnson is meeting with Wayne Williams so he can listen to the tracks she’s been working so desperately on. We get to hear two, one a spare, haunting, vocal heavy track that really lets her husky, soulful talent shine. The other’s a totally different, totally badass, hip-hop-ish track with Da Brat that I could totally see pumped out of my radio all summer. This scene isn’t so much awkward as anxiety-inducing, as we wait with baited breath along with Syleena to see what Wayne will say.

And what he ends up saying is good! He hears some things that can be improved, but he’s happy. Syleena and Syleecia can breathe. But now there’s the next step-deciding which record label Syleena will actually want to go with. Wayne really, really wants her at his own label, but there are other options she could pursue, as well. Obviously, nothing is set in stone yet, but I just feel really happy for Syleena Johnson at this moment. She works hard, she’s talented, and she could do some really exciting stuff with the right label. Power on, woman.

We also get a brief but surprisingly emotional moment with Meelah and her son Zac as they go to Zac’s weekly therapy appointment, to work on his speech and motor skills. Zac is so happy when he walks in, cheekily greeting the two young therapists, but then they’re on the floor of the playroom and one of them asks what toy he wants. Zac bursts out, confidently: “I want-” and then stops for a prolonged period of silence that feels almost physically painful, his ability to verbalize what’s going on in his head suddenly cut short.

Meelah attempts to explain what living with this is like without breaking down. It’s hard having a 4½ year old who can’t express what he wants, always having to guess at his needs and desires. But even though it’s hard, the therapists assure her that Zac is making a lot of progress. Later, we’ll see Meelah chatting with her manager Cory about the new charity she’s started, entitled PROUD (Parents Reaching Out to Understand Developmental Delays). She wants to throw a concert to get the word out about the cause, and is hoping the divas will partake.

Mo and Terez continue their wedding planning by buying plane tickets (which includes a smooth advertisement for Hawaiian Airlines) and discussing guest lists. Mo still doesn’t quite know who she’s going to invite, and they both agree that whoever she decides on needs to have the right energy. Terez, meanwhile, has her list locked and loaded, because her people, as opposed to Mo’s, are “regular,” she says.

When Mo takes offense at this, and rightly so, Terez explains that her people ask straightforward questions and she gives them straightforward answers and it makes the whole thing a lot easier, as opposed to the drama that tends to ensue with Mo’s people. Mo says, “They let you get away with that?” To which Terez replies: “Who gonn’ check me, boo?” HA! I would, Terez. I would check you. Check you OUT, if you know what I’m sayin’.

Later, the divas minus Angie head to a wedding dress shop with Mo to try on all those shiny and lacy white pieces of art. This is fuuuuun, even though Monifah seems slightly stressed about it, just because of all the childhood anticipation of THE WEDDING DRESS suddenly becoming real. However, this is where Awkward City starts to take hold, because even though these ladies are all giving critiques and support as she tries on her white dresses, none of them know if they’re invited to the actual wedding or not. Because Mo is still contemplating the “energy.” Girl, I love you, but you can’t invite your ladies to go dress shopping without also inviting them to the wedding!

So when Meelah finally confronts her about it, Monifah hesitates awkwardly for a moment, arms crossed over her chest. But, of course, she eventually says that she wants them all there. I have to say that, even though I always assumed Keke and Syleena would be there, it doesn’t seem like Mo and Terez are necessarily close enough with Meelah and LaTavia yet to invite them all the way to Hawaii. I know they’re all going for the purpose of the show, and I know I’m going to love seeing them all there together, but still. Anyway, yay for no hard feelings, yay for Hawaii!

The real bad times begin when all the divas (minus Angie, again) meet up for yet another sit-and-chat “rehearsal session,” during which Keke’s manager Tara comes in and shares the news that we all saw coming last week. Keke, Syleena, and Monifah are not, in fact, nominated for a Grammy. Only Faith Evans is, because she contributed 51% of the album. The rules have apparently been changed just this year on compilation album nominations, cutting the rest of the divas out.

The divas are pissed, and for good reason, explaining that it’s incidences like this that screw women over in the industry and create division and animosity between themselves. They seem particularly peeved because Faith sits on the Grammy committee, and so must have known about all this, and they wonder why she didn’t communicate it better. Now, this situation is tough because Faith Evans never appears to share her own side. And just knowing what we know about Faith Evans, I don’t think anybody thinks she’s being purposely malicious. I don’t think anyone hates Faith Evans. I think they just hate the situation. Syleena especially has a right to be angry, being that she personally wrote one of the songs on the album. That goes even a little further than just contributing some vocals to a thing; the full breadth of your talent has contributed to the heart and soul of it.

But the divas deal with it pretty well, committing to stay unified, and to still have their One Night Only concert in LA during Grammy week. Because oh, you’re actually not going to nominate us for a Grammy? Tough shit; we’re gonna take over your town anyway. Hell to the yeah.

Later, Meelah brings Zac over to Keke’s house so that he can play with her ten thousand babies, and they chat about life and about Meelah’s benefit concert. While I think Keke’s kids and Zac playing together is perfect, and while it seems like Meelah and Keke actually have a lot of things in common-they talk about living with a partner that you’re no longer together with, as Keke did with her first husband for a while, and as Meelah is currently doing with Musiq Soulchild-this whole scene feels awkward. And I think it’s just because Keke seems a little off during it. She’s not being her crazy Keke self, and she’s not being a bitch, either, she’s just being a little quiet and subdued, tired, not herself. But hell, we’ve all had those moments. I have those moments every day.

Meelah also asks if Keke will sing at the autism benefit concert, and Keke says sure, she’s down. If there’s a band. To which Meelah looks blank. A band? Oh yeah, maybe we need one of those? And you start to feel like maybe Meelah doesn’t completely know what she’s doing.

Syleena continues to bust her ass on her songs, which includes a studio session with Da Brat. DA BRAT! DA BRAT IS SO FINE.

After Da Brat does her rapping thing on the microphone, she and Syleena have a little chat about the divas’ upcoming concert, and even though it appears that Da Brat is just stepping into this situation, she also immediately talks more sense about it than anyone else has all season. First of all, she says, they have to actually be rehearsing. (RIGHT?) Second of all, if LaTavia doesn’t have any songs and she’s not practicing, she can’t really call herself an R&B diva. (THANK YOU, DA BRAT.)

Syleena treads this very carefully, saying that yeah, she hasn’t put in the work, BUT, she was part of a very, very big group that sold a whole lot of records. And suddenly it becomes clearer about why the other divas haven’t kicked LaTavia out of the group thus far. Earlier at rehearsal, she gave one of her worst speeches yet, about how the good lord Jesus himself spoke to her in a dream and told her not to step onto that stage again. This caused Monifah to almost spit out her drink, but still, the divas all nod and sit by patiently as LaTavia continues to waffle, when you know they wouldn’t be putting up with this stuff if it was Nicci Gilbert spewing it. But now it makes sense: they don’t want to lose that Destiny’s Child cred. And the hard part is, I can’t blame them for that. They’re sisters in song, yes, but they’re also businesswomen. If LaTavia’s name brings more people out to One Night Only, then they have to carefully value the worth of that.

(Still, though. I’m with Da Brat.)

Finally, it’s time for Meelah’s autism benefit concert, and all the divas are in the house. The club is packed, and the place looks good. But as Meelah gives an introduction, and Musiq Soulchild gets up to perform, it’s just…weird. The vibe in this place is WEIRD. There are a few technical difficulties with the sound, sure, which we’ve come to expect, but everyone seems to be just standing around, bored looks on their faces. It’s painful. Did they not serve alcohol at this thing, or something?

And then Meelah begins to beg the divas to come up on stage, and all of them sit there, stone faced and uncomfortable. They can feel the vibe in the house, and they don’t like it. It also doesn’t appear like any of them actually confirmed that they’d be singing. How could this not have been worked out beforehand?! Meelah is freaking out.

Eventually, though, Keke does the good thing and gets up on stage, even though the sound system isn’t really working, and there’s not a band, and she has to stand and make awkward jokes for a while-oh man, this is so bad-but then she’s like eff it, I’ll just do it acapella. And I only realize now that this is the first time this season we’ve really heard Keke Wyatt sing, because when you hear Keke Wyatt sing, you remember it.

She sings a spiritual that makes Monifah bawl, and even if you don’t believe in Jesus, you believe in this song when Keke sings it. Her talent is unbelievable, raw, awesome. She gives me chills.

And then Angie gets up and prods Syleena into singing too by starting “All Falls Down,” Syleena’s hit with Kanye West, except then Angie steps it up and RAPS KANYE’S PARTS too. MC Angie Stone, y’all. So in the end, the awkwardness eases a bit and the crowd finally starts jamming.

What were your thoughts on this episode? What do you think Monifah’s dress will end up looking like? Also, when can we get Da Brat to come to our side?

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