India.Arie has doubled down on her criticism of Yung Miami’s “Spend Dat” and the legacy of the late music executive Clive Davis.
In a video post shared on her Substack titled "CLARITY. COERCION. CELEBRATION!!,” the Grammy-winning singer-songwriter clarified that she doesn’t think people should “boycott” Miami’s rising hit, but she does think listeners need to be more aware of what they’re supporting. She also used the opportunity to celebrate the 20th anniversary of her third studio album, Testimony: Vol. 1, Life & Relationship, but stressed that it was “wrongly reported” that she was the one calling for a “boycott” of the song.
"I did not call for a boycott; I commented on someone’s thread calling for a boycott,” she said. “I think people should learn how to do what’s best for them. That’s what I want for people. I want you to have an understanding of what’s good for you, and have the love for yourself to do it. That’s what I want. But also, who cares what I want for you? I know what I want for me, and I do what is best for me. … I think people just need to make choices for themselves."
The four-time Grammy Award winner co-signed a Threads post that called for a “boycott” of the track. “I believe it’s degrading to our culture,” the user wrote. “At some point, we have to take seriously the power music has over our perception and the values it reinforces. This can’t be the song of the summer.”
Aerie responded and suggested that she’s not a fan of “Spend Dat” either. “I spent my entire adult life, caring way too much,” she wrote. “Because I finally learned that not everybody Cares (with a capital C) and explaining it to them is not gonna make them care. Everything you listen to see or eat is going to influence you. So make wise choices y’all.”
She also addressed recent comments she made about the late Clive Davis in a series of posts on Threads after his death on June 22 at 94.
“ANY DOMINATE [sic] RECORD LABEL, at which Clive Davis was at THE TOP, for 5 decades?, hurt LOTS of artists getting there,” she wrote at the time. “When people talk about the music industry being so awful. It's the record label executives that do that. … THE POINT I'M MAKING IS: THAT NO RECORD LABEL EXECUTIVE WHO IS DOMINANT IN THIS BUSINESS IS ETHICAL.”
She said that she has plenty of negative experiences with music executives, detailing a story about when she was told she looked "too muscular" and “looked like Serena” on the original cover for Testimony Vol. 1. The record was released by Motown, which Sylvia Rhone was the president of at the time. While she didn’t initially name this music executive directly, she later let Rhone’s name slip when describing how she went behind her back to get Akon on a remix of “I Am Not My Hair,” despite Arie not wanting to work with him.
