What Would Jamie's Grandmother Think?

"My grandmother's name is Estelle Marie Talley. ... She told me to stand up straight. ... Act like you got some sense. ... And then when I would act the fool, she would beat me. ... And after she whipped me, she would talk to me and tell me why she whipped me. She said, 'I want you to be a Southern gentleman.'"

So spoke thespian and musician Jamie Foxx as he accepted the Best Actor award (for his portrayal of Ray Charles in Ray) at the 2005 Academy Awards. Foxx credits his grandmother as one of the key people who has inspired his success. And succeed Jamie Foxx has—first on television, then on the big screen and now with his first album, Unpredictable, which debuted at No. 2, then climbed to No. 1—and stayed there.

A Colorful and Charmed Life
Foxx's diverse career began in 1989, when a girlfriend challenged him to get on a stage at a Comedy Club. His natural talent for humor blossomed when he joined the cast of the Fox variety show In Living Color. That role in turn led to The Jamie Foxx Show (which ran for 100 episodes from 1996 to 2001), and then movie roles such as his revealing quarterback performance in Any Given Sunday.

Despite those successes, however, Jamie Foxx arguably didn't secure superstar status until last year, when he became the recipient of that small, gold statue. He is just the third African-American male to receive a Best Actor Oscar (along with Sidney Poitier and Denzel Washington), and one of only two men ever nominated for Academy awards in two different categories the same year. Add in starring roles in 2005's Jarhead and Stealth, and an upcoming role as Detective Tubbs in the movie adaptation of Miami Vice, and Jamie Foxx is on his way to challenging Denzel as the leading black actor today.

With the chart-topping success of Unpredictable, Jamie Foxx now becomes the sole entertainer ever to win an Oscar and hit No. 1 on Billboard's album chart. As Foxx's unprecedented accomplishment exposes him to legions of watchers and listeners (929,000 of whom snapped up Unpredictable in its first three weeks), it's worth taking a close look at whether he's heeded Grandma Talley's instructions.

Foxx's Female Fixation
Some recently converted Jamie Foxx fans might expect the man who portrayed Ray Charles to produce something similar to the famed piano patriarch. Alas, Foxx's debut has more in common with contemporary R&B's explicit fixation on the female body (an obsession that's reinforced by the dubious contributions of hip-hop heavyweights such as Kanye West, Snoop Dogg, The Game, Common, Twista and Ludcris, and R&B diva Mary J. Blige). Sex sells Unpredictable. Using lewd language, 10 of 15 tracks sing the praises of casual coupling, often with anonymous strangers.

The title track (which is representative of the entire album) includes thinly veiled innuendo about videotaping a sex act. More of the same shows up on "Warm Bed," where Jamie brags about his sexual prowess, then suggests more, ahem, unpredictable, experiences. He says his latest partner "wants to do something like girls in the films do," a reference to porn movies.

"DJ Play a Love Song" finds Jamie at a dance club asking a woman, "Won't you meet me in the bathroom?/We can pull a freaky episode." What to do if the jealous boyfriend shows up, you ask? "I got my Beretta if the n-gga come through." Right. That sounds like a good way to conclude such a "romantic" evening.

Vulgarity isn't at gangsta rap levels, but frequent utterances of "d--n" and "a--" (almost always referring to women's backsides) turn up, as well as isolated uses of the f- and s-words, and multiple crude allusions to male and female anatomy. Several tracks mix out-of-control alcoholic binges with sexual ones, such as the Kanye West penned "Extravaganza."

I'm Unique ... Just Like Everyone Else
Foxx makes the laughable assertion that "I'm nothin' like these other guys" ("Can I Take U Home?"). Indeed, most of the album's tracks argue exactly the opposite, turning Unpredictable into anything but. A genuinely unpredictable album might have recognized women's value apart from their sexuality. Instead, Jamie's disappointing debut travels the same well-worn path of misogyny, objectification and consequence-free sex that so much of R&B and hip-hop trod. Foxx has wasted the opportunity his success afforded to point in the right direction.

One of the few songs with redeeming content, "Wish U Were Here," recalls the life and influence of Foxx's faith-filled grandmother (the song says she taught him to pray during tough times). He sings, "I wish you were here/You'd be so proud of your son." His Oscar-winning performance as Ray Charles? Probably. But this exaltation of no-strings-attached sex? If Jamie's Grandma Talley were still alive today, it's hard to imagine how a woman so concerned with helping her grandson become a gentleman could be proud of his self-centered celebration of lust. Instead, I wonder if she might have grabbed him by the ear and given him a good talking to—just like Jamie remembered her doing when he "acted the fool" in his younger years.