Hair Today, Hair Tomorrow - India Arie

India.arie has always been an artist who genuinely celebrated her sense of self. On her first hit, 2001’s "Video," she mused, "I’m not the average girl from your video, my worth is not determined by the price of my clothes." With simple acoustic melodies and laid-back soul inspiring her palette, Arie unabashedly loved herself—not for what she had, but for who she was. Arie made a similar statement with "I Am Not My Hair," a self-explanatory track that frankly yet playfully promoted inner beauty. Arie’s stance was so clear and empowering, her listeners looked to her as a guru of sorts. But she’d rather not think of herself that way. "People think, ‘She’s talking to us! She’s preaching to us!’ I always hate when people say [I’m preaching]," says Arie. "But really, all those songs I write, I write for me. Self-acceptance and confidence was not just something that I had to work on as a young woman—it’s something I work on every day. What’s that saying? ‘You teach what you want to learn.’ That’s me."

Arie schooled herself well. Her last album, 2006’s Testimony: Vol. 1, Life & Relationship, was a soul-searching journey after a break-up that focused on hope and forgiveness rather than pain and resentment. And now, with Testimony: Vol. 2, Love & Politics, the singer-songwriter is letting herself mature further by uncovering themes that she calls "blatantly political." "I knew that my next album was going to be called Love & Politics before we knew who Senator Barack Obama was. I had all these songs that didn’t fit in the context of the last album," she says. Arie also shied away from recording them because she feared "coming off as too heavy or too preachy." But thankfully, she got over it. "The main thing that changed was my own internal climate. As you get older you care less about what people think. And you’re like, ‘I’m gonna wear this. I’m gonna say this. I’m sorry, my parents are just gonna have to hear me cuss, because I’m about to cuss somebody out,’" she laughs.

"I have a song called ‘Ghetto,’ and I did a remake of a Sade song, ‘Pearls,’ and I have a song called ‘Better Way’ about politics and the music industry," she says of the album’s offerings. Even on the upbeat jam "Chocolate High" with Musiq Soulchild, where lovers sing about each other’s irresistibility, Arie hears political undertones. "It’s about black love, loving your blackness, two young black people being in love," she says. "Anytime you see two young black people on TV, one of the main conversations they want to have is about hip-hop and the misogynistic messages in hip-hop. They don’t talk about love." Clearly, for Arie, school is still in session.