India.Arie’s “Video” works as a mission statement for the neo-soul movement by spelling out what it’s not: “I’m not the average girl from your video, my worth is not determined by the price of my clothes.” A reaction to the materialist excess of late 90s hip-hop, singers like D’Angelo and Erykah Badu made the case for traditional soul, the timeless appeal of smoldering melodies and understated arrangements. This chapter also includes some of the earlier singers that inspired them, like the unsinkable Anita Baker crushing “Sweet Love.”