Over the past couple of years, more and more of my personal friends have taken the step to either get married or get engaged.  When I first began to notice the trend, I thought it was just something that happens when you hit your mid-twenties - your peers start getting married.  As the numbers of engagement parties, wedding showers, and bachelor parties I was attending continued to grow, I realized, it’s not just my peers, but friends of varying ages and at varying stages of their lives have also started to take that step. I’ve had friends who are still in college get engaged, I’ve had friends fresh out of college set wedding dates, I’ve attended the weddings of people I went to college with.

I’ve also seen many older - die hard bachelor type friends of mine finally start the process of settling down… these guys, who I never thought would join the club, are eagerly making their way down the aisle.  It’s been truly amazing to see the growing number of men and women in their 20’s, 30’s, and 40’s make life long commitments to one another.   Despite the evidence I’d seen in my own life, it wasn’t untill the number of black celebrites getting married or engaged started increasing, that I really began to believe in the increasing popularity of jumping the broom.

The first one that really caught my attention was Nas and Kelis a couple years back, then Boris and Nicole tied the knot, Diddy had his twins and started talking about the “big M”, then we found out Kanye was engaged to (insert misc model you’ve never heard of), Nick Cannon put a ring on Selita Ebanks’ finger, then Kanye was engaged again to (insert another misc model you’ve never heard of). And after confessing to us everything he’s ever done wrong to a woman in his adult life, Usher married Tameka Foster. We had the weird Eddie Murphy, Tracey Edmunds (and - ahem Johnny Gill) saga., Brandy’s been married, then “spiritually united” then not married or spiritually united, then engaged (I don’t know where she stands these days). Swizz Beatz married Mashonda, Alicia Keys and Kerry Brothers got engaged, Nick Cannon, strangely enough, married Mariah Carey (who knew???) and everyone’s favorite sister Tia Mowry joined the club - marrying Cory Hardrict. The trend even made it’s way to Rikers Island this spring when rappers, Papoose and Remy Ma did the do.

And then it happened… The man who gave us lines like: “I don’t love them… I replace them with another one” and “Me give my heart to a woman? Not for nothing, never happen I’ll be forever mackin” and classic bachelor anthems like “Big Pimpin” and “I Just Wanna Love You” married the biggest star this side of Diana Ross. When Beyonce and Shawn Carter said “I Do”, it was then that I knew: Married is officially the new single. Remember where you heard it first. 

For us, the marriage of Beyonce and Jay-Z isn’t just another celebrity wedding. Beyonce isn’t just another singer. She is her generation’s brightest star - as talented as she is beautiful, as beautiful as she is intelligent, as intelligent as she is humble, and as humble as she is savvy. For her generation, Beyonce represents everything that is wonderful about the black woman. Secure in her blackness, she is the humble diva, as gorgeous in sweats and 54-11’s as she is in Cavalli and Choo’s. Able to act, sing, dance, manage a clothing line and business empire, maintain her independence while attached to one of America’s most successful black men – without being afraid of being seen eating a greasy drumstick .

Likewise, Shawn Carter isn’t just a rapper; nor is he just a successful entrepreneur. He is the poster child of success for a generation of black men equally influenced by Supply-Side economics, Michael Jordan and Rap Music. Born of a community, within our community still waiting to see the trickle down effects of the expansion of the black middle class; he encompasses everything terrible and everything wonderful about Black America. Criminal, misogynist, artist, businessman, philanthropist and husband - for many men of color, whether we sold narcotics growing up, or lived in the tree lined suburbs, whether we’re college educated or high school drop outs, whether we call women bitches, or whether we call them sisters, whether we’re broke and always going to be broke, or whether we’re the future leaders of this great country – Shawn Carter is the example. His success is our success, his failure our failure, his life story, our life story – he is I and I am him.

The union of these two generational giants, along with that of all those mentioned above, for me, is a small, but important indicator of the shifting sensibilities of young black America. It’s a sign that you can be relatively young, successful, at the top of your career, and solely committed to one person - a sign that getting married doesn’t mean the fun is over but that a different kind of fun is just beginning. Most importantly, people like Jay and B getting married gives us – a generation of men and women whose maturation has always seemed severely stunted – the best example of that age old idiom: everybody has to grow up sometime.

Or… maybe it’s just a fad…