Girls @
by Joey Purp feat. Chance the Rapper
Is this song misogynistic? Does anyone care? First, you have to listen to it. This and another piece called Elastic form an irresistible duo. I have been surfing the ocean of music that is the Spotify library, and this is one of the waves I’ve caught, or I should say, caught me. It has a rollicking beat and a jazzy trope that is just a blast, and the ultimately cool, relaxed vibe that’s so chill it’s like what I imagine a little beach vacation with Johnny Depp would be like. It also contains let us say very specific gender expectations — the video even more so.
While we’re venturing into that neighborhood, a shout out to Tierra Whack. Listen to Peppers and Onions, or Wasteland, Only Child, or Gloria. Or tune into just about anything by Leikeli47. Wash & Set is a performance piece worthy of at least Naropa undergrad. These women are singing about what it’s like to have money, not having to play the boys’ games, and the frustrations of being a female artist in the men’s room of rap music.
Have you listened to all of them? If you have, then let’s break it down.
Girls @
By Joey Purp & Chance the Rapper
| LYRIC | WORD |
| Where all the girls at? | The innocent sigh of all the boys and girls everywhere |
| With the credit cards and the high heels | We begin the celebration of all things feminine, all the glorious trappings that represent wealthy, free, black femininity to this rapper |
| The Mercedes Benz with the big wheels | The litany gets even more specific |
| When they hear this jam, they can’t sit still | Who could? It’s sublimely dance worthy. They love me. |
| Yeah they know what’s up | They recognize my expectations of them, and are willing to play along . . . |
| Where all the girls at? | This avatar of my desire, she is one of a crowd, one of a herd of like-looking and like-minded women |
| With the Birkin bags and the big house | That’s real money |
| The Mercedes Benz with the tits out | Tits out – this is all what we all want anyway, right? In this, his mythology, she’s a willing accomplice. |
| When they hear this jam, they turn the lights out | My cultural potency is enough to make women sleep with me |
| Yeah they know what’s up | . . . understanding & fulfilling expectations up to and including having sex with me |
| Polo socks, Polo tee | A perfect look, a perfectly put together ensemble, which is one with the lady herself, no distinguishing features |
| Polo bed, Polo sheets | |
| 4 door Benz, 4 door Jeep | |
| Photo booth, hoes with me | I cavort with others. She does not possess me. |
| She takin’ photos of me | |
| That she carry all around like rosaries | Her devotion to me is almost religious |
| She say she never did it with the lights on | |
| Baby we gon’ see | The interpersonal imperialism begins |
| She SoCal, she NoHo | She’s from here |
| She know smoke, she know toke | She is socially competent |
| She know Chance, she know Vic | She gets along with my friends |
| She know gang, she gon’ go | She fits in; she shows up |
| Where your heels? Where your clothes? | The next morning |
| Wear your hair in a bun when you head back home | This feature of rap music, of calling the cultural shots, of labeling and describing and recounting real life, truth, and mixing it with self-mythology, is a potent form of artistic determinism. |
| Where your purse? Where your phone? | |
| One more question ‘fore y’all go | |
| Where all the girls at? | I’m already looking for the next one. |
| With the credit cards and the high heels | |
| The Mercedes Benz with the big wheels | |
| When they hear this jam, they can’t sit still | |
| Yeah they know what’s up | |
| Where all the girls at? | |
| With the Birkin bags and the big house | |
| The Mercedes Benz with the tits out | |
| When they hear this jam, they turn the lights out | |
| Yeah they know what’s up | |
| Here Chance the Rapper delivers an exquisite flow about the outliers, which he finds sexy | |
| Where all the girls with the book in the club? | There might even be a bookish woman in the club, under the benevolent cultural overlords that are Joey Purp and Chance the Rapper |
| With the readin’ glasses on, gettin’ shook in the club | The cultural dictates are so broad-minded that even girls with glasses are included with gentle affection. |
| Readin’ Ta Nehisi Coates | Forever and forever and forever race and gender are at odds with each other as progressive causes go |
| , hummin’ SpottieOttie Dope | Another rap song, |
| With the “why I let ’em drag me here?” look in the club | Now we’re actually celebrating a unique quality of one individual. Thank you Chance the Rapper. Does it mitigate the rest? BTW, this is the most exciting line of poetry I’ve read in a long time. |
| I need a ride home and I need an iPhone Charger and your number, | These 4 lines are so gently humorous, |
| can you put your shit in my phone? | The affable, bumbling, charming incompetent vs. the put-together, practical, taken-for-granted assistant |
| Damn my phone died, can you put it in my man’s phone? | |
| Damn his car died too, can you drive my mans home? | Funny as burlesque is funny. So so so warmly funny. |
| Where the girls in the club with the black dress? | |
| With the big fat booty and the flat chest | |
| Who tryna wear the black dress to my address | |
| I got a bed, no frame, just a mattress | The contrast of the well-dressed overnight guest v. the anti-domestic, un-wifed, free bachelor. |
| Where the tall girls at? You bad! | |
| Where the small girls at? You bad! | |
| Where the mid sized girls? Where the mid sized girls? Where the mid sized girls? You bad! | In case there was any question of the object status of the women in this song, here she is labeled same as a car. And in case you might have thought this wasn’t conscious, you get the ‘You bad’ chorus to show it is conscious. It’s even slyly humorous; it’s well understood that this line would drive girls like me crazy. |
| Where all the girls at? | |
| With the credit cards and the high heels | |
| The Mercedes Benz with the big wheels | |
| When they hear this jam, they can’t sit still | |
| Yeah they know what’s up | |
| Where all the girls at? | |
| With the Birkin bags and the big house | |
| The Mercedes Benz with the lips out | |
| When they hear this jam, they turn the lights out | |
| Yeah they know what’s up | |
| Gold wrist, gold rings | |
| Gold teeth, gold chains | |
| Cold world, cold game | |
| Codename Cold James | |
| She’s takin’ off all her shame | |
| And she’s Destiny’s Child when she say my name | That’s high praise, thank you. |
| She say she never did it with the lights on | |
| That’s gon’ change | While this is another nice compliment to this creation of mine, here the interpersonal colonization is complete. She likes it with the lights out. But I gotta see this one. |
| Light skinned girl sippin’ dark liquor | All the Obstacles to sex: |
| Got a dark skinned friend, only fuck white niggas | |
| Black girls say they like girls, say they dyke girls | See Leikeli47 Girl Blunt |
| Type girls lose their boyfriends to them white girls | Worst fate. |
| And this their favorite song | Ironic! Confusing! |
| Turn this up when they turn this on | Even all the girls who aren’t as described love my music |
| Fuck you right and do you wrong | Girls are all cheaters anyway |
| One more question, what y’all on? | If you don’t play to my expectations, the dismissal is complete. |
| Where all the girls at? | |
| With the credit cards and the high heels | |
| The Mercedes Benz with the big wheels | |
| When they hear this jam, they can’t sit still | |
| Yeah they know what’s up | |
| Where all the girls at? | |
| With the Birkin bags and the big house | |
| The Mercedes Benz with the tits out | |
| When they hear this jam, they turn the lights out | |
| Yeah they know what’s up | |
| Where all the girls at? | |
| With the credit cards and the high heels | |
| The Mercedes Benz with the big wheels | |
| When they hear this jam, they can’t sit still | |
| Yeah they know what’s up | |
| Where all the girls at? | |
| With the Birkin bags and the big house | |
| The Mercedes Benz with the tits out | |
| When they hear this jam, they turn the lights out | |
| Yeah they know what’s up | |
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