The Second Sexual Revolution

Okay:

So, being a rapper myself, as much as I deplore the term, I often find myself defending the current state of affairs on the hip hop music scene today. I'm a bit of a snob when it comes to hip hop, but not to the extent that you might think. I actually liked the "Crank Dat Souljah Boy" song. I even got my students to teach me how to do the dance. It's just a whole lot of fun. There's no denying it. Like "The Humpty Dance" only less clever, and he's not necessarily oozing with talent, from what I can tell.

My point is, I can see the value.

I'm not always in the mood for introspective soul music. Sometimes I just need to get myself psyched up for work in the morning. In which case, Souljah Boy certainly serves a purpose.

I'm also a closet Lil' Wayne fan. He's a bit on the weird side, and usually doesn't have anything substantive to say, but he's brilliant. I thoroughly enjoyed Tha Carter 2 and kept it in heavy rotation for months. Right now it's sitting in my CD case between Nina Simone and Carlos Santana.

I don't really have anything bad to say about him. However, I am sometimes tempted to shake me head and say, "If only he would use his powers for good."

But that's mostly because he's, like, a god to the kids I teach. If he would just drop a gem or two, like Pac, here and there, it would do a lot of people a world of good.

But he's an artist. And being an artist myself, I certainly respect his right to say whatever the fuck he wants to say.

But that's not really my point. My question is to the ladies. A friend of mine and I were having a conversation the other night, (and, yes, I did get her permission to mention this) and the song "Lollipop" came up.

As a Wayne fan, I must say this is not one of my favorite songs. A little fluffy for my tastes. She asked me, "Do you feel like its misogynistic or an erotic love song?"

"But, man, I ain't never
Seen an ass like hers
That pussy in my mouth
Had me lost for words"

Shit like this, she said, really puts her in the mood. I'm editorializing to a certain extent. Her language was a bit more graphic.

She went on to explain that sometimes a woman wants to know that she can be as freaky as she wants to be with her man and he won't look at her differently. And so apparently, songs like "Lollipop", as opposed to "Between The Sheets" or "Adore" for example, have their place.

Honestly, I wasn't really surprised. But it did make me think. Has the straight forward, no sugar-coating hip hop approach to sex changed our generation's sexuality?

For example, I distinctly remember it being a lot easier to get some head after the Lil Kim album came out. Maybe it was because I was reaching the age of sexual maturity around that time. But I'm pretty sure there was some sort of correlation. I think artists like Adina Howard, Foxy Brown and the Queen Bee made women feel a lot more comfortable doing the kinds of things that would have quarantined you to your own private lunch table previously.

It's just not taboo anymore. Part of the average woman's second date sexual repertoire.

So, I guess, in a way, I have hip hop to thank for this rather quiet second sexual revolution.

Which makes artists like Hurricane Chris and DJ Unk even more tolerable. Next thing you know they'll make it cool for the woman to pay for dinner.

And that, as my man Barack would say, is what they call Progress.


Thanks for reading.


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Postscript: My daughter, on the other hand, absolutely hates Souljah Boy. Apparently, he's got nothing on the Jonas Brothers.