There’s a lot going on in Laila’s Wisdom
Yesterday I tweeted this:
One of my flaws is I don’t much patience waiting on other people to do something I know I can do(just as well or better). So here’s my hot take on those lines from the song “Sassy.”
First off, let’s get full context. Here are the 2 lines in question along with the next 2:
Diamonds tween my knees
Oil wells in thighs
Does my sassiness upset you?
Oh, you mad cuz I survived?!
This is a recontextualization of lines from Maya Angelou’s “Still I Rise.”
Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I’ve got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?
I wasn’t a poetry reader growing up, so I don’t have any lines from any poems memorized. I didn’t immediately get the Maya Angelou connection. However, I am a payer of attention to details. “Oil wells” and “diamonds”…hmm, where is there a place that has both of those things?
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Africa.
Laila’s Wisdom is a personal album; a full expression of today’s black woman living in The U.S. But if you think about certain lyrics from the album as also the personification of Africa, the motherland, then you’ll get to another level(listen to “Black And Ugly” while thinking about Africa). Rapsody’s lines never have just 1 meaning. She hits you with double and triple entendres. So for those lines to be only a reference to Maya Angelou is beneath her genius.
Look at how Africa is shaped. Doesn’t it look like a bent leg?
See how all that oil is in her thighs?
But you ask, “Wait what about the ‘Diamonds tween my knees’ line? That doesn’t match up the shape of Africa.” And to that I’d say what rule is there that says a visual metaphor has to be viewed from the same orientation from line to line.
Now do you see the diamonds tween her knees?
I might add more to this later, but I wanted to get these thoughts down ASAP.
To Be Continued…
