I thought Brown Sugar was a love song. I thought D'angelo was singing about some woman he met in Philadelphia. I was WRONG. With my young ears, I caught the line "we've been making love constantly" and it gave me the imagery of two people doing the nasty. What tipped off my adult ears was the line "Even got a big sister by the name of Chocolate Thai." College taught me Chocolate Thai is a kind of weed. I now know the song is making references to weed. Whoooooaaaaa! What a discovery! LOL
Listen with me.
Brown Sugar is such a sensual song that its easy to think he's singing about love. He starts off the song saying, "Lemme tell you bout this girl, maybe I shouldn't" alluding to the fact that he's singing about something taboo. I used to think Brown Sugar was a woman who made D'Angelo go crazy over her, but now I know "Brown Sugar babe, I gets high off your love/I don't know how to behave" is an intimation of how he gets when he's literally high. A younger me thought "See we been makin' love constantly/That's why my eyes are a shade/Blood burgandy" meant they were up all night sexin, but I was wrong. He's telling us how his eyes look after he's been smoking. He goes on, "Always down for a menage troi/But I think I'ma hit it solo/ Hope my n*ggaz don't mind."Can you guess what that REALLY means? Of course you can. You is smot.
Now that I catch the subtleties in the music I feel like I'm discovering new music. I think thats why I appreciate older music more. You could listen to The Isley Brothers tell your mama to buss it open and you wouldn't really know what they were saying. At least I didn't. These days, metaphors and clever lyrics have taken a back seat to tight beats and catchy hooks. I'm not mad at the people getting money, but my heart cries.
Was I the last one to catch this nuance? Did you read this thinkin "duh how could she NOT catch that?" Don't tase me bro.
Stay tuned, this is only part 1 ^__^!
Email: TalentedGeneration@gmail.com
No comments:
Post a Comment