Tuesday, September 14, 2021

Behind the Video - Addictive

 I'm sure that most of you have never heard of this song by a beautiful black woman called Truth Hurts.  I had never heard of her until I saw this video on MTV one day. The song was released in 2002 as the lead single from her debut album entitled Truthfully Speaking. She's singing about her gangster boyfriend and how good their connection/sex life is and how she understands when she has to wait for him to show up due to the nature of his "work" (you know, drug dealing and what not) but it's worth it. Here are a few of the lyrics, and I get no money for this, I own no rights, but it lets you know what you need to:

"He breaks me down, he builds me up, He fills my cup, I like it rough. We fuss, we brawl, we rise, we fall. He comes in late, but it's ok. He do, I do, he knows the rules. He takes care of home, though he's not alone. I'm on his knee, he keeps me clean; and gives me things, he makes me scream."

I really liked the song, even though I'm naive and don't understand all of that kind of talk, haha. But it was the video itself that had me absolutely riveted. The song has a nice R&B / hip hop rhythm with some middle Eastern tones, so it already wasn't  your typical dance song. The video opens with her laying in a bed, and then quickly moves to lovely women with henna tattoos, belly-dancing.

Let's stop here for a minute. If you know me at all, you know that the minute I saw this I had to immediately get up and try to belly-dance. And I'm sure we all know what happened: or if you don't just ask Brie. I'm sure she's still laughing. But I digress...

So it turns out that the ladies aren't dancing in her bedroom, but in what turns out to be a club. A club with a bedroom for her and her man, apparently. So she's singing and belly-dancing with her friends, and then the camera pans to this man coming down a set of stairs but you don't see his face yet. And then I hear Brie gasp. "Mom, it's dad!"

I'm sure I broke the sound barrier getting to the TV where the camera zoomed in on this good looking black gentleman who started rapping: 

"Thinking of a master plan, you know anything you need baby ask your man. You was there from a  half a gram, now it's kilos to c-notes and high fashion brands. We ball like we own the world, your only concern is you my only girl. And when we're speaking in tongues, breathin' hard when I'm squeezin' your lungs; keep it strong, but I gotta hit the streets with I'm done..."

It was my was-band Raymond! And he was a famous rapper now? My head immediately started spinning with the thoughts of how fast I was going to get my 20 years' worth of child support! The dollar signs were lighting up in my eyes...

But then I took a closer look. Oh crap: it wasn't the was-band at all: it was Rakim, who is an actual rapper! So it must be true that everyone has a twin because I honestly thought it was my ex. Ugh!

"It's (effed) up but you never complain, you just pray I don't get killed when I hit the hood. Just another hundred mill and I'm a quit for good. Just me and you high off sex I'm twisted: you OG'd and you OD addicted." 

Well he sounded and looked like Raymond. Only clean and healthy and rich. Brie said, "Wow, I really thought that was dad. He looks just like him!"

"Yeah but sadly it isn't your father so no back child support, as usual!" I thought to myself that if Rakim was single, maybe our paths would cross someday. And I wouldn't even compare him to the was-band! 

Anyhoo, I haven't met Rakim yet. I still really like the video because Rakim is easy on the eyes and the dancing is mesmerizing, even though I quickly learned that belly-dancing isn't my forte. But it was fun to entertain Brie while I tried! And just for the record: she was no expert either! 😄




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