Life Told Through Rap - CrazySexyCool
A poem for the women who have been called all kind of names and have had enuf
Author’s note: This is a work of fiction. The only thing real about this story is the music.
“CrazySexyCool is a word we created to describe what’s in every woman…Every woman has a crazy side, a sexy side, a cool side” – Lisa ‘Left Eye’ Lopes, TLC: The Fire This Time, VIBE
Cool
“Did you hear about the woman across the street?
The one with flowers tattooed near her feet?
A supposed ‘freak in the sheets’”
What you didn’t hear was the lonely nights
The constant fights
She knows what she’s doing isn’t right
But she needs some ‘attention’
A deficit of affection
So she ‘creeps’
Then weeps
A vicious cycle, stuck on repeat
Sexy
“Did you hear about the woman with the swinging hips?
The one with the brown, glossed lips?
A true Southern honey dip”
What you didn’t hear was her disinterest in you
In the silly games you play and shallow things you do
She’s looking for a real connection
A partner that can find the right groove
And rock her body
Like a classic Prince tune
Not forever but just for one night
The search for ecstasy as bodily delight
Crazy
“Did you hear about the great fire?
An inferno with limitless desire?
The manifestation of a scorned woman’s ire”
What you heard was the fire inside her
Begging to break out
But encased due to abuse and fear
Fear of judgment
Fear of loneliness
Fear of being her brightest self
We dim our light so the world can’t see who we truly are
Bundles of mass, destined to become stars
Further Reading
[1] AudioDiva, SoulBounce’s Class Of 1994: TLC ‘CrazySexyCool, SoulBounce
[2] Joan Morgan, TLC: The Fire This Time, VIBE
[3] Kish Lal, Energy never dies: We look at the legacy of Lisa ‘Left Eye’ Lopes’, Red Bull Music Academy
[4] Ntozake Shange, [lady in red] “at 4:30 AM”, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide, When the Rainbow Is Enuf
Further Watching
[1] For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide, When the Rainbow Is Enuf (1982)
[2] The Last Days of Left Eye (2007)
[3] Waiting to Exhale (1995)
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I was just thinking about this album and look what I stumbled on. Real lyrical, John. Love it.
COOL
“Did you hear about the woman across the street?
The one with flowers tattooed near her feet?
A supposed ‘freak in the sheets’”
What you didn’t hear was the lonely nights
The constant fights
She knows what she’s doing isn’t right
But she needs some ‘attention’
A deficit of affection
So she ‘creeps’
Then weeps
A vicious cycle, stuck on repeat