Lauryn begins by quoting the Quran and advising both men and women to walk a straight path. Her music video is notably free of hyper-sexualised female models and dancers; instead the women are wearing cloths which are fitting to the occasion. The male back up dancers are also rejecting the Hip Hop narrative of excessive masculinity and are wearing tidy suits. Her lyrics focus on the male exploitation of women and the ways in which women play a role in their own oppression by conforming to modern ideals of a sexually liberated women who must ‘put out’. She uses religious and historical allusions as well as colloquialisms to show that women need to stand up for each other and themselves. She concludes the song by saying she too used to fall into the misogynistic trap but can now see the feminist position.
Lyrics: https://genius.com/15918619
Humanity4HipHop 