Got to see Ibeyi perform earlier this year, which
was cool because I didn’t really know shit about them but had enjoyed some of
their music. It’s two sisters and they obviously love each other deeply and are
both hugely talented. My takeaway as an observer is that one sister is like a really
good Democratic politics PSA, which sort of turned me off because I have no
faith in electoral politics or voting or politics or democrats or America or
shit man I barely have any faith in faith itself any more. The other sister who
maybe didn’t have the same level of perfect voice the political sister did had
a beautiful voice with just a touch of harshness, which somehow made it better
in my fucked up opinion. Also the second sister (who might be the first in
their relationship, but is second in how I retell this as an outsider observer)
could twerk with abandon, in a way that showed she enjoyed enjoying herself,
despite how fucked up the world is. This perhaps will sound fucked up and
objectifying, but you can actually tell a lot about a personality by their
twerk. Much like scrawny white girls used to pretend they had ass back in the
old days of Sir Mix-a-Lot, a lot of people who lack twerk personality will
performatively twerk, mostly due to social media posturing. But there’s a
certain metaphysical aura about being able to shake your ass with apparent abandon
while still being in control – definite metaphor for how you live your life.
Some asses lack the abandonment foundation, or just don’t even have the ass
meat (which is metaphor for life experiences) to truly twerk. Other asses are
just too wild, and you know that person is fucked up and you will make horrible
mistakes ever involving them in your life, even for something as simple as
bumming a cigarette. But some folks can shake with reckless abandon, all while
maintaining perfect control, and you know they got their shit together but also
will let loose when they need to, which is for me the perfect politics. Too
much politics is goddamned serious and always woke and still somehow in that
woke state from an extremely economically privileged position where you can
afford to stay woke all the time because you are sheltered from the storms of
actually existing like a piece of shit in a system that works to crush your
spirt every goddamned day of your life. Fuck politics and fuck being
comfortably woke. But good lord, the lumpen masses plumpy asses that can be
woke but wild, educated yet feral, can be politically aware enough to know the
world is fucked and we should fix some shit, but also self-helpful enough to
know you gotta still shake your ass and get wild and rub on each other and try
to manufacture some serotonin and dopamine in the ancient ways to stay hype
enough to remain properly woke… that’s what the other Ibeyi sister was doing.
And it made me love her, forever. She is the one singing on this song, and her
voice crackles with imperfection in the most perfect way. Nothing real is
perfect. Political purity tests pasteurize us of being real. Fuck politics, shake
your ass, smother the patriarchy in enjoyable ways. Hard work will always be
hard work, but if you don’t make it fun, everybody will just quit and go fuck
around behind the building instead.
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