Sing Me A Story: I Got A Man

In rap and hip hop songs the trend, which you can imagine annoys me to no end, is that as soon as the singer arrives every woman is with him, although some have to be talked into it. Actually, that’s not the part that bugs me; that would be when the woman already has a boyfriend or husband. (Actually, it’s worse when the “pick up lines” are so misogynistic that’s it about how going to bed with him will be the greatest experience of her life…except when you actually examine the lyrics and it’s more about how awesome pleasing him with no real talk about her satisfaction.)  As we’ve discussed in previous installments I take issue with adultery songs but in this case it’s more an ego thing. “I’m better than your man, you know it, so let’s hook up”. In many cases the singer’s character just wants a one night stand and will gladly ruin a relationship to get it, in the video if not the song itself.

Positive K’s “I Got A Man”, from 1992, goes against type as K’s character meets a woman who has a man, and he can’t smooth talk (or what passes for smooth talk in these songs) his way into her pants. See if you can guess who is doing the female voice before the song ends.

Did you guess that the female voice is Positive K himself with the vocals processed? Because that’s where it comes from. In the video K tries to romance three women, all of which have boyfriends already. There are times I hear the lyrics to some of these songs and, man or no, I have no clue how any woman with any kind of self-respect is going to fall for these lines unless he’s that rich and handsome. And even then I don’t believe it. “I Got A Man is a refreshing change of pace in that the guy actually fails to get the woman away from her man. The video is also fun. Although let’s be honest, some of the lines still make no sense.

I’m not one of those girls that go rippin around
I’m not a dog baby, so don’t play me like a clown
I’ll admit, I like how you kick it
Now you’re talkin baby, dats da ticket
Now don’t get excited and chuck your own in
I already told ya, I got a man

True poetic mastery. The music samples a few different songs according to Wikipedia:

• A Taste Of Honey’s “Rescue Me”
• Take 6’s “Spread Love”
• Crash Crew’s “High Power Rap”
• Junior’s “Mama Used To Say”
• Freedom’s “Get Up And Dance”

There’s even a sample of Die Hard 2 in the intro. We’re going to assume the words in the song are actually him.

It may not be the best song, and it’s probably a gag song and I don’t know any of Positive K’s other songs, but it’s nice to see not every rapper succeeds at being a home-wrecker.