Drawing the line between suggestive and explicit lyrics

Language is a means of communication and there are a lot of dynamics to every language. It is therefore necessary that anyone that appreciates language takes into consideration all the basic tenets that make up its composition.

Song writing employs the use of words to convey a message to an audience. Creativity in song writing and composition is when you use powerful literary devices to communicate a thought to your audience. You may not explicitly make a statement in your lyrics but the literary devices you use in your composition may give room for people to make diverse interpretations from it. The texts of songs are poetic and poetic works most times go beyond the literal understanding of the individual words.

Most times people have confused suggestive lyrics with explicit lyrics. The two are not the same; neither are they similar. They are different in all ways.

SUGGESTIVE LYRICS is subjective due to use of powerful word play. Joey B’s Tonga for example, is not profane. It is rather suggestive. It has no sexually explicit lyrics. The entire song is awash with puns. A pun is a joke exploiting the different possible meanings of a word or the fact that there are words which sound alike but have different meanings. For example, because the word ‘pussy’ has more than one meaning, it can be used as a pun to make room for open interpretations. ‘Pussy’ can either mean ‘cat’ or vagina. But the creative songwriter can use it in its ambiguous sense and that makes room for double meaning so it would be wrong for anyone to tilt the meaning to ‘vagina.’ These are sometimes called double entendres.

Tonga employs symbolism, imagery, puns, and other figurative expressions. So you may only infer and interpret it to suit you. Another person can interpret the same song differently.

AB Crentsil’s Moses is another example. It has no obscene lyrics. It doesn’t mention sex – neither does it mention any sexual organ. How can we describe a song that talks about the red sea and a stick as profane when it doesn’t make any explicit statements? The Songs of Solomon in the Bible has a lot of such texts as well.

EXPLICIT LYRICS on the other hand leads to a single meaning. Some people just revel in making jarring analogies borne out of ignorance and would want to defend every wrong thing even if they have weak defense. Let us never confuse a sexually suggestive song with a sexually explicit song. There are a lot of sexually explicit songs by Wanlov Da Kubolor and Yaa Pono whose titles I won’t mention. So are there suggestive ones by them as well.

The recent song titled “Wo Maame Tw*” (which literary translates as your mother’s vagina) released by Shatta Wale is a sexually explicit and a profane song. This is a song which doesn’t only mention the female sex organ, but also uses an expression widely known in the Twi parlance as an insult.

The sad thing is that there are some people who assert that Shattawale’s profane song is a song for the streets and clubs and not a gospel song. Which species of living things ‘live’ on the streets and go to the clubs? Monkeys? Gorillas? Sheep? Lions? Snakes?

Is it not human beings with instincts that occupy the ‘streets’ and go to the club? Are there not moral values that preclude the actions and inactions of people in the club or those in the streets?

Again, they say the Shattawale’s song is not gospel so we should not complain for using first degree profane expression in Ghana which is a big insult (underline ‘insult’) and not just mention of the female sex organ. When will my people learn to know that there is a gaping gap between MORALITY and RELIGION?

We are a bunch of jokers who are struggling to make what is morally right or otherwise look relative to the individual. Morality is a social convention. It binds everybody in society. Even if you decide to owe your parentage to the streets and call yourself a street child, society has no separate norm for you. Look, there is no way anyone can put up any cogent argument to defend Shattawale’s lyrics. If you call yourself a street person who doesn’t care about insulting people by calling their mothers’ sex organs, then society describes you as a deviant, because you have deviated from the norm.

The song is all over the internet. It will not be played on radio because the Ghanaian society frowns on it yet a certain group of people say they sprouted from the streets and they are not part of the Ghanaian society and that they have no instincts – so we should allow them to enjoy profanity. Let us be guided by the norms, mores and laws of society and act accordingly. Let us also note that the fact that a group of people enjoy perpetuating a particular act doesn’t automatically justify its propriety. Society determines what is right or wrong – not an individual.