In Praise Of Booty Girls
By Fantasiac
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A few African-American scholars and intellectuals have released
the thesis that Greek culture before the birth of Christ had been
penetrated with an African influence. Personally, I have not had
the opportunity to read anything in that academic realm. However,given
the Eurocentric obsession with breasts that has such a profound
effect on the female of that racial lineage and her body
image, you have to wonder where the concept of Aphrodite Kallipygos
comes from. That's the manifestation of the Greek goddess of love
in one of her forms ' with beautiful buttocks '. And since neither
the statue in the National Archaeological Museum in Naples, Italy,
nor modern females leaving cosmetic surgeons are flaunting booming
bottoms, could that be just another black thing held in check?
Well, Fantasiac is here to glorify the ladies that make today's
entertainment what it is, through their earthquaking expressions
of beauty in r&b and hip hop videos. Though you may have females
that categorize themselves as dancers or models or actresses, for
the sake of simplicity and being unapologetically narrow-minded about
it, for this article, all non-singing females featured in videos
to help enhance the overall enjoyment that stimulates the visual
facilities will be lumped together as Booty Girls. Historically speaking,
before MTV, BET and other music video programming worldwide came
into effect, we had to be happy with once-a-week appearances of women
of color provocatively dancing in a party like atmosphere on ' Soul
Train '. That show set the tone for the celebratory emphasis on the
posterior in the television age, bumping and freaking at the camera,
and a few of these women, such as Jody Watley, Rosie Perez and Heather
Hunter had learned to shake-it-but-not- break-it en route to make
stellar names for themselves in other areas of professional artistic
expression.
Every time a new entertainment format is introduced, if sex can
be used to sell it (or if it
can be used to sell sex), then it will do so. With women's
mere physical presence being
as attention-getting as it traditionally is, it was a no-brainer
for popular recording artists to use the female face and body to
help them sell their music and make the featured artists look good
as well, no matter how unattractive the performer.
That works for
me because most acts, especially in the current wave of pop stardom,
have the lack of ability to sustain your attention without some serious
additional variables. Now, Fantasiac is not going to be so dumb as
to think he can spout a videography that would anywhere near approach
doing adequate justice to celebrate the history of booty girls. However,
I will just name a few odd choices here and there, in order for certain
points to be made.
By the late 80s, even though there were plenty of gorgeous frames
adorning R&B
and hip hop music videos, it didn't hurt to see 'Da Butt'
by E.U., directed by Spike Lee in
companionship with his film ' School Daze '. I had no problem
with the crew of pedestrian-sized females, responding to
the roll call of who's ' got a big ol' butt ', and how those
girls were throwing
it with no inhibitions; if they
weren't hurting themselves, they sure weren't hurting me.
I think that planted an additional seed below the Mason-Dixon
Line, where females decided to rip the atmosphere by working
the natural
behinds to the limit. It took a few years for the right field
hand to come along with the imagination and nerve to harvest
ad package that passion fruit in an immediately delectable
way for commercial
purposes. I respect Mr. Luther Campbell and his associates
in 2 Live
Crew for blowing up with ' Me So Horny ',
but it was that video for ' Move Something ' where those
raised-on-soul-food girls, hose bodies were barely confined
in those spandex mini dresses in the bright Florida sun,
bringing the big
bang in my mind.
The notoriety Luke got didn't have as much to do with those infantile,
vulgar rhymes on top of that weak music: it was about him being the
Freakmaster, calling out to all females who were down to get that
loose in whatever town he came to, whether it be swinging from the
rafters at home in Miami or in orally sexual acknowledgement on stage
in Osaka, Japan.
Now, while thangs was changing up in the South, keep-it-real New
York was representing with its own sophisticated brand of
bootinesswith the Wrecks-N-Effect video for ' Rump Shaker '. The
song came off
well enough on radio, but it was about seeing those healthy,
well-toned, brown skin bodies bringing that zoom-a-zoom-a-zoom-and-a-poom-poom.
They were the essence of ghetto fabulousness, having a nice
day at
the beach, flavored in delicious bikini-body accentuation,
rocking those uptown hairstyles and accessories, like somebody
you know around
the way. And I, with my non-swimming self, would have followed
home girl playing the sax at surfside,
like a sailor pursuing a siren to his doom, if she went underwater
in the Bermuda Triangle. The video withstands the test of
time and remains a classic.
Now because the number of videos that grace the consistent
viewer's eyesight with bootyishness are countless, I will
expound on the elements that make up a majority of the
common household contemporary R&B / hip hopvideo. Different women
fit the script for
different purposes. A nice, slim chick with decent curves
and a pretty face can chill to one side, like she's waiting
on Sugar Daddy #1 to come through, so it's not necessary
for her to party
hard; she's just holding down designer labels and brand names
for product placement in a club atmosphere. But if the situation
is at
a strip club, you definitely don't want a female just posing.
she's gotta be working that pole, as though it's how she
eats, like the
chicks in Dr. Dre's ' The Next Episode '. Or having their
legs split to 180 degrees, with the stage, as the goods bounce,
so that guys
don't even care about or remember the music. And the goods
have to be quite in evidence, almost to a fault, so that
the ' Damn! ' Factor
is pushing the needle into the red. Otherwise, big ballers
and shot callers look like they're just throwing bad money
after good. The
element of water can bring a guaranteed bootyfest. With 'The
Thong Song', not only were females banging at the beach,
before and after
dark, but the baddest one was Hottie in the house with Sisqo
at the beginning. Videos with yachts and boats like ' Big
Pimpin ', females
will need to be looking right or get left at the dock. As
a matter of fact, any female whose skin is in the state of
wetness will have to come correct, whether sweating or
under a sprinkler (see ' Hot In Herre ' for both) or just
in the rain (name one yourself).
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