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Jay-Z rap lyrics create a revolting juxtaposition

July 31, 2007 12:35 am

HAVING JUST gotten off work for the day, I pulled into a gas station and got out of the car, ending in mid-song Mark Schultz's "Walking Her Home," which was playing on the Christian contemporary radio station, 89.9 and 90.5 WPER.

I'm not normally the sentimental type who goes for love songs, but I do like the one that was playing at the time, as it is one of the few that is not overdone, whiny or overly sensual.

The song tells the story of two young lovers returning home from their first date, with the chorus beginning with, "He was walking her home/ And holding her hand/ Oh the way she smiled it stole the breath right out of him." It goes on to tell of the many decades they spent happily married, and the woman's eventual death with her husband at her bedside.

Compare that with what I heard when I got out of the car, on the radio that was playing at the gas station: the lines, "Show me what ya got, lil' mama/ Show me what ya got lil' lady," from Jay-Z's famous song, "Show Me What You Got." The contrast amused me immensely.

Now, most people--particularly the young demographic for which I am writing--probably see nothing wrong with that song. Although I honestly couldn't understand most of the lyrics in the verses of that song that I Googled, I understood enough to know that it included the removal of clothes, and, well, let's just say that I don't think the subject of the song had recently acquired an item that the singer was interested in viewing.

So what? The writer of this column, you say to yourself--who is, after all, a fundamentalist conservative right-wing Christian, et cetera--heard a song at a gas station that he didn't like and got annoyed enough to write about it.

To that I would say that annoying isn't exactly the word that I would use. Sure, it's just a song. No, it's not the end of the world (and don't worry, I'm not even predicting Armageddon or God's judgment like those to the right of me--few though they may be--sometimes do).

Actually, even some of my rather conservative Christian friends enjoy various forms of entertainment media that I find to have little redeeming value. I do tend to over-analyze every little detail of media that I watch, hear or read, scrutinizing it for underlying philosophical messages.

Yet, if I over-analyze, I think too many people--whether Christians or people who consider themselves moral--do not think enough about what goes through their minds. In psychological studies, for instance, children exposed to violent material tend to act more violently than those who who have not had that exposure.

Although most of those reading this are adults or are close to it and do not automatically mimic that which they see on a television screen or hear in a song, I think they would be wise not to think themselves above the unconscious influence of a song on a radio at a gas station.

And although many of us like to admire Jay-Z for all of the many physical relationships with women that he has undoubtedly had, is there not at least a part of us that would rather be the man and woman I mentioned before, who lived a long, happy life together? Or has such a life lost all meaning in this instant-gratification society of ours?