Summer Time Girl

In high school, we knew which girls to approach, and stay away from. Some whose demeanor expressed their desire to be left alone. Some whose aura didn’t hold the words to communicate this, but their shyness was more repellent than it was alluring.

In 2011, Drake pioneered the emotional and lover-boy raps we love today. “Take Care” was an era that never left my mind’s space. He made music we believed would give us the assuredness to approach the quiet girls. His atmospheric sounds and emotional trilling crafted a countenance that would offset what Lil Wayne, Gucci Mane, and Jeezy created. “Take Care” and “TM103” were released almost a month apart. Jezzy’s “I Do” and “Leave you Alone” would contend. But his hustler and dope boy aesthetic didn’t do what Drake’s philander-raps and vulnerability did. The quiet girls were the girls that spoke little but could talk big. Beneath their mien was usually an affinity for art; the abstract. But we always left her alone. She nourishes her heart with the taste of music.

Black women have a gift of measuring the quality of almost anything and, by their intuition, accurately judging the value of art. They know what to fall in love with and not be impressed by. I remember hoping to be the kind of man Aretha Franklin was Day Dreaming about in 1972, even if the possibility of such was kept only in her dreams. A black woman's voice will awaken the belief in your existence and tenderness. The classic girl. She alone is the renaissance, and timeless art is reflected through her essence. Whatever she chooses to lose herself in is where you’ll find her.

R&B captured portraits of love I failed to see in real-time, over and over. Soul music was where perfect love flourished and everyone wanted to experience it. So we’d continually return just to live in the stories music created, even for a moment. Sounds from the soul reflect depths of love and pain we can only understand in song. Stevie Wonder’s voice could cling to your ears and heart, but his writing ability was the soil from which it emanated. The words of a blind man helped so many see love, clearly. His vision was diminished in our reality but unmistakably guided him within his own. Beautiful words deserve a melodic voice to live in.
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Told by: Kwon