Mic Drop: Masterful Musicians Makin' Moves

We’ve got a lot going on here, and guess what? I’m here for it. Black women are dominating the first week of May’s charts, floating between different genres and but putting us in our bag and taking us back out. Music is intersectional as all hell, but we knew that already, so it’s time to talk about an aspect of music that holds us all together: the movement.

Each song and video this week brings us a different type of movement. This can be defined as the way that the music physically makes your body move, or the emerging feels that might spark a certain movement, or even the type of movement that makes you have a change of heart.

Now, let’s talk about Willow freaking Smith. I was her age when “Whip My Hair” played incessantly on the radio and thought she was the coolest person in the whole world for shaving her head—and begged my parents to let me shave mine. Suffice to say, I kept my hair. But now, that same level of bad-assery is coming in clutch and giving Janet Jackson-meets-TLC-meets-Kourtney Kardashian’s boyfriend (Blink-182’s Travis Barker, who appears on her new single).

But so. much. cooler.

The movement continues as Spice, the self-anointed “Queen of Dancehall” steps out onto the stage with none other than Sean Paul and Shaggy. Their newest hit, “Go Down Deh” screams party and any summer that we’ve had up until summer 2020—so maybe it’s a good omen. That vibrant and joyful energy is carried over to Ai Bendr’s track, “Coffee,” though in a much different way.

So yes, we’re making moves, starting movements and being emotionally moved this week. Are you ready?