Lesbian Hip-Hop on Wax

"This joint right here? Don't nobody take this serious right here; this is ghetto comedy."

"I'm just playin'; I don't want anybody to take this serious here."
And the phrase "I'm just playin', but I'm sayin'" is repeated constantly as part of the hook.

So I gather we're not meant to take this song too seriously... Well, reckless maniac that I am, I'm about to talk seriously about Madee's "Dreams [2001]" on Sure Shot Records anyway. There's no date on the label, but I think we can all hazard a safe guess. Sure Shot's a pretty dope little label... it put out records like Craig G's "Welcome To the Game," Special Ed's "Think T.W.I.C.E." and Nine's comeback 12". So when you see something you've never heard of on that label, you check it out.

Madee is someone I'd certainly never heard of before - though a quick search online shows she has another 12", as well - but the concept is definitely familiar territory. It's a follow-up to Biggie's infamous B-side "Dreams [of Fucking an R&B Bitch]" from 1999. So, like I said, familiar territory... I mean, a whole grip of MCs recorded their own follow-ups... Lil Kim, Ras Kass... eventually Thirstin Howl III capped it off by raising the absurdity levels off the charts with "Dreams of Fuck'n a Cartoon Bitch" about sex fantasies involving cartoon characters. Let's face it, the whole strength of the original was the shock value novelty, so all the follow-ups just feel tawdry and desperate. But there is something that makes this one interesting.

The unspoken full title of this song - like "Dreams" would be "Dreams of Fucking an R&B Bitch" - is "Dreams of Licking an Industry Chick." Bearing in mind Madee is a woman, that makes this pretty much the only openly lesbian rap song I can think of on wax. Don't get me wrong, we can google "lesbian rapper" right now and get 1,000 hits of lesbian MCs none of us have ever heard of with a couple songs on their myspace players and interviews on websites that specialize in homosexual hip-hop. And I understand there may be a couple *known* MCs who are lesbians in their personal lives. But none of them have any openly songs about lesbianism that I can think. The closest I can think of are some of those controversy-seeking "I'll kiss a girl if it'll get me on MTV News"-type songs by artists like Queen Pen or Nicki Minaj, which flaunt a generic bisexuality for attention. But I can't think of any other "I'm a lesbian; this is my song about being a lesbian, and here it is pressed on actual wax" records.

Production is credited to one Kenny Cash, but Madee's just rhyming over Biggie's "Dreams" beat (which wasn't even original then), so that's no great accomplishment. But he's also credited with writing the song, which is both interesting and disappointing. Lyrically, it's completely predictable anyway - not particularly funny punchlines about wanting to have sex with "industry chicks," like: "I'll take Britney Spears, get her wetter with gin. Justin asks what happened? 'Oops - did it again!'" The appeal of this song rests entirely on how excited you are at the prospect that a female is making a litany of sexual innuendos at female celebs.

So that song comes in Clean, Club (read: dirty) and Inst. versions. Then on the B-side there's a second song called "Controversy." It's produced by Q Banga and again written by Kenny Cash. The beat is far less appealing than the A-side (Hey, what do you know? stealing from Biggie works). It's not bad, but pretty generic and boring. Anyway, the song is all about how controversial she is ("whole industry shook when I got the deal"). She makes sure to name drop a lot of people in punch-liney references ("I'm the type to see Trick, then say Trina should beat it. Then the type to see Trina and say Trick should eat it."), so it's basically chasing the same appeal of the A-side. This song also comes in Clean, Club and Inst. versions.

So, it's an interesting, but certainly unexceptional 12". Considering fewer and fewer artists are putting their music out on wax, it's sort of sad to think of this song being the lesbian community's sole flag planted. But maybe her second single's better. It came out a couple years later on Slammin' Records, and though I haven't heard it, I notice it doesn't mention anything about being written by Kenny Cash on the label - that may've been a smart move. And it's at least fun to collect all the "Dreams" response records. :)