QCQ #10

QCQ #10

Alyssa Wallingford

November 17, 2022

English 206

Quotation: “Gimme my check, put some respek on my check

Or pay me in equity (Pay me in equity)

Watch me reverse out of debt (Skrrt)”

Comment: I chose these lines specifically because I think that for me, these lines most exemplify how to connect these Postcolonial and race studies with modern day media. The song itself is about power, money, and status, but there are also almost exclusively only people of color in the music video. The dancers and lyrics make me think of how this song is also about taking power back, asserting that there is power to be had for anyone. But to add another layer, she is demanding not only equity in payment, but also in respect. The music video is also shot in places such as museums, which historically, have been a more white-centered space due to many factors including but not limited to education and racial discrimination. Compared to this, the video is an assertive re-centering of how there should be equality between people, no matter what. It is a complete rejection of the social status that has been historically assigned to people of color, standing up and wanting better for themselves, and that is something powerful.

Question: I wonder if when they wrote this song and made the music video for it, they were thinking about all of these different factors, or if it simply came out that way.