“What a day, what a day..”
By the time Erykah gets to that line in “On & On,” the video’s shown you so much that the phrase seems an understatement at best. She keeps the mood light with little injections of her personality and exaggerated facial expressions throughout, but Erykah insightfully confronts a timeless burden that women–especially black women–have carried: even at home, the work is never done.
The video opens from Erykah’s point of view as she walks to a house singing “Afro Freestyle,” a bluesy little ditty (from the same album) with more than a passing resemblance to field work songs. We’re never privy to the backstory, but she’s working in the service of a black family, bringing to light one of the most insidious parts of racism: self-loathing. Though she’s “one of them,” she’s treated like an enslaved woman just the same. It’s right about here that things start looking a little familiar, too. Scenes from “On & On” are inspired by “The Color Purple,” Alice Walker’s book where main character Celie’s terrible lifelong abuse comes from the hands of her own.
As for the song itself, it’s all about enlightenment and transcending, but from the perspective of the African-American adage we’re taught from birth: the one thing no one can ever take away from you is your education. Even Malcolm X said “When your mind is a weapon, you are never unarmed.” Erykah repeatedly touches on knowledge, intellect, Biblical/spiritual references and cultural ones, too. As a black woman, she knows she’s the world’s underdog, and despite the laid-back lounge sound here on her debut single from her debut album, she wants US to know she’s here for a fight.
And she’s my pick every time.
𝗟𝗜𝗡𝗘𝗦 𝗧𝗢 𝗟𝗢𝗩𝗘:
“If we were made in his image, then call us by our names
Most intellects do not believe in God but they fear us just the same”