Solange ft Sampha: Don’t Touch My Hair

Remarks:

This is from her album, “A Seat at the Table” (2016), which just came out, four years in the making. This song has been getting the most buzz, but has not yet charted.

The video is directed by Alan Ferguson, her husband. It was filmed in City Park, New Orleans (the Peristyle and the Museum of Art), Houston (Chong Hua Sheng Mu Holy Palace) and Lubbock, Texas (Texas Tech).

The video is beautiful, but the song comes across better on the album where it comes right after “Tina Taught Me”, where her mother says:

“I think part of it is accepting that it’s so much beauty in being Black and that’s the thing that, I guess, I get emotional about because I’ve always known that. I’ve always been proud to be Black. Never wanted to be nothing else. Loved everything about it, just…

“It’s such beauty in Black people, and it really saddens me when we’re not allowed to express that pride in being Black, and that if you do, then it’s considered anti-white. No! You just pro-black. And that’s okay. The two don’t go together. Because you celebrate Black culture does not mean that you don’t like white culture or that you putting it down. It’s just taking pride in it, but what’s irritating is when somebody says, you know, ‘They’re racist!’, ‘That’s reverse racism!’ or, ‘They have a Black History Month, but we don’t have a White History Month!’

“Well, all we’ve ever been taught is white history. So, why are you mad at that? Why does that make you angry? That is to suppress me and to make me not be proud.”

See also:

• songs, the 2010s
• Solange
  • Solange: I Decided
  • Solange: Sandcastle Disco
  • Solange: F*ck the Industry (Signed Sincerely)
  • Solange Knowles: Losing You
• Beyonce: Formation
• microaggression
• Black is beautiful
• reverse racism
• White History Month

Lyrics:

[Verse 1: Solange]
Don’t touch my hair
When it’s the feelings I wear
Don’t touch my soul
When it’s the rhythm I know
Don’t touch my crown
They say the vision I’ve found
Don’t touch what’s there
When it’s the feelings I wear

What it means to me
Where we chose to go
Where we’ve been to know
They don’t understand
What it means to me
Where we chose to go
Where we’ve been to know

[Hook: Solange]
You know this hair is my shit
Rode the ride, I gave it time
But this here is mine
You know this hair is my shit
Rode the ride, I gave it time
But this here is mine

[Post-Hook 1: Sampha & Both]
What you say, oh?
What you say to me?
What you say to me?
What you say to me?
What you say to me?
What you say to me?
What you say to me?
What you say to me?
What you say to me?

[Verse 2: Solange]
Don’t touch my pride
They say the glory’s all mine
Don’t test my mouth
They say the truth is my sound

[Pre-Hook: Solange]
They don’t understand
What it means to me
Where we chose to go
Where we’ve been to know
They don’t understand
What it means to me
Where we chose to go
Where we’ve been to know

[Hook: Solange]
You know this hair is my shit
Rode the ride, I gave it time
But this here is mine
You know this hair is my shit
Rode the ride, I gave it time
But this here is mine

[Post-Hook 2: Sampha & Both]
What you say, oh?
What you say to me?
What you say to me?
What you say to me?
What you say to me?
What you say to me?
What you say to me?

[Instrumental Break]

[Outro: Both]
What you say to me?
What you say to me?
What you say to me?
What you say to me?
What you say to me?
What you say to me?
What you say to me?
What you say to me?
What you say to me?
What you say to me?
What you say to me?
What you say to me?
What you say to me?
What you say to me?
What you say to me?
What you say to me?

Sources: Genius Lyrics, Fader.