(FOR:)
PLAY—A Review of Goapele’s Latest Single “PLAY”

Consider it a precious gift when a woman tells her
lover she is ready to play.   In all its
vulnerability, strength, and beauty, her Love must be recognized as sacred and held
gently.  In the reality of the moment,
the lover should understand the weight behind the softness in her eye and the
longing in her voice—yes, she’s serious. 
When she initiates, the lover must seize the opportunity and trust in
the exciting potential of the surreal, exploratory world she wants to lead him
to.    Her Love finds its root in the spirit
realm and in the depth and integrity of her emotional self.  She is fully aware that her Love cannot be
coaxed from her.  She cannot be coerced
into loving.  She must give it
freely—only then will it be genuine and whole. 
  

Goapele’s latest single, “Play,” captures this
profound union of the sacred and the sexy with the perfect marriage between a sensuous,
dreamlike voice, snapping fingers, and the deep bass sounds reminiscent of
heartbeats. Opening with the soft growl of a lion, “Play” is for the woman who
knows what she wants and isn’t afraid to say so.  “Play” is for the woman turned on by everything
from the pulsing, hypnotic beats of Art of Noise in “Moments in Love” to the
funky, nasty vibe of Ginuwine’s “Pony.” 
It’s for the woman who is enticed by Floetry’s “Say Yes” and Alicia Keys’
“Unthinkable.”  It’s for the woman in the
club, dancing to “Ill Na Na” by Foxy Brown & Jay-Z, feeling sexy and
powerful for a brief moment, only to feel empty seconds later.  And most importantly, “Play” is for the woman
turned on by leading—leading her lover to a magical, spiritual world that has
no rules…and for the man who has no problem following.

Goapele takes the listener for an erotic ride that
soothes and arouses in a single breath.  She
begins by getting a sense of where her lover’s thoughts lie, singing, “I wanna
know what you wanna do.  What if I could
say there wasn’t any rules?  I wanna
play, play around.”  No time is wasted—the
desire to know what her lover is thinking reveals itself as a sexual invitation.
 By the time we hear the second line, she
makes it clear that she wants to play and dangles the idea of infinite
possibilities.  All the lover knows is
that this world is boundless and yet she sings, “Tell me if you think that you
can get down!”  Her lover is given a
playful challenge   to enter into this
world of play—a world that has gone undefined, and thus all the more seductive. 

The world is set in motion as we enter the
refrain, and she tells her lover, “Come here baby I’m ready to touch you.  Listen to me, nothing’s too much, when I’m
ready to play…Come here let me whisper in your ear.  Tell you how I’m about to make you feel. I’m
ready to play, we could play this game all day.”    As she
whispers in her lover’s ear, our imaginations fill in the gap, allowing us to
envision what she has in mind—all the things that would satiate her desire; all
the things that would make her lover call out her name.   From the whisper to the nameless game,
Goapele’s words are provocative and filled with innuendo. Not only does this
suggestive language draw in and honor the lover (and the listener), it also
renders Woman as sexually healthy, not hypersexualized; she is in full control
of her body and intent.   In a single
verse, Goapele gracefully counters the image of the silent, passive woman relegated
to disposable sex toy, while at the same time dodges potential critics eager to
castigate a woman for being dirty and unladylike just because she is
explicit.   In the whisper, she could be explicit or subtle.  We’d never know.   The beauty is that she remains a woman—complete
and whole—regardless.

In the second verse, Goapele sings, “I wanna go
where you’ve never been, and this not me trying to give in. Said you had a
taste, but you really don’t know. I think I can help what you’re looking for.”   She
points out, “…this is not me trying to give in,” being aware of the
difference between choosing to act and being forced to act.  She’s not leading him to this world of play because
she feels pressured.    Instead, this
desire is born from her own will.  The
woman is wholeheartedly leading the way to this place that is new to the lover.
He’s only had a “taste,” but she possesses the fullness of Truth. She knows the
epitome of exploratory play and ecstasy. It is so rich, so full that by the end
of the song, she promises, “You’ll feel it all in your soul.”  This world of sexual play transcends the trappings
of the flesh to the point where he will feel it in the very core of his being.  Through this experience, she offers a glimpse
of the Divine.

This offering of the spirit realm is evident
throughout the rest of the second verse in   Goapele’s
lyrics, as well as in the music of her producers Electric Thunderbolt, Teddy
Thunderbolt, and Dan Electric.    When comparing the second verse to the first,
we see a couple of subtle, yet profound changes. In contrast to the first verse
where she says, “Cause this is what I’m dying for.  I mean this is what I’m dying to do,” we find
that in the second verse she sings,  “Cause
this is what we’re living for.  I mean
this is what we’re dying to do.”  Goapele
switches from “I” to “we” as if to suggest that he has already accepted the
invitation and a union has taken place.  This
desire to play is not hers alone, but is a joint desire now.  We also see what was once an experience that
she is “dying for” and “dying to do” has transformed into both “what we’re
living for” and “what we’re dying for.”  Meanwhile,
her lyrics are enhanced by sounds of the sky opening up and sunshowers falling
to the Earth–sounds almost identical to what we hear when she sings, “You’ll
feel it all in your soul.”   

When one is living for something, there’s nothing
else she’d rather do. Her dreams and fantasies have been fulfilled.  When one is dying to do something, he can’t
wait for his dreams and fantasies to come true; the dream/fantasy has yet to unfold.  The ethereal sounds of sunshowers coupled
with the paradox of both living and dying describe the height of sexual
experiences—the place where the boundary between this world and the spirit
realm is blurred; where we lie on the cusp of night and day; where speed is
just as meaningful as being slow and steady; where the nasty and the sweet
share a border that gets crossed daily.

Goapele’s “Play” is particularly striking because
a woman is initiating sexual foreplay.  
Although we live in an age where perhaps it is more acceptable (compared
to decades ago) for women, within a heterosexual context, to “make the first
move,” men are still, for the most part, socially conditioned to be the one to
initiate romance and/or sex.  At the same
time, women, in the name of modesty and decency, are taught to play hard to get
and to eventually give in to a man’s pursuit, believing that his persistence is
a sign of his true love.  As a result,
she receives the message that it is acceptable, if not preferable, to become
overwhelmed by a man’s advance and then
give her love in return.   According to
those who may consider themselves traditional, the act of a woman initiating a
sexual advance is perceived as putting her at risk of losing the man since her
“directness” may cause him to feel emasculated. 
This song subtly challenges that paradigm.  The woman, of her own volition, knows that
she is ready and invites her lover to a place he’s never been.   With broad strokes, she paints an image of
this world of play, setting no limits. 
The key is that the woman is leading.   She doesn’t need instructions.  She has the instruction manual. In fact, she
wrote it.  And guess what?  It is fluid and filled with the potential for
exploration and excitement.  When a
woman’s sexual desire is born from her own will, she is fully invested and her
sexual gratification becomes central.   The only questions that remain are: “Does she
say how she wants her lover to make her feel? Can he keep up?  Is she satisfied?” Perhaps,  answers lie in the whisper.  Perhaps, in another song.  Or maybe the next play session.  Time will tell.  Break of Dawn drops this Monday,
October 24. 

Much respect to Goapele and her producers for
sharing this song with the world.  
“Play” embodies the sexy and the contemplative. It shatters the confines
that divorce sex from the spiritual. Goapele reminds women that being led is
passé as she carves a space for us to reclaim the power of our sexuality and be
confident in leading our lovers to that place where the sacred and the sexy
meet.

–Janet Stickmon

Professor of Humanities

Napa Valley College

Author of Crushing
Soft Rubies and

Midnight
Peaches, Two O’Clock Patience

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