“Okay, bitch”. That was my whole reaction as I laid in bed at 6:23am having watched the video for the third time. “Okay bitch” with a deep, personal and obligatory nod of approval.
Chlöe Bailey, previously one half of the meteoric phenomenon “Chloe & Halle”, just dropped the music video for her single “Have Mercy”. Most card-carrying members of the BeyHive would identify some clear Parkwood star-making hallmarks. But this video leaves me with something completely different.
Black women are DOPE.
The understatement of the millennium, but it’s true. History-making moments like Have Mercy are an ever-present reminder of the dopeness that is Black women. Let me explain.
For some reason, men get famous and start fucking shit up. Dababy is just one example of how men’s fame gives them license to obfuscate their responsibility to a broader collective. Dababy’s inflammatory statements were a clear sign that he forgot who made him. He lambasts gay men and marginalizes so many already marginalized communities of his own listeners because he got in his own way.
But take women, for instance. Chlöe steps into a long line of women who get on and put on. Beyoncé before her, Aretha before her and so many others. Somehow, women have unlocked the secret to a collective success. And when they get on, more often than not we all benefit. Black is King never would have happened by a man’s hand. Aretha and so many others remind us of the power of women to change culture.
I don’t know if it’s good management or just good sense, but somehow Chlöe has grown up, gotten on, and IS. DOING. THE. DAMN. THING.
She has stepped fully into her womanhood. This video is her debut—that moment when she moves out of her proverbial roommate situation with her sister to become her own woman fully. We can see mom-Beyoncé raised her right, and she’s never too far from the watchful eye of Big Ma Tina, but Chlöe is her own woman. Getting on and putting on as only a Black woman can.
I say this in the most complimentary way I know how, “okay, bitch…you did that.”
