A whopping four years after her last musical release “True,” Solange stunned many when she released her newest album “A Seat at the Table” Sept. 30, a poignant collection of 21 smooth tracks interspersed with social commentary, set to convey the complexities of both pain and pride as it relates to blackness in America.
So far, the neo-soul singer’s latest ensemble, featuring breathy vocals, layered harmonies meaningful lyrics and interludes from black entertainers such as Master P, Kelly Rowland and both Solange’s parents, is receiving rave reviews. But the one standout tune everyone is talking about is “Don’t Touch My Hair” featuring Sampha, a blunt response to the downsides of cultural “curiosity” black people experience in everyday life.
Along with the album, Solange released her “Don’t Touch My Hair” music video just last week, and don’t let the artsy, dream-like vibes fool you, it’s an exceptionally dense visual grounded in truth and reality.
The video begins with a close shot of Solange in slow motion, vigorously shaking her hair, styled in braids excessively beaded with colored spheres and puka shells. Reminiscent of cultural ‘70s protests, in which black men and women would not only wear their hair in its natural state, but also fluff it as far out as they possibly could in efforts to combat western beauty ideals, Solange’s first hairdo evokes exactly the same resistance. It says, “You can’t accept a few beads? Fine, then I’ll deck my strands out from roots to tips. What do you say to that?”
Later, Solange sings from below as the camera catches a bird-eye view of her, as well as multiple contemporary dancers making an assortment of movements. There are two men clasping hands, moving back and forth with one another. There is a woman crouched in the fetal position. Some people connect like puzzle pieces on the floor, while others keep their distance and do their own thing. The eclecticity of the scene artistically showcases the versatility of the black community, while also making a point to adhere to certain similarities.
And diversity is highlighted throughout the entire video, as evidenced by Solange’s many hairstyle changes. From short flapper girl fingerwaves to loosely stretched curls and everything in between, Solange shines in them all. In one shot, she even dons a braided crown of hair while posing in a lavish, royal blue garment.
And of course, men get in on the action as well, when four men of color cross their arms in unison, sporting monochromatic getups of jade green, their hair straightened and styled in flips, perhaps an homage to the perming trend among young, black men in the 1950s.
Solange makes a point to constantly defy systemic pressures, opting to instead, live freely despite oppressive forces nudging her in certain directions. In celebratory fashion, Solange dresses in all white (which we know she rocks flawlessly given her wedding pictures from back in 2014) as she dances alone in a dome-shaped venue with off-white canvases and splotchy, wet floors in one scene.
In another, she moves energetically with Sampha as the two sing, “What you say oh/ What you say to me.”
But in the most telling shot, she dances with a crowd of black people all dressed in all white, on a dimly lit set of stairs. She dances spontaneously as they all sit still. Then in the next shot, they all dance with her, fall into synchronization, then revert back to their own movements of individuality.
As Solange’s hairstylist for the video, Nikki Nelms said in an interview with New York Magazine, the song devotedly speaks to not only black empowerment, but also empowerment as it pertains to personal eccentricity. “‘Don’t Touch My Hair’ is the preservation of you,” Nelms said. “Praising your style, your look, for you. It’s cool to be you...You miss out on so much by trying to imitate someone else’s style.”
In one respect, Solange’s lyrics tell is that when outsiders appropriate another culture, they don’t just put on the material; they put on a spiritual past they know nothing about. “They don't understand/ What it means to me/ Where we chose to go/ Where we've been to know” Solange sings.
She tells offenders, “Don’t test my mouth,” or as Jesse Williams pointed out at this year’s BET awards, “gentrif[y] our genius... like costumes before discarding our bodies like rinds of strange fruit.”
But in another respect, “Don’t Touch My Hair” also speaks to everyone. It serenely opens up the lines of communication without vilification, and asserts to us all that the most rebellious, most courageous thing we can ever truly be, is authentically ourselves.
It’s peaceful, but passionate. Demure and direct. Unassuming, yet unapologetic.
