Analysis Of Pyramids By Frank Ocean

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Within the song Pyramids by R&B artist Frank Ocean, we see two largely separate compositions lyrically and structurally merge into one cohesive piece. Initially, the song details the fictional demise of the black queen Cleopatra, who, under the guise of being stolen by a thief, had run away with the Biblical strongman Samson and was found to have had a sexual relationship with him. After this revelation, the song transitions into a ballad, the story now pertaining to the relationship between a pimp and a stripper, whom he also calls “Cleopatra.” The reverence with which Cleopatra had been referred with in the first section of the song is blatantly absent, as explicit sexual references are made about the stripper by the pimp. Indicating that “the Pyramid” is the name of the strip club in which the woman works, the song concludes with the repetition of the line “She’s working at the Pyramid tonight.” This essay will outline how the only way to properly observe the dualistic nature of the song Pyramids is to parallel it with the dualistic way in which Western society views and treats black women. Through an analysis of both black representation and the black experience within the public and private sphere, it will analyse the impacts of …show more content…

Harris-Perry also states as to how the defining of black women as being naturally unequal to whites was a crucial part of white society's identity. “In this sense, modernity offered no possibility of a more accurate recognition of black women. Observation of the primitive, subhuman other was central to defining the advanced, vilified citizen, and black women’s supposedly hyper sexual bodies were central exhibits to this

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