Flashback Friday: Namie Amuro - Want me, want me | Queen of poppin' coochie

"Want me, want me" was my first introduction to Namie Amuro. It wasn't what made me a fan, but it definitely put her in my shortlist of 'J-Pop chicks to watch'. At some point I'll share with you at which point I became a Namie Amuro fan. But for now, let's get into her 2005 single "Want me, want me".

What drew me in into Namie and her Bhangra-lite bop was the complete juxtaposition between Namie looking so uninterested with not a shred of feigned sexiness in a music video to a song about wanted to get dicked down every which way.

Namie's 7th studio album Queen of hip-pop, from which "Want me, want me" featured, would set much of the blueprint for what would become Namie mainstays and traits. "Want me, want me" wasn't the best song, nor did it have the best video. But it was an early showcase of the things that we'd grow to love Namie for.

Firstly, the song is about getting fucked. Namie has a fair few songs in her discography about the needs of her pussy. But it often goes over your head because her delivery is so deadpan. Who else can sing about her 'Poppin' coochie' and Trojan condoms so casually? You can just imagine Namie lying in bed with a cigarette hanging out her mouth, grunting at her side piece to take his clothes off and grab the condoms from the bedside drawer, and for him to also hurry up because she has to get up early to take Haruto to school in the morning and 'No, you can't stay over tonight'.

Namie is so chill in the music video. For a song so freak nasty, she should really be bussin' it wide open in a pop squat, rollin' all around in that water and being all up on one of her dancers. But she's just casually working the choreography. Even when she has to pelvic thrust against one of her male dancers, she does it so lazily and it's void of all sexiness. Namie is not here to be ogled at or sexually objectified in a music video. No matter how short her skirts are and how high her boots go up her thigh. It's a strong statement. I don't think Namie planned for it to be this way. It's just who she is as a person and a performer. But none the less, it's a statement and I dug it. I loved how she gave zero fucks about trying to be the literal personification of the song. She just don't care.

Once Namie started to delve into R&B, this also reflected in her music videos which adapted a US Pop / R&B aesthetic. Efforts prior to "Want me, want me" felt contrived and derivative. But with "Want me, want me" it didn't feel derivative at all, despite there being some form of influence. The short skirt, boots and dancing in shallow water to a freak nasty bop is not completely unlike one of the set-ups in Christina Aguilera's "Dirrty". But it's not beaten around your head so glaringly in the obvious 'LOOK! WE'RE DOING AN AMERICAN STYLE VIDEO' manner that Kumi did in many of her videos at a point in time. And it's not a setup which is exclusively Christina Aguilera's, so it Namie's music video may not be influenced by it at all, which is part of the point. Namie's slick and is able to take something and fold it into her own style to make it hers.

"Want me, want me" could have gone a very specific way in the hands of other artists, but in the hands of Namie it did what it was supposed to, but also gave you so much more. It pretty much set the foundation on which Namie would build the monolith which would go on to block Ayu's chances of reigning sales and success.

With this song, Namie not only earned herself the title of Queen of hip-pop, but also the titles of Queen of casual sex, Queen of safe sex, Queen of effortlessness and Queen of the comeback.