Victoria Monét shows how the “Party Girls” do it, with some help from dancehalls very own Buju Banton

Victoria Monét is back doing this music thing and she wants a hit y’all. She wants a song for everybody to run up for the Summer, and she just might have one with “Party Girls”. But this song and music video also highlights something about Victoria that my mind skirted with when I first saw videos of her First Night in LA show - which is that she really has the makings of being the next big it girl, who can deliver in a music video and light up stage in a way that’s comparable to the likes of Beyoncé. We ain’t gonna have this conversation here and now. I’m just throwing this out there.

When I first heard the snippet of this song, I was not feeling it. It sounded a little too basic. I thought ‘Oh, okay. We’re getting Victoria doing “Baby Boy”. Great.’ There was none of the signature Victoria and D’Mile vibe and sound we’d gotten with “Smoke” and some of her other amazing singles released over the course of 2019 and 2020. I was concerned. BUT. Then I heard the whole thing, and my opinion completely changed. “Party Girls” is very much a business as usual affair for Victoria and D’Mile. And the thing which did it for me, aside from how amazing Victoria looks in the video?

The modulation.

Modulation is not a normal characteristic of these types of sounds, where the foundation is dancehall and ragga, so it caught me off guard hearing it on “Party Girls” - yet it was the one thing which elevated the song and made it feel very Victoria and D’Mile. It’s such a cool quirk which creates this nice bridge between the club sounds of Jamaica and R&B and Soul, where modulations are (or at least were) very common. And the structure of the whole song is just great, because it’s not trying to be some lil’ 2 minute song, it’s not afraid to take its time, Buju Banton’s rap doesn’t feel like it’s just been slapped onto the song, and we also get a couple of breakdowns.

Whether “Party Girls” will catch on for the Summer, we’re yet to see. But I hope Victoria and her team try to push this song and do so for the long haul, because I think it could be a hit. The early 2000s seem to be back, and this is 2000s as hell in all the best ways.

Victoria Monét - Party Girls | Directed by Meji Alabi | RCA Records

The curious gays who have no idea who Buju Banton is and Google everyone and everything may uncover something which may put them off the song and spark outrage. Outrage that older Black queer folk like myself have already witnessed and sat through before.

One of Buju Banton’s most popular songs is “Boom Bye Bye”, which was released in 1992. The chorus features the line ‘Boom bye bye inna batty boy head. Rude boy no promote no nasty man, them haffi dead’ which pretty much means head-shot all the gays. Now, for YEARS this has been the song Buju Banton has been most known for, and he has always caught some flack for it outside of Jamaica. But in 2019, Buju Banton removed the song from all streaming platforms, which is HUGE considering he is still regarded as a dancehall legend in Jamaica and that “Boom Bye Bye” still remains his most popular song. Some would argue that it took too long for Buju to show such a gesture, and that he’s only doing it now because he’s made enough money from the song that he can afford for it to no longer be available. Also, there ain’t no money for artists in streaming anyway. And “Boom Bye Bye” exists on enough physical media and unofficial YouTube uploads, that the song is hardly wiped from existence or difficult to find. But still. Acknowledgement is acknowledgement, and that is something to be commended on some level. I guess. But 2019 was not THAT long ago. And in an age where all that’s old is new, it wouldn’t surprise me if the history of Buju and “Boom Bye Bye” and news of Buju’s drug charges, incarceration, working with Kanye in 2021 and him having 17 children are things which become talking points online and completely cut “Party Girls” off at the knees.

Part of me wonders if Victoria should have considered releasing a Buju-less version of “Party Girls”. Although I do like Buju Banton’s verse and presence on the song, and he adds credibility to the sound of the song and the music video being shot in Jamaica.

But then again, we’re in a time where people support artists who do awful shit. And despite the homophobia of “Boom Bye Bye”, black queers still whine and buss it to that song.

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