Why Zim Radio Stations Should Stop Playing The Jay-Z Verse In ‘Drunk In Love’

Beyonce and her husband Jay-Z have a song called Drunk In Love that has become very popular in Zimbabwe within and outside the club as well as the radio stations.

It is your usual run-off-the-mill pop single with a good baseline which meant the ladies were always going to be getting down it. It ticks all the boxes for it.

So why the headline, the fact that the Jay-Z verse should not be played on Zimbabwe’s radio stations.

I’m Ike, Turner, turn up / Baby no I don’t play / Now eat the cake, Anna Mae / I said eat the cake, Anna Mae

For those who do not know, the lines references a disturbing scene of domestic violence in the Ike and Tina Turner biopic What’s Love Got To Do With It? A verbal argument between Tina (played by Angela Bassett) and her notoriously abusive husband and manager Ike (Lawrence Fishburne) turns physical. At its height, Ike commands Tina – born Anna Mae Bullock – to eat the cake he’d ordered in a diner, before Bassett ends up tussling with Lawrence, and with cake smeared across her face.

Her friend and backing vocalist tries to stop him. Ike threatens her, beats her and she runs away shouting to Tina Turner, “You are dead if you stay with him.”

It is a dark scene in the movie of a man who continuously beat and raped his wife.

That our local establishments including the clubs play this with reckless abandon comes from two places.

The first is that they never really listen to the songs that well and do not spend time critiquing them. Sure you don’t necessarily have to have watched the film but a quick check on what the lyrics say would have given your a reference.

The second is just plain ignorance.

Playing his verse is endorsing a flippant reference domestic abuse in music. Yes, we really shouldn’t muzzle creativity but using such a dark space as domestic abuse, is galling.

And when we talk about Zimbabwe, a space where domestic violence has been on the rise of late, allowing such a thing to disappear through the cracks is beyond unfortunate. It’s just not who we aspire to be.

The fact that the women’s advocacy groups in Zimbabwe have let this go though, that’s a bit different.

Whether one decides the whole song is undesirable is something else. What is certain for sure is that verse should never be played on our radio stations or in the clubs for that matter.

You can watch the scene from the film below: