She Lives In my Lap by Outkast

A song about a struggling relationship is me and my friends’ Song

A couple months ago my friend had a birthday party and the theme was neo-soul. All of my friends came dressed up drawing inspiration for our favorite neo-soul artists ( ex. Lauryn Hill and Steve Lacy). The dance floor was packed the whole time and when Outkast’s She Lives in My Lap off their seminal 5th studio album, Speakerboxx/The Love Below,” played, everyone went crazy. To me it cemented this Outkast song as our Song.

A Song (with a capital S) mean you and whoever else own it and it means the most and is the most sentimental to you.

This song doubles down on the overarching theme on the record which is about how the author has a lot of physical intimacy but in unable to escape his loneliness and develop a real committed relationship. This songs is all about how this woman that the author is involved with will never be his wife and is forever his fiance.

The song has a beat that forces you to bob up and down. The beat consists of a sample from the song Mind Playing Tricks on Me by Geto Boys. This is an early 90s hip hop song that allows Outkast to reinterpret what hip hop really means and even adds a little soul. The idea of sampling is and has always been huge in hip hop. Taking from older black culture old and new hip hop has been able to draw back on its history.

This is firstly a song about the struggles of committing to another person but in that moment it transcended and for me became our Song.