Eat the Cake, Anna Mae

For over a month, now, I have been replaying Beyonce's new album on my way to and fro university in order to boost my level of enthusiasm which tends to be lacking in the morning time, seeing as at that time my bed is the most comfortable. But something disturbing has recently been brought to my attention, particularly coming from my favorite song in the album, Drunk in Love:

"I am Ike Turner,

baby know I don't play.

Now eat the cake, Anna Mae,

said eat the cake, Anna Mae."

A girl from my contemporary fiction class had brought those lines up in a discussion about Beyonce's succumbing to a relationship after declaring independence that was brought up by me, and I did not look into this until last night, which slightly frightened me, and slightly made me feel better. Had Beyonce and Jay Z both planned to include this little rap in Drunk in Love as a form of acceptance of male dominance, then I do not feel too bad about this because in that case Beyonce would be publicly accepting of Jay Z's dominance, withdrawing from her said ability to 'run the world' as a woman. If, however, the latter was the case, which is that Jay Z and Beyonce both accept the alleged satire in the abusing of women, then I am heavily disturbed because I now will find it difficult to peel myself away from listening to that song in particular when it is so very catchy and appropriate.

Initially, where "eat the cake, Anna Mae" came from was Ike and Tina Turner's abusive relationship, wherein, from my interpretation of this event, Ike and Tina were in a restaurant where Ike wanted to celebrate her success, so he ordered a cake, and after having given her autograph to two young boys, she was forced to eat some cake by Ike. She refused this, several times, so Ike thought it appropriate to smudge a handful of cake all over her face, screaming "eat the cake, Anna Mae!" which is Tina's real name. Her best friend who was seated with them had gotten up in defence, yelling at Ike, so Ike had acted out and hit her across the face, making the situation much worse.

This little scene is a glimpse into the relationship between Ike and Tina. If this display happened in public, then what sorts of displays happen behind closed doors, so to speak? What happens when Tina does not have her friend to defend her, when all of that aggression built up inside of Ike is released freely? It is abhorrent to think of things that would answer that. It is also abhorrent that such a reference can be made in a song about a couple being so drunk in love that they find themselves being intimate in even the kitchen, intoxicated in intimacy that they had not known how they had ended up in there. The entire song then becomes inappropriate, how can Jay Z accept to make a cruel reference of domestic abuse, and worse yet, how could Beyonce accept to put that in her song? Or did Jay Z smudge cake on her face forcing her to? Sorry, I had to. I know, contradictory and whatnot.

I just think that there could have been more appropriate things that could have been rapped by Mister Carter, without releasing implications of violent dominance over women. The guy had his clothes on in the video clip, too, whereas Beyonce was strutting around in her bikini. The least he could do was say something meaningful in the positive way about women. Not that Jay Z says much, anyway, most of his raps are made up of meaningless literal grunts, profanities and derogatory terms to races and women, so I suppose then nothing else appropriate would have befit his part in Beyonce's song. 

Perhaps one day, Beyonce will recover from her drunken state and see things for what they are, that horrible things like domestic abuse should not be publicly joked about, nor should the joke be condoned, especially on a platform so universal and widespread. How about you eat some cake, Jay Z?