That part never goes right
“Fuck Me Pumps” is a track off of Amy Winehouse’s debut album, Frank. With an upbeat melody and a catchy rhythm, Amy uses humorous and clever wordplay to deliver a grounded but harsh glimpse into what we conventionally identify as gold digging women.
Amy has the perspective of an outsider looking into the lives of these women. The track is a barrage of shortcomings that these women possess as they attempt to capture the high life but somehow they always seem to fall short.
He could be your whole life
If you got past one night
But that part never goes right
Despite the humorous wordplay throughout the track, the lifestyle that we find is quite depressing. The track details a lifestyle that slowly fades away after the “gold diggers” have served their purpose of populating the clubs and keeping the nightlife alive. At first, I interpreted the song as a cautionary tale but Amy released Frank when she was 20, far too young to have been at the other side of this pumped up lifestyle.
Without girls like you
There’s no nightlife
All those men just go home to their wives
Beneath the glitzy surface of this track, what remains is a deeply saddening glimpse into a lifestyle that Amy somehow manages to humanize while at the same time undercutting with backhanded compliments. She is characterizing someone that possesses no substance behind the shimmer. The most depressing aspect of which is that this shimmer slowly fades with age and leaves these women with lived experiences with nothing to really show for it.
Don’t be mad at me
Cuz you’re pushing thirty
And your old tricks no longer work
Amy’s lyrical prowess shines through as she grounds this unrelenting lifestyle further with mini arcs in the gold digging lifestyle that always leaves them hanging. She does this so playfully that it’s almost distracting from the depressing tales.
So you did Miami
Cause you got there for free
But somehow you missed the plane
You did too much E
Met somebody
And spent the night getting caned
Caned is british slang for stoned and apart from the obvious insinuation it might also be a general characterizing of the individual as spacey and being out of it.
However, through the satire, there is a sense of respect that Amy seems to have for these women. She constantly characterizes their unrelenting pursuits and highlights their grind. Each lyrical unit within a verse contains a mini narrative describing a persevering figure that simply moves forward from each action to the next. Someone that is truly living in the moment being guided by their ambitions of finding that prince charming. Amy outlines a vapid figure that never manages to get very far.
Driving off in a hyundai
“Gold Digger”, off of Late Registration (2005), is unarguably one of old Kanye’s most popular singles. It features Jamie Foxx on the hook interpolating Ray Charles’ “I Got a Woman” by completely reversing the original intent of the song.
She take my money when I’m in need
She gives me money, when I’m in need
Yeah she's a trifling friend indeed
Yeah, she's a kind of friend indeed
Oh she's a gold digger way over town
I got a woman, way over town
That digs on me
That's good to me, oh yeah
This track has bouncy 808s with handclaps overlayed on top of a classic soul sample that is extremely upbeat. Kanye’s whimsical verses deliver three associated narratives describing the relationship between a “Gold Digger” and a man that ultimately results in disaster. This track is a shift in perspective from “F*ck Me Pumps” as Kanye raps from the perspective of (verse 1) and about (verse 2) a man “afflicted” by a gold digger. His tongue in cheek narrative, that is so emblematic of old Kanye, sets up a self assured woman that actively takes advantage of her man in some really shady ways.
The first verse is from the perspective of a naive Kanye that is smitten by a “Cutie the bomb” and is actively looking for her. Similar to Amy, he starts off characterizing her at the surface level. Note that the current setting is actually a beauty salon. Similar to Amy, he first identifies her with a designer handbag.
Met her at a beauty salon
And the men notice you
With a baby louis Vuitton under her arm
With your Gucci bag crew
Nevertheless Kanye is blinded to the red flags e.g. the baggage with the existing kids, the expensive demands, and the fact that they have been affiliated with both Busta and Usher, who are coincidentally both wealthy 🤔. He is completely infatuated with physical traits so he falls victim like the unlucky fella in the next verse.
It take too much to touch her
From what I heard she got a baby by Busta
I don’t care what none y’all say I still love her
In the second verse, Kanye takes an outsider’s perspective reflecting on a future with the relationship that might have started in the previous verse. The perspective shift is probably due to the fact that these verses were written separately and only later combined.
18 years, 18 years
She got one of your kids, got you for 18 years
Kanye characterizes the man as having been subjugated by the woman by having to pay child support until the kid reaches maturity at eighteen years. Through this verse, the power dynamic is uneven with the woman wielding most of the advantage as her “… car and crib is bigger than his”. Kanye comedically drives this point home talking about a football player successful on the field but still has to drive home in a “hyundai” suggesting that he’s suffering a loss paying either child support or alimony.
You will see him on TV any given Sunday
Win the Superbowl and drive off in a Hyundai
The woman incessantly abuses the man’s resources for superficial gains like plastic surgery and cars. Kanye advises that the only way to account for this spell is to sign a prenuptial agreement otherwise leading to the climax, where the man finds out that the kid he was supporting for eighteen years wasn’t even his. Old kanye delivers such vivid imagery using pop culture similes that the verse plays out like a scene from a movie, a recurring trait of Late Registration in general.
Throughout this track, the power dynamic is on the side of the woman. Kanye characterizes her as an exploitative individual while the man is a hapless fool being trudged along in her cons. However Kanye completely shifts the narrative in the third verse, now about a loyal woman that is sticking by her man despite his destitute situation.
You go out to eat, he can’t pay y’all can’t leave
There’s dishes in the back, he gotta roll up his sleeves
She “[sticks] by his side” as the man is mopping floors while working towards his ambition. She stays right while the man makes it into a Benz from a Datsun. A Datsun was a low-cost vehicle that fits the narrative here as a beater car. This verse describes an honest and true woman that supports her man however Kanye sets up one of his most poignant lines off of the whole track. One that feels like a knife in the back.
And when you get on he leave your ass for a white girl
“Gold Digger” can be seen not just as a specific slight on gold digging women but rather about honest people getting played by selfish individuals leaving them in the dust. Kanye is also making a point about how successful men tend to desire trophy wives by giving into their base desires and abandoning the good ones that helped them reach their pedestal in the first place. I don’t think Kanye is denegrating interracial relationships but rather relationships that are instigated by vanity and he’s using the concept of a “white girl” as a mainstream standard of beauty. This will consequently result in a repeat of previous verses resulting in the same vicious cycle once more. In an ironic twist Kanye ended up marrying Kim Kardashian, make of it what you will.
This stellar line reminds of a particular scene in the afro-surrealist masterpiece, Atlanta. In an episode revolving around a group of friends supposedly partying in champagne papi’s house. One of the characters confronts a celebrity’s (white) girlfriend about being a “black man accessory.” It’s such an honest jab at feminine beauty ideals and its relationship with race.
Conclusion
Both “Fuck Me Pumps” and “Gold Digger” are narratives on gold digging women. The artists mostly take an outsider’s perspective and provide an honest glimpse into this lifestyle. They both share an upbeat bouncy beat that parades as a catchy tune but are both portraying a tiring, parasitic lifestyle that is more depressing than a first listen would let on.
Amy’s take is more humanizing throughout, although not blameless. She sets up a relentless lifestyle of an individual using their vanity, represented with physical objects and beauty standards, for financial self gain. However the narrative she builds can’t help but have you empathize with these women. Although her tone at the end is one of slight respect, she never lets on to a redeeming quality and the sympathy turns into a case of schadenfreude.
Kanye’s approach builds up the gold diggers as an antagonistic figure and the only sense of sympathy is for the people that get conned along the way. His first two verses revolve around an unlucky man however the way the track is set up, you see that Kanye views this story as a cycle. One where honest people lose out because of our baseless pursuits of vanity and materialism. There is no sympathy for the man because their position is brought forth by their own volition. This track can be viewed as a greater narrative about how we all end up as victims of societal expectations.