Jamila Woods’ Music Video For “Blk Girl Soldier” Might Be Perfect

Singer, songwriter and poet Jamila Woods released the music video for her song “Blk Girl Soldier” yesterday, and it’s kind of perfect. When Woods dropped the audio back in January, we all prepared to be blown away by the video – but this? This is even more than I could’ve imagined. The visuals for “Blk Girl Soldier” are just as bold and unapologetic as its lyrics.

In an era of singles-turned-resistance songs, Woods’ video only adds to the ever-growing contemporary protest playlist. Shortly after the uprising in Ferguson began in the Fall of 2014, J. Cole gifted us with the stripped down melody in “Be Free,” Janelle Monáe later gave us a soulful and catchy movement song with “Hell You Talmbout,” and even the chorus from Kendrick’s defiant single, “Alright,” has become its own protest chant.

The music video for “Blk Girl Soldier” does similar work by celebrating the furnishings of Black girlhood. It honors and beautifully documents Black girls and women and their persistent resistance. Woods even pays respect to several Black girl soldiers throughout history such as Audre Lorde and Ella Baker, and includes footage from #SayHerName protests in Chicago. It’s really quite a powerful piece of work — and that doesn’t even cover the song’s actual words, written by Woods herself.

Within the first two lines of the song, Woods references “Black girl magic.” The specificity in her lyrics mirror the deliberate images of Black girlhood scattered throughout the music video. As Woods explained in an interview with Complex, “Hair beads and rollers are symbols of Black girlhood to me. I thought, what would it look like to arm ourselves with our own essence?” It’s clear that she intended to center the experiences of Black girls and women in this song.

Another part of that unique experience is named later in the lyrics:

Look at what they did to my sisters
Last century, last week
They put her body in a jar and forgot her
They love how it repeats

The “last century, last week,” line calls attention to the multi-generational trauma Black women have suffered, survived and still succumb to. It effectively places the song’s content and the song itself within the context of a much lengthier history; and putting footage from what appears to be Black women in the Black Panther Party in conversation with images from Chicago’s #SayHerName protests adds to the sentiment.

The “They put her body in a jar and forgot her” line is a bit less straightforward, as the “jar” could represent multiple things. The lyric might be referencing the simultaneous hypervisibility and hypersexuality that Black women are forced to navigate. It might be referencing the invisibility and isolation that many Black women face in everyday contexts. Either way, the line is a memorable one.

The whole song is full of memorable lyrics, which is unsurprising considering Jamila Woods’ considerable talent. Don’t believe me? Check out the music video and full lyrics for “Blk Girl Soldier” below.

It is our duty to fight for our freedom

See she’s telepathic
Call it Black girl magic
Yeah she scares the gov’ment
Déjà vu of Tubman

We go missing by the hundreds
Ain’t nobody checkin’ for us
Ain’t nobody checkin’ for us

The camera loves us
Oscar doesn’t
Ain’t nobody checkin for us
Ain’t nobody checkin for us

They want us in the kitchen
Kill our sons with lynchings
We get loud about it
Oh now we’re the bitches

Look at what they did to my sisters
Last century, last week
They put her body in a jar and forgot her
They love how it repeats

Look at what they did to my sisters
Last century, last week
They make her hate her own skin
Treat her like a sin

But what they don’t understand
(But what they don’t understand)
But what they don’t understand
(But what they don’t understand)
See what they don’t understand

See she’s telepathic
Call it Black girl magic
Yeah she scares the gov’ment
Déjà vu of Tubman

She she she she she she she
Don’t give up
Yea yea yea yea yea yea
She don’t give up
She don’t don’t don’t don’t don’t don’t give up
No no no no no no
She don’t give up

Rosa was a freedom fighter
And she taught us how to fight
Ella was a freedom fighter
And she taught us how to fight
Audre was a freedom fighter
And she taught us how to fight
Angela was a freedom fighter
And she taught us how to fight
Sojourner was a freedom fighter
And she taught us how to fight
Assata was a freedom fighter
And she taught us how to fight
Rosa was a freedom fighter
And she taught us how to fight
Ella was a freedom fighter
And she taught us how to fight

See she’s telepathic
Call it Black girl magic
Yeah she scares the gov’ment
Déjà vu of Tubman

But what they don’t understand
(But what they don’t understand)
But what they don’t understand is
(But what they don’t understand)
But what they don’t understand
(But what they don’t understand)
But what they don’t understand is

She she she she she she she
Don’t give up
Yea yea yea yea yea yea
She don’t give up
She don’t don’t don’t don’t don’t don’t give up
No no no no no no
She don’t give up, up

It is our duty to fight for our freedom
It is our duty to win
We must love each other and support each other
We have nothing to lose but our chains

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