You Got Me

DISCO
GRAPHIC

BACK IN 1999, you might have found me wandering aimlessly around Manhattan, just like Black Thought in this video.

I once walked from 21st Street all the way home to 93rd and Columbus. I'd come to New York to be with a guy more than twice my age, and it wasn't working out. One night we were at a restaurant owned by P. Diddy, and he'd gone in ahead of me (important people were inside). But the guys on the door wouldn't let me in. Too young, ya see. So I walked home without him.

You Got Me was all over the TV at the time, in between episodes of NewsRadio and The Rikki Lake Show, and it mirrored my mood perfectly - lyrically, musically and visually. "We knew from the start that things fall apart, intentions shatter..." the song goes, and maybe a thirty-five year old knows, but a naive kid doesn't. "...And on the topic of trust, it's just a matter of fact that people bite back and fracture what's intact..."

Uh huh, ain't that the truth.

The Roots' You Got Me is a masterpiece in every way. The video is cinematic, apocalyptic, disturbing, and its climax jaw-dropping. Drum'n'bass on an American hip-hop record? Wow. Erykah Badu, melting into a wall? Damn.

And on the subject of Erykah Badu, it's only now, ten years later, that I've finally figured out what she's saying, having looked up the lyrics specifically for this piece.

Yeah, it helps to know.

It's 1999. It's a nice sunny day in Manhattan. In two years there'd be another nice sunny day - blue skies and blind panic - ending in much the same way as this clip does.

You Got Me... You still do, and always will.