Melanin Girls: An Analysis

After much controversy and chaos and many a conspiracy theory, Okuntakinte, the 19 year Old Afro- EDM artist has released a video to his single ‘Melanin Girls’. The shadows surrounding this song, especially on social media came up out of the promotional Hashtag #MelaninGirls. I mean, supporting dark skin and beauty is a pretty debatable topic especially in 2016, so putting a price on said beauty and making a showcase of it definitely gave Okuntaman the promo he wanted; Baby Boy trended on Twitter for three days straight and 2 or three days after…that’s big for a new artiste.

So, the video dropped yesterday at 1400GMT on 4Syte TV in Ghana, and was made available on YouTube this morning for everybody. Now the word on every ones lips is ” What the hell is going on?” It’s aesthetically pleasing, as his previous video for Summer of X. Both produced by the same director, Prince Dovlo. But as with all Okuntaman videos…it’s very artsy.. and a lot confusing. So in an attempt to break it down, this is an analysis.

First Of… This song is not a promotion of Dark skin. It’s about how a darkskin chica broke a nigga heart and took his money. If anything at all, this song is indirectly telling you to be careful and pay no mind to these darkskin girls. But moving on… (this is going to be a long read. Sorry.)

1. The video is introduced with yellow balloons with #melaningirls written on them. Yellow symbolically means means cowardice. That means our persona (Brother Kunta Man) is afraid, but the presence of the hashtag, which is particular of social media, proves that he has taking a bold step to speak about these Melanin Girls.
2. Brown eyes: The brown eyes at the beginning show Melanin. Scientifically speaking, everyone with Brown eyes has more melanin… so there.
3. 3 shades of girls: We see a light girl, a light skin girl and a dark skin girl representing all shades of girls all over the world. Thus, removing the notion that he is addressing dark skin girls only (good save).

4. Dead end hallway: Brother Kunta is seen at the end of a hallway meaning he has arrived at a dead end. The tilted M represents his tilted love for Melanin Girls.

5. Flowers: We see the girls with light pink roses and white daisies. Light pink roses represented gentleness, admiration and sympathy. Thus, the girl holding the light pink rose represents the sympathy the girls have for him. The white daisy symbolically means true love, innocence and the ability to keep a secret. Thus, the girl with the daisy between her lips portrays the inability of Melanin Girls to reveal their secret as heart break mercenaries although they greatly sympathize.

6. The 3 girls sitting on vinyl records and taking selfies obviously represents the current generation who are self absorbed and easily distracted. Distraction where? Nigga, why can’t you listen to just one or two CDs, why the heck do you need two? so yh… distraction. Also the hallway with framed screens also represents self obsession. Notice its lined with pink frames? yh… for melanin girls only.

7. Black taped over lips: This boy must have a thing for crosses (remember the big red X?) The black tape over the girls lips represents silence. The need to keep these girls silent so his creative process can flow (OK Kanye)… and yh also to spread the gospel of heartbreaking melanin girls.

8. I have no idea the symbolism in the two rolling pink hoops or the “whisper and shock” scene, I wont attempt it. Perhaps Okuntakinte can explain that himself.

9. Finally, he threw away a bunch of lavenders onto the floor in the end. This represents him throwing away his silence and calmness and devotion, as lavenders represent purity, silence, devotion, serenity, grace and calmness. This is only legit if they are actually lavenders. I’m not a florist.

10. For the call to support Breast Cancer awareness…. I have no idea, but for me, it relates in no way at all to the video.

So there we have it, my analysis of Okuntakinte’s Melanin Girls.

All images were taken from Okuntakinte’s Twitter account @okuntakinte

You can make your own analysis of the video below: