On Rotation: I Love Ratchet Music But My Kids Don’t Know

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December 5, 2012 12:25 pm By Franchesca Lane-Warren
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How many of us have been in our car when the hottest song has come on and we find ourselves bobbing our heads, quoting the lyrics along with hand action? This is what we do. And everything would be fine if a) our kids weren’t in the car b) the song wasn’t ratchet. That friends, is my reality on a daily basis. Underneath my corporate exterior and fine shoes, I love ratchet hip hop music. So there may be days you see me on the freeway in my SUV rapping along to some song that by all standards isn’t fit for any mother to listen to.

Are you unclear about what I classify as ‘ratchet music’? Let me be clear. The song, “Love SOSA” by Chief Keef or “Pop It” by French Montana are just a few that I’ve caught myself listening to. Then don’t let any classic song by Luke or N.W.A. or anything by Salt ‘n Pepa (especially “Push It”) come on and I lose my mind! There’s nothing wrong with these songs (excuse the references to sex) except that most times I have my kids are in the car! That’s right, they’re right there with me as I transport myself in some video as the featured rapper for the song.

So just like any good mom, I try to click off the radio and restrain myself—like I don’t know the lyrics to the song and that I (as a mother) would never listen to those songs. However, sometimes my kids catch me in my ‘ratchet’ moment and look at me like I have lost my mind.  I immediately stop, blame one of them for changing the channel, turn off the radio and go back into ‘mommy mode’. They look relieved, glad their mom doesn’t know the lyrics to songs their friends like. But only if they knew that their mom loves ratchet music.

This is a secret that me and their father usually keep well-hidden. When we’re all in the car, we turn on either Kid Tunes or the R&B channel to hide our taste in music. We sing a-long with the kids and we seem to enjoy all of the tunes. However, as soon as we’re out by ourselves we turn up the music and relive the good old days when we could listen to what we want. We’ve long bemoaned the fact that we can’t listen to what we want but we realize that if our kids (especially twelve-year-old son) found out our taste in music we could never get on him about listening to anything on his iPod. So we keep our secret well hidden and just live a secret life with our secret music.

This, my MommyNoire family, is a price for being a parent. Ratchet music is only reserved for those times when we’re by ourselves. Has this ever happened to you? Or has your taste in music changed since you had kids?

Words: Franchesca Lane-Warren
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