Currently holding the fifth spot on the Spotify top 50 songs in the US, For the night by Pop Smoke is a song that has taken the internet by storm. The song was released on July 3, 2020, along with the rest of the album Shoot for the stars, Aim for the moon. The song has gained a lot of social media attention, being used in more than 2.6 million tik tok videos featuring its own dance. This song has reached a large audience and yet I have never heard anyone mention what it's about.
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For the night, the song's title refers to one night stands. The theme of the song is that Pop Smoke, Dababy, and Lil Baby, the rappers on the song, will only be attached to their women for one night. While one night stands might not be particularly degrading to women, the manner in which they express this message is.
Pop Smoke sings, “If I call you bae, you bae for the day / Or a bae for the night, you not my wife.” In these lyrics, similar to Snoop Dogg’s Aint no fun, Pop Smoke is referring to women as having only sexual value, and once that is utilized, they are useless. Constantly hearing this, regardless of your gender, further reinforces the belief that this is true. This can lead men to devalue women, and women to devalue themselves. Later in the song, Dababy raps, “Think she cute, make her f***, let her man go.” Glorifying rape culture, this line normalizes the notion that men don’t consent from women. Though it is just one line in one song, seemingly insignificant phrases such as these place women in a submissive role to men, adding to the gender inequality present in the nation today.
