Bills, Bills, Bills -- Destiny's Child

"Bills, Bills, Bills" by Destiny's Child

Released: 1999

Song sentiment: You are poor, so I don't love you.

Original lyrics in blue
Analyzed lyrics in black

VERSE 1

At first we started out real cool, taking me places I ain't never been. But now, you're getting comfortable, ain't doing those things you did no more. You're slowly making me pay for things your money should be handling. And now you ask to use my car. Drive it all day and don't fill up the tank. And you have the audacity to even come and step to me and ask to hold some money from me until you get your check next week.

The mutual affinity and comfort that marked the onset of our romance seems to have faded. Previously, you regularly introduced me to new places and adventures, but your motivation to impress me has weakened, and increasingly I feel pressured into fulfilling your financial debts. Currently, you request my permission to operate my vehicle, a privilege you abuse with excessive use and disregard for replenishing the gasoline reserve. Moreover, I am displeased with the inconsiderate arrogance you have shown in presuming that I can provide you with short-term loans.

BRIDGE

You trifling, good for nothing type of brother. Silly me, why haven't I found another, a baller. When times get hard, I need someone to help me out, instead of a scrub like you who don't know what a man's about.

You are a foolish, worthless African-American man, and I am also foolish for not seeking a companion who has enjoyed self-made success, a la a professional athlete. When I am faced with dire circumstances, I would rather be dating someone willing to lend assistance, as opposed to a pecuniously deficient moocher whose concept of chivalry is suspect.

CHORUS

Can you pay my bills? Can you pay my telephone bills? Do you pay my automo-bills? If you did then maybe we could chill. I don't think you do, so you and me are through. (Repeat)

Do you possess the necessary capital to cover my periodical financial obligations to creditors, including those to the company that provides my land-line and/or wireless communication services? Do you make, on my behalf, regular payments I incur due to having financed my car? Doing so would increase the chances that we could relax, but I'm under the impression that the contrary is the case; consequently, our relationship is hereby terminated.

VERSE 2

Now you've been maxing out my card. Givin' me bad credit, buyin' gifts with my own ends. Haven't paid the first bill but you're steady heading to the mall, goin' on shopping sprees, perpetrating to your friends that you be ballin'. And then you use my cell phone, calling whoever that you think at home. And then when the bill comes all of a sudden you be acting like you dumb, don't know where none of these calls come from, when your momma's number's here more than once.

Your use of my flat, bank-issued plastic rectangle in your commercial activities is so excessive that its spending power has been destroyed. Your actions damage the numerical score that allegedly reflects my ability to make timely payments on purchases, and you have used my own funds to acquire presents for me, which hardly seems like much of a present at all! Even the first set of purchases you made have not been settled by you, but that fact does not seem to deter you from making more purchases in large indoor retail centers that were popular in the 1980s. This behavior, which in most cases indicates a level of wealth and success, misleads your acquaintances accordingly. Furthermore, you dial numbers on my cordless, handheld telephone and hope to reach any individual that you suspect will be available to speak to you. When the post office delivers the monthly itemization of these communications, you use ignorance to try to shirk your financial responsibilities for these actions; this is unconvincing, however, because the list of digits associated with various parties includes multiple instances of those belonging to the woman whose body you emerged from on your first day of life, and because I never call this person, I am rather suspicious that you are the culprit.

(BRIDGES AND CHORUSES UNTIL THE END)