For Kevin Fredericks, the insight about the 2000 hit by Toni Braxton, “He Wasn’t Man Enough For Me,” created somewhat of an Internet explosion! The comedian reportedly tweeted that the lyrics never sounded disrespectful during his first hearing of the song, such that the audience had gone from shock to nostalgia.
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First things first: Let’s break this song down. The slick ‘Darkchild’-produced R&B diss track where Toni Braxton wasn’t just singing about moving on; she was telling the new woman along those lines, “He wasn’t worth your time anyway.” Some people, and Kevín among them, missed that grim shade the first time around!
@APhillyate hit it: “It’s crazy that you didn’t understand those lyrics til now. Toni let that 304 have it!” Meanwhile, @Shahan ⚜ 🇭🇹 joked, “Not you instigating a decades-old fight between Toni Braxton and Robin Givens😭.” Because, really, this song had energy.
Along came @KEILO KEYS✨🧜🏾♀️ to proudly proclaim, “lol the fact that y’all are JUST realizing my auntie Toni snapped on this track is crazy.” And she is right. This was truly a classy diss, a line or two into Toni crooning “He wasn’t man enough for me / But girl, that don’t mean a thing / If he wasn’t man enough for me / He sure ain’t man enough for you” punctuated by her smooth vocal runs.
@NEEK.🌸 went spilling real tea worthy of being told by a Libra lady: “Toni is a libra woman baby we send em back with one sock and a story to tell 😅😅😅😅.”
Hence, the discussion proceeded. @Prettyprettythings said, “I’ve been alarmed by how many people don’t know what they’re singing/dancing to. There are tons of songs that are like ‘wait whatttt’.” And honestly? Same. So, how many of us actually sang along without even understanding how messy these lyrics truly were?
Wale joined saying, “Unlocking the toxic RnB girls of the 90s and 2000s… they was not playin.” And I stand with him- Toni, Chanté Moore, and the other R&B queens of that era truly cast drama in their songs.
Speaking of Chanté, @one of them days type Sza set out for her 1999 hits, “Chanté’s Got a Man,” making ruthlessness two-way: “This and Chanté’s got a man are so disrespectful.” And then there’s that iconic moment in the song where Chanté’s friend is crying about her man, and Chanté just switches gears to answer her phone like “Oh hey boo, what’s up?” Pretty savage.
The thread soon spiraled into hilarity when @DarkWing replied, “Chanté needed her head knocked Btwn the washer and dryer for that bc excuse me?! Your homegirl is venting about her no good man, and you thought ‘oh well couldn’t be me bc my man this and that’…was an appropriate response!?” The imagery is quite something.
By now, the tweet had become an appreciation post for all the petty petty talk early 2000s R&B had given the world. @shalanda also referenced another Toni hit: “Don’t forget Just Be A Man About It! Super disrespectful 🤣🤣🤣.” And she’s right—there was another level of shade.
What can be derived from all this is that Toni Braxton was singing some serious songs to throw in some thinly veiled lessons. And if you missed that on your first go, well… now you don’t.
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If anyone wants to disbelieve how fiercely-out-there these songs were, well… go back for another listen. Just don’t bother coming back to tell us we didn’t warn you.
This story originally appeared on Celebrityinsider
