Imagine you’re in the prime of your life. You’re young. You’re healthy. You have few, if any, inhibitions. You have enough money to do anything you can dream of. You have a bevy of stunningly beautiful potential partners lining up to be at your beck and call.
There’s no one to answer to but yourself, no one’s guidance or counsel to take but your own. In short, you can live the “good life” wholly, totally, completely on your own terms.
Such imaginings are, for the vast majority of us, exactly that: imaginings. A wild exercise in fantasy.
But not for Flo Rida.
That’s exactly the kind of life he’s living, if his latest hit, “Wild Ones,” is any indication.
The song’s lyrics riff on the familiar hip-hop theme of partying till the wee hours before heading home for a celebratory, sex-filled nightcap. The accompanying video explores some of the ways a financially flush, pleasure-seeking hedonist might choose to fill his time.
In Flo Rida’s case, that includes: 1) Skydiving from a helicopter above Dubai. 2) Popping wheelies on his BMW motorcycle. 3) Skimming across the Florida everglades in an airboat full of fawning female fans. 4) Tearing across the terrain on a four-wheeler. 5) Racing twin, scissor-wing sports cars with a particularly wiling woman.
Oh, and 6) hoisting flutes and bottles of champagne at a club full of admiring, scantily clad ladies.
See any common threads here?
Flo’s verses, um, flow above catchy, trendy, Europop beats, interspersed with the oft-repeated chorus sung by guest vocalist Sia. She plays the role of an ingénue who’s intrigued by a bad boy’s reputation—a reputation she’s interested in experiencing firsthand: “Hey, I heard you were a wild one, ooh/If I took you home/It’d be a home run/Show me how you do/I wanna shut down the club with you.”
Flo’s more than game for that, of course.
“No. 1, club popper/Got a hangover like too much vodka,” he raps. “Tell them this, bottoms up with the champagne/ … No doubt by the end of the night/Got the clothes coming off/I’ll make that move/ … Uh-oh, it’s on, like everything goes/Round up, baby, tilt the freaky show/What happens to that body, it’s a private show/ … Tear up that body/Dominate you till you’ve had enough/I hear you like/The wild stuff.”
Sia’s response? “Break me in/Saddle me up, and let’s begin.”
By his own estimation, Flo Rida’s idealization of all that “wild stuff” shows “that when you pray and work hard, you can achieve something as long as it’s positive.” That’s what he told Chicago radio station B96.
Now, I’ll admit Flo Rida’s vision of success isn’t quite as raunchy as the material we see from some of his hip-hop peers these days. And “Wild Ones” is a degree or two less nasty than his own previous stripper-centric hits “Low” and ” Right Round.”
That said, I’d stop well short of labeling Mr. Rida’s uninhibited, self-absorbed and hedonistic lifestyle “positive.”
After serving as an associate editor at NavPress’ Discipleship Journal and consulting editor for Current Thoughts and Trends, Adam now oversees the editing and publishing of Plugged In’s reviews as the site’s director. He and his wife, Jennifer, have three children. In their free time, the Holzes enjoy playing games, a variety of musical instruments, swimming and … watching movies.
