The song “Nothin’ On You” by upstart rapper B.O.B. is the song of the summer.  It plays on the radio every 12-15 minutes.  It’s stupidly catchy.  It gets stuck in your head like only summer jams can do – to the point where you start looking for an ice pick to assist in removing it.

Honestly, I say these words with love.  Making a song this catchy can’t be easy.  So kudos to you, Mr. O.B.

But there is one glaring, hate-worthy part of this song that must be discussed.  By now, I’m sure he is rolling around in dollar bills and couldn’t care less.  Lest I continue.

The song, about a girl he loves (edgy), showers said female friend with a laundry list of exaggerated compliments.  The goal, it appears, is to convince said girl that she stands alone in the unspoken competition against her own sex.  More clearly, B.O.B. truly feels that every other girl has “nothin’” on this particular girl.  She is the bee’s knees, from what we can deduce.

You think about it B.O.B.

There is one line, though, that breaks the mood so definitively that one could start to second-guess his true feelings towards this girl.  The line makes about zero sense in relation to the rest of the song.  It is a doozy.

“You’re my wonder woman/call me Mr. Fantastic

Stop/Now think about it”

Well, B.O.B., I stopped.  I thought about it.  And it hurt my head.

Now maybe it’s wrong to overanalyze a rap song.  Nobody really questions the lyrics in rap.  It’s about flow, and not necessarily about logic.  But, in defense of the girl you are trying to woo, I think she deserves a rewrite.

Taken at face value, this lyric places B.O.B. and his love interest in separate planes of existence.  Wonder Woman, a D.C. comic book character, exists in a world where Mr. Fantastic, a Marvel superhero, does not exist.  They are mutually exclusive.  They are oil and water.  Actually, they are more like oil and another type of liquid that will never come in contact with oil unless universes were to collide.  They are doomed to be strangers.

I sure hope B.O.B.’s love interest doesn’t read comic books, or this site for that matter.  If so, his chances are ruined.  An otherwise smooth song collapses upon itself with the utterance of this lyric.  Calling a girl “Wonder Woman” might be a smooth move in theory.  But once the line is completed, B.O.B. might as well have said “I love you, but I’m not in love with you.”  That is about equally as smooth.       

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