Aliah Sheffield has an uncanny knack for taking everyday things people say and transforming those simple words into a jam. The singer-songwriter-musician did it with her viral hit “Earth Is Ghetto” where she dropped truth bombs about this raggedy world we live in during the height of the pandemic and with her official first single “Never Drinking Again” where she vowed to lay off the liquor instead of drinking her life away. Now, as she readies the release of her major label debut EP, Aliah does it again with her latest single “Boo Boo The Fool.”
If you’ve grown up Black in America, then you’ve no doubt heard your mama, your daddy or some adult say something to the effect of, “You must think I’m boo boo the fool,” to a child trying or lying to them. Often uttered with the term, “I am not one of your little friends,” it signals that said child needs to get their mind right and gather themselves together.
Aliah harnesses that energy and takes it a step further in “Boo Boo The Fool.” Instead of singing to a child, though, she’s letting a grown-up who’s been cutting up know that they’ve got her f**ked up.
“Somehow you think I’m boo boo the fool, but I ain’t playin’ with you / I ain’t one of your little friends,” Sheffield sings to the person who raised her ire on the chorus. “I will key your car, put sugar in your tank / Make you remember who I am and who I ain’t,” she warns.
Released in conjunction with a video, director Max Grant vividly brings the song to life. Throughout the visual, the scenes alternate between a little family drama and Aliah Sheffield seated at an upright piano on a soundstage.
The clip opens with a young girl laying on her bedroom floor lost in her own world of drawing and coloring. The scene then changes to the girl overhearing her mother arguing with someone on the telephone. After her mom plops a bag of men’s clothing by the front door and goes outside to redecorate a car door with a straight razor, it becomes clear who the argument was with. The child adds some colorful designs in sidewalk chalk to what her mother did, turning the car into a petty work of art. When her father returns home, her mom meets him at the door to kick him to the curb and show him that she’s not boo boo the fool nor one of his little friends. After all that excitement, the young girl and her mother end the video by bonding and sharing a tender moment.
Once again, Aliah Sheffield keeps it real and doesn’t miss. You definitely don’t want to miss her EP These Songs Are For Anyone Sick Of Earth when it drops on Friday, May 26th. The project will be released on Def Jam Recordings and will also feature her forthcoming single “Some Of Your People” due out this Friday, May 12th. Until that time, get into the “Boo Boo The Fool” audio and video right here.
