For this semester, I’d like to take a look at a variety of love songs, past and present and how they’ve changed over time and if they still convey the same general themes. I’d like to start off with a very recent song from 2019 from the artist Bazzi called I.F.L.Y..

The song starts out with the verse which goes “Touchin’ you slowly, love how you hold me. I was a player, that was the old me. I sent a prayer for something holy, got naked and show me. Girl, summer’s been lonely, yeah. At first, I was hesitant, (Spooky) like a skeleton. You 20, but intelligent, now all them other b*tches so irrelevant, ah-ah, yeah. Tan lines and some memories. (Woo) Guess summer got the best of me (Woo). Chef B with the recipe, yeah, with you, it’s a better me”. What’s basically being said in this verse is that Bazzi’s girlfriend has changed him for the better, which is evident from the “I was a player but that was the old me” and the “with you, it’s a better me”. Another thing that’s a theme in this verse is that he’s so in love with his girlfriend that all other girls are irrelevant to him, which is clear by the “now all them other b*tches so irrelevant”.

The chorus then goes ” I guess what I’m sayin’, I guess what I’m sayin’, I guess what I’m sayin’ is, I, I f*ckin’ love you. I guess what I’m sayin’, I guess what I’m sayin’. I guess what I’m sayin’ is, I
I f*ckin’ love you (Ah, yeah). Love you through the better days. Love you through the rainy ones.
Champion, you’re number one, yeah, that’s true. I guess what I’m sayin’, I guess what I’m sayin’
I guess what I’m sayin’ is, I, I f*ckin’ love you (Ah, yeah, ah)”. So as far as choruses go, this one doesn’t have all that much substance other than Bazzi saying that he loves his girlfriend over and over again during the good days and the bad days alike, “love you through the better days. Love you through the rainy ones”.

The second verse then goes, “Yes, I do, chillin’ top floor with a penthouse view, but that don’t mean a thing unless I’m next to you, ’cause money just money ‘less I spend it on you. Next to me, when I’m with you, you bring out the best of me. God made you a twin, but you the one I see, but shoutout to Elisha, that’s my baby (Yeah, yeah, yeah). But if I wrote you a love song, would you sing it? If I needed bail out of jail, would you bring it? If I win, then we’re up, if we fail, then we wing it”. This verse states that Bazzi doesn’t care how much money he needs to spend as long as he’s spending it on his girlfriend. Furthermore, according to Genius, Elisha is the name of Bazzi’s girlfriend’s twin sister so the line where he says “God made you a twin, but you the one I see”, he means that even though there are two of his girlfriend? essentially, he only loves his one, which I wouldn’t find very romantic but maybe that’s just me.

The chorus plays again then the outro which goes “That’s my baby, yeah, my baby, uh, uh. My baby, yeah. That’s my baby, yeah. My baby, uh, uh. My baby”. This is probably the most substantial lyrical chunk of writing I’ve ever read so I don’t know if I can really analyze it.

Overall, this song is a banger but also once I really looked at the lyrics… there really isn’t that much there.

Image 1 source: https://songwhip.com/song/bazzi/ifly

Image 2 source: https://themusicalhype.com/bazzi-ifly-track-review/