Pour Some Sugar on Me

Disclaimer: Music videos, contrary to popular belief, are not art. They are commercials for the art of the music. Like advertisements, they employ similar elements of art like writing, directing, acting, and the incorporation of statues, paintings, or other artistic articles. Now, with that out of the way, Tyler the Creator’s video for his excellent single “SUGAR ON MY TONGUE” is a mixed bag.

The editing is fantastic with dancing bodies jumping around in their skivvies. There is a beautiful black female subject that is on the opposite of the blank space in what is like a cube. The words align with what appears on the screen. For instance as Mr. Okonma sings about the woman and her “mama” and “daddy”; they actually appear and quickly become edited out of the frame. Then they reappear with just their skivvies and then the friends acknowledged in the song do the same thing.

Then things go down quickly. Tyler dons a gimp suit and practises being dominated by the black female. She holds him on a leash as they wear black leather that covers Tyler’s entire body save for his mouth. Fresh from a commanding verse on Clipse's extraordinary album Let God Sort ‘Em Out (2025), this imagery stands in stark contrast to his contribution. On his own monumental and rushed and too short album Don’t Tap the Glass (2025) from which “Sugar” stems, he stands as a staunch supporter of the dominant man.

To be subjected to a leashed subject to be conquered by a woman flies in the face of even eating a roach or hanging himself as in the video “Yonkers” from many moons ago. As he then cuts off his tongue and allows the woman to water it and then a jump cut to an enormous Tyler tongue with her grinding and riding it, the image is alluring, provocative, sexy and creative.

But the dominatrix scene kind of sucks the wind out of the overall project. The idea that a woman should dominate the man is a defect in the masculinity department. Now, women should be powerful in the bedroom, no doubt, but they ultimately must be dominated by the man. What Tyler, The Creator is offering here is an inverse of the aesthetic that men should not kowtow to the whim of the opposite sex.

Men should be the ultimate source of dominance in the relationship, gimp suits remain out of the question. Other than that, the song is phenomenal and the mood at least is depicted in the music video. It conveys a sense of sex as a weapon. And the gun is put to the head of Tyler’s ego. Philosopher Ayn Rand once pointed out that sex makes you naked in the physical sense as well as the value-bearing sense. Tyler has been known to be bisexual. Even with men and other men, there is a dynamic of dominance on both sides. If Mr. Okonmo wants to show dominance, he should show two in those roles. Two woman would have made things interesting as well.

A woman can only do so much as she has not been equipped with the genitals that could dominate a man. Of course with transgenders and “Lady Boys” this would not apply. That kind of relationship would be interesting but with the male equipment, they’re still a male depending on their gender at birth.

There’s no need in diving too deep into this line of thinking. Tyler doesn’t overthink a damn thing and cares not what his audience or critics think…to an extent. The song, like the album, is short and well, sweet (ahem). “Sugar” is an expression of the love for cunning linguistics. Clever wordplay and fun takes on oral sex is what makes this a superb summer song. The video has its flaws but the best parts of it actually work. The notion that this is just to have a good time and move one’s body is what Tyler broadcasts throughout.