Guard Your Heart: Usher, Nicki Minaj and Honey Nut Cheerios

According to Multivu.com, "Eight–time Grammy Award–winning megastar Usher and Buzz the Bee, the iconic Honey Nut Cheerios™character, are using dance to spread the word that being healthy can be fun and delicious. Starting today, the two new friends are asking people to celebrate and share healthy and happy moments, like dancing to Usher’s new single 'She Came to Give it to You' and enjoying a heart–healthy breakfast with Honey Nut Cheerios. With health issues like heart disease on the rise, Buzz wants to get people buzzing about the importance of physical activity and healthy food choices as part of a healthy lifestyle."

Sounds great, doesn't it? After seeing the commercial, and I couldn't help but wonder how Usher's song helped to get people buzzing about healthy lifestyle choices. Maybe the "she" in the title was coming to give me heart-healthy cereal?

So if you knew what I knew

She'd be yours tonight

Yeah, baby

Imagine she came here to getaway

Well she don’t want nobody crowding the space

Huh, wouldn’t that be weird? oh

She was up tonight to get down

But she don’t wanna be a part of the crowd

Wouldn’t that be weird? oh yeah

I’m so confused

If you only knew

She came to give it to you

Girl it ain’t what you do

It’s what you do tonight

And there ain’t no shortcuts

In doing something right

If you knew what I knew

She'd be yours tonight

Just look around the club

Cause you’re here to have a good time

So many benefits to being quiet

Just be cool, enjoy the ride

‘Cause all you really wanna do is, wouldn’t that be weird? Yeah

Don’t be stingy with it pass the J, when I hit it this headache go away

My n**** that’s weird

I’m so confused

If you only knew

She came to give it to you

Girl it ain’t what you do

It’s what you do tonight

And there ain’t no shortcuts

In doing something right

If you knew what I knew

She'd be yours tonight

Just look around the club

Cause you’re here to have a good time

I’m so confused

If you only knew

She came to to give it to you

[Nicki Minaj:]

Yo

He want the flirty girl, I'm the girly girl

You know who get the worm its the early bird flow

Slicker than MJ, early curl

I got to clip these b****** like sterly sturl

I seen him in the club he could get the cub

I ain't talking about baseball but go get the glove

Don't be like OJ and forget your glove

Tryna get faded, go and get the drug

Five plus five what they call that? Ten

Out in japan we be counting that, Yen

Ladies who you trying get it popping with? Men

No little boys in the circle of Usher

Got em under pressure

When your girl come through Nicki gon' crush her

And tell your man play the back like a spine

You only last 6 seconds like a vine

I’m so confused

If you only knew

She came to give it to you

Girl it ain’t what you do

It’s what you do tonight

And there ain’t no shortcuts

In doing something right

If you knew what I knew

She'd be yours tonight

Just look around the club

Cause you’re here to have a good time

[Nicki Minaj:]

Yeah, c'mon

C'mon, uh-huh, yo yo

I'm Nicki M and he is Usher

All these n***** be tryna cuff her

What you know about that Swiffer duster

Until next time you m************.

"She Came To Give It To You"

(feat. Nicki Minaj)

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I think that clears it up!  The "it" Usher has in mind is neither breakfast cereal nor honey, and Nicki Minaj is both good with numbers and angry about something. 

It's an odd culture in which we live: we get message after message about genuinely healthy lifestyle choices: don't smoke, don't drink too much, eat local and unprocessed, drive carefully, eat the food pyramid (or circle or whatever is popular now), don't run yourself into the ground with stress. In spite of what we might feel like ingesting or doing, it's obvious some choices are better than others, not just for ourselves but often for those around us (think of the ripple of effects of alcoholism or obesity).  

So why don't we as a culture send the same message about sexual choices? A basic review of sociological and medical studies will show that sexual purity and self-restraint result in a significant amount of physical, emotional, psychological and relational health. On the other hand, the negative fallout of having sex with multiple partners or engaging in sex too quickly is significant and sobering - or at least it ought to be.  

So while we pull soda machines from schools and make commercials telling kids how to eat well, we set the message to a soundtrack that will lead them down a road that will will do far more damage to their heart than a poor diet ever will.