Whose american pie is this?

The other day, I hit a mental crossroads. One I’ve been putting off since I first encountered it years ago, but your past always comes back to haunt you as they say.

I was on my daily walk, listening to some tunes when I had to stop and address something. What did Trey Songz mean exactly when, in his 2014 remix of TeeFlii’s hit record “24 Hours”, he said “I’ll American Pie that pussy”?

At first, I sung along as this part came up. Not thinking anything and believing his claim.

But then, after it left my own lips, the rest of the song faded out. My imagination stalled and I dwelled inside my head. American pie that pussy? Trey. What are you trying to say by this?

I’ll lay the whole stanza out :

[Pre-Chorus: Chris Brown & Trey Songz]
Woah, you better hide your pussy
I’ma kill it then I’m gon’ revive that pussy
Eat it alive that pussy
I’ll American Pie that pussy

I don’t mean to question him, as Trey Songz has been doing this R&B thing for a long time. He has made many-a-hit. In fact, “Does He Do It” is a hallmark poetic expression of my time. It is also an artistic sleight of hand, if you think about it. Because despite the chorus featuring the titular phrase over and over and over again he’s not really asking the question, “Does your man do it like I do it?” Kind of like when you ask a question that you pretend to not know the answer to, so you can manipulate the askée into having only the conversation you’re open to. It’s kind of like that. Basically, through the entire song, he’s saying, with great confidence, that her man does not do it like he does. He might even be saying that her man never will.

But, with this particular lyric? I got stumped.

Browsing through Genius.com — the gold standard in providing nerd-aggregated meaning behind artistically-intentioned lyrics — hasn’t proved helpful. The site only lists one stanza throughout the whole song as having a citation and it’s not the section in question. Trey’s claim has remained mysteriously un-discussed. Am I to believe that no one else has wondered what he meant by this refrain? That would, as most things, make me feel terribly alone.

But there has to be someone else on this planet who has wondered the etymology of a pussy being american pied, as Trey Songz said so confidently. Like most things on the internet, a citation on a website is not an example of the long history of personal inquiries. It is not the official record.

So where else would I go to find this?

I started with a general search. But I realized had to abort that approach as quickly as I came.

It turns out that googling, at surface, “american”, “pie” and “pussy” together brings up a lot of results that originate on a site called XVideos (???). Weird. There were so many links. I decided after checking every one of these links out and getting sidetracked from my search, that I would just bookmark these findings for a later time and try a different route.

Going back to the drawing board, I decided to Put Aside that pussy and isolate the verb portion of the lyric. Because I realized the thing that really tripped me up was his use of American Pie of all pies. Which American Pie?

There is the iconic 1970 song “American Pie”, by Don McLean which is classic and timeless, by white people standards. It’s also full of allusions and vague imagery. In its own way, it has caused much debate and confusion about the meaning behind the term American Pie, for which there are still many interpretations.

So was Trey alluding to the nature of vagueness in lyrics by referencing the McLean interpretation of American Pie? By “American Pie (1970)-ing that pussy” was he only vaguely able to interpret the pussy? Was Trey Songz, in his own meta-commentary, signaling my very search to find a definitive interpretation of his lyric… in that very lyric? Did he know the ripple effect of how this would affect someone like me? Was he giving audience to my nature of obsession… was he speaking directly to me?

But if so, how would that interact with the pussy? Hmmmm. Good question. Maybe this is too much of a stretch. Maybe he just liked McLean’s classic line “Drove to the levee and the levee was dry” and wanted to reference it in his song.

Oh wait, what about giving water to a dry pussy? Is that what he means?

I decided that, like the levee, this connection may be too abstract to hold water. There was no way to assert that Trey Songz believed that anything in the Don McLean song would help him in his sexual conquest.

But then, at that moment, I did a facepalm. “American Pie”. Trey could easily be referencing the film series of the same name from the late 90s. I, too, grew up on the crude sexual humor and boyish horniness those movies portrayed. That could be a link! So it got me thinking, how well-versed is Trey with the cult classic coming-of-age series?

I looked over his Instagram for the next 16–18 minutes and I didn’t quite find any mentions of American Pie or any of the actors in it. But no matter, that doesn’t rule anything out.

I knew I would find out more by investigating the first film in the series because my memory was fuzzy and it had been so long since I’d seen it. Turns out I found something really crucial from Wikipedia:

“The title refers to a scene in which the protagonist is caught masturbating with a pie after being told that third base feels like “warm apple pie”. Writer Adam Herz has stated that the title also refers to the quest of losing one’s virginity in high school, which is as “American as apple pie.”

Wow. So many important details.

Was I to believe that by “American Pie-ing that pussy” Trey was hoping to masturbate into literal pie and then doing that to a pussy? Stacking the pie and pussy? That conjures up so many images. Did he want to treat the pussy like warm pie? That’s kind of interesting. But in the previous line of the lyric, Trey says that he plans to “eat it alive that pussy.” Was he focused on providing third base (that’s oral pleasure fyi) for the pussy instead of himself? Was he the pie? The lines before that one talk about viciously murdering the pussy and then magically bringing it back to life. Maybe the last step of the pussy process is to eat it post-revival.

There is that memorable scene in the film where a local boy, Kevin (played by Thomas Ian Nichols), is determined to prove his commitment to his girlfriend, Vicky (played by Tara Reid). So he uses the instructions he has found for the “Tongue Tornado” to impose his will on the pussy while her parents prepare dinner downstairs. She is elated. Is this the feeling that that Trey Songz is hoping to provide? This, as a theory, holds a lot of wetness.

I like it. And I really wanna believe it, but there’s just one thing.

If we’re taking the 1999 film at face value, there is an air of sexual inexperience to the characters. The oral sex instructions were an unexpected cheat code for the high schools protagonists of the film. And masturbating using a pie is about simulating the true experience of oral sex, because you’ve never had it. It’s hard to assume anything these days, but given Trey’s deep oeuvre of lyrics and images expressing his sexual prowess, why would he need instructions on how to pleasure a pussy? I have a hard time believing this.

Maybe it was about using an actual pie all along: was Trey so fed up with the lifestyle and pressure of being a famous sex symbol — of receiving oral pleasure so easily — that he was hoping to move into simulating the experience of inexperience? Was he hoping to retreat back to the feeling of warm pie? Of teenage longing? And then he would serve that up as pleasure to the pussy? I am amazed at how deep his imagination goes, if that is the case. That’s really catering to the pussy.

But boy, this sucks. I still can’t be sure if any of this checks out.

So much of my problem with this journey — and why I avoided it to begin with— is that I tend to doubt myself and it causes me extra steps. I hate extra steps. But the truth is that after so many extra steps is when I finally get a little clarity. And I thought: “Duh. Why don’t I just ask Trey directly what he meant?” Keyword there being “direct”. With the rise of social media, we have unprecedented access to celebrities. I was going to direct message him and get an answer myself.

We had the below back-and-forth:

After waiting about 10 minutes for an answer, my guy Trey chose not to respond. But that’s okay, I get it. He was protecting the meaning behind his art. I quickly realized it was just him being really strong about his boundaries. After a lifetime of believing the opposite, I know that when someone doesn’t respond to you right away, it’s not a me-problem, it usually means that it’s them just protecting their energy and stuff.

I was disappointed because at this point, I had no options left. The true nature of Trey’s American Pie was slipping through the cracks of my fingers. But I didn't feel that this was a mistake. I realized: I was enlightened.

Trey is an artist. And as an artist, he isn’t required to explain his metaphors. Not even to friends like me. Sometimes so little can say so much. A simple line in a song can have multiple meanings and it can contain a multitude of histories. To Americanpie a pussy can be to see the big picture. To Americanpie a pussy can be to stimulate AND simulate. To Americanpie a pussy can be to live like an R&B superstar, unimpeachable to anyone. And sometimes, it’s the pussy that wants to get Americanpied, and Trey is just the vessel for all of the above.

For now, I can just accept that Trey Songz’ artistic goals are — like the pieces of fruit in the warm pastry around your genitals — always shifting.

Next in this series: Examining the meaning behind another important rap lyric of my lifetime. Bow Wow’s lyric, from the 2012 song “Ain’t Thinking Bout You” (also featuring Chris Brown) where he says, of being in the club one night: “Shit, it’s me and Chris in here so you know it’s real Thick in here.” Ayo? Bow? What did you mean by this?