Image via Complex Original
Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. Sure, you’ve heard the quote, but what does it mean to you? Just ask any man who’s ever crossed us—and you’ll soon find out that things didn’t turn out too well for him. Or, to quote Jesus, “It would be better if a millstone was tied around your neck.”
When women love, they generally love hard. But when a man takes that woman’s love for granted, there's not enough chocolates and flowers in the world to make up for the lying and the cheating. At times like those, the best you can hope for is to wind up as the catalyst for another hateful hit record.
Last week, Bridget Kelly dropped a mixtape stacked with jams that channeled the kind of anger that every girl can understand. We were feeling BK so much that we took a little trip down memory lane to rewind some of our favorite furious females. Click through while they let it all out...
Written by Linda Hobbs (@linnyloveslin)
15. Bridget Kelly “White Lies” (2011)
Album: Every Girl
Best line: “I heard noises coming from upstairs when I walked into my house / No one was sposta be there / Strictly for protection purposes was when I pulled my gun out...”
Complex says: Co-written by Ne-Yo and Shanell, this twisted tale of betrayal and revenge unfolds like a soap opera or an R.Kelly video. BK stands accused of murdering her man and some trifling tramp, but she wants the judge to understand that the fact that she caught him cheating had nothing to do with why she reloaded her gun twice. Hmmm... Who’s telling white lies now?
14. Mya “If You Died I Wouldn't Cry” (1998)
Album: Mya
Best line: “I hope you never come this way again / You used to be my lover and my friend / So please don’t take offense when I say what I have to say / If you died I wouldn’t cry, cause you never loved me anyway.”
Complex says: According to this song, revenge is a dish that’s best served cold. Though this joint starts out sounding nice and romantic, it doesn’t take long before the bitterness starts to flow. Mya’s describing a dude who hurt her so bad that even death would be too good for him.
13. Fantasia “I’m Doin’ Me” (2010)
Album: Back to Me
Best line: “Won’t spend another minute wasting my time / On a man that only tells me lies…”
Complex says: We just have two words: Antwaun… Cook. The married father of two met Fantasia when she stopped by his North Carolina cell phone store. He reportedly told her he was separated and the two carried on an affair for the better part of a year—complete with a sex tape.
He filed for divorce from his wife right around the same time Fantasia was hospitalized for an overdose of pills. Cook’s ex-wife also filed suit against Fantasia for being a home wrecker. “Music saved me,” Fantasia said in an interview, but really, this song says it all.
12. Keri Hilson “Intuition” (2009)
Album: In A Perfect World
Best line: “Dudes out here think they slick / Got a lot of girls on they da da da da dick (and they can’t say “no”) / Steady telling me, ‘They ain’t you’ / imma wait to see what you gon’ do.”
Complex says: Even pretty girls can get their hearts broken, and Keri made this song for every woman who’s had the wool pulled over her eyes by a smooth operator. Maybe that’s why God gave us powers of discernment that are second to none—the deception never goes but so far.
Keri’s already in the studio working on her third album, and it’s supposed to have even more broken-heart bangers. “There’s a specific few people who ain’t gon’ like to listen to this album,” she said recently. We can hardly wait.
11. Monica “So Gone” (2003)
Album: After the Storm
Best line: “Drive past your house every night / In an unmarked car / Wondering what she had on me / To make you break my heart.”
Complex says: The motivation behind this song is simple enough to grasp. Monica was rumored to be involved in a romantic relationship with a cheater when she made it. But whether or not the one-hit-wonder rapper Rocko committed the ultimate no-no, Monica’s song speaks for all the ladies who had to leave a deadbeat… Just like she did.
10. Keyshia Cole “I Should Have Cheated” (2006)
Album: How It Is
Best line: “If that’s the case I should go have my fun / And do all the things you say I do / Boy I can’t continue to take this from you.”
Complex says: If Sheila E. and En Vogue weren’t evidence enough, then please let Keyshia Cole prove once and for all that Oakland girls take no mess. Miss Cole is not the one to sit around fretting about what her man is doing behind her back. And if you accuse her of doing dirt, she might just do it—if only to prove a point.
9. Beyoncé “Resentment” (2006)
Album: B’Day
Best line: “I’ll always remember feeling / Like I was no good / Like I couldn’t do it for you / Like your mistress could / And it’s all because you lied.”
Complex says: When it comes to songs about moving on, Bey is the R&B Oprah. From “Why Don't You Love Me,” to her most recent girls anthem “Best Thing I Never Had,” Mrs. Carter’s catalog is stacked with perfect jams for women dealing with seething anger.
But her magnum opus has to be this remake of a 2003 Victoria Beckham gem. (Is it something about having a famous husband?) Beyoncé sings about the scars left on a faithful woman’s heart so convincingly and passionately that it’s downright scary. When a man you trust starts lying about his double life, it ain’t nothin’ nice.
8. Mary J. Blige “Not Gon’ Cry” (1995)
Album: Waiting to Exhale: Original Soundtrack Album
Best line: “Eleven years, of sacrifice/And you can leave me at the drop of a dime/Swallowed my fears/Stood by your side/I should have left your ass a thousand times!”
Complex says: We could have picked half the songs on the Waiting to Exhale soundtrack for this list, but out of all the jilted-lover jams on that brilliant CD, this joint takes the cake.
It doesn’t take an R&B historian to know that Mary J. has had her share of rocky relationships. Though things turned out happily ever after for the now-wedded R&B icon, her heartbreaks with K-Ci are well documented. Back when Beyoncé was still in training bras, Mary J. Blige was the go-to girl for inspiration when dealing with a no-good man.
7. Jazmine Sullivan “Bust Your Windows” (2008)
Album: Fearless
Best line: “I bust the windows out your car/You know I did it cause I left my mark/Wrote my initials with the crowbar/And then I drove off into the dark.”
Complex says: If anything made folks take Jazmine Sullivan seriously and recognize her as the real deal, it was this violent musical outburst. Here was a Philly femme fatale who made it plain that you can’t just play with a woman’s heart and think you’re going to get away with it. The laws of love are as simple as the laws of physics: for every action there’s a reaction.
6. Marsha Ambrosius “Hope She Cheats On You (With A Basketball Player)” (2010)
Album: Late Nights & Early Mornings
Best line: “I may sound bitter/I’m a little bitter/Just a little bitter/Because you were with her.”
Complex says: Some women may gracefully walk away after their man has blown it. But just because she didn’t throw your clothes on the lawn, don’t think that she’s just sitting up somewhere wishing you the best.
With this song Marsha goes into the brain of every woman who’s ever been replaced by another chick, and bluntly paints the pictures of payback that fill the female imagination.
5. Rihanna “Man Down” (2010)
Album: Loud
Best line: “What you expect me to do/If you’re playing me for a fool/I will lose my cool/And reach for my firearm.”
Complex says: The moral of this story is that messing with an island chick can get you killed. These strong women are known for getting a little bit crazy at moments of crisis, and nothing illustrates that point better than this self-explanatory song… Rum-pa-pa-pum!
4. Beyoncé “Irreplaceable” (2006)
Album: B’Day
Best line: “Keep talking that mess, that’s fine / But could you walk and talk at the same time?”
Complex says: Though the song may sound fierce on the surface, the lyrics to this Ne-Yo–penned breakup anthem are merely a mask for profound pain. When Bey sings “You must not know 'bout me” the truth is that she’s crumbling inside. Maybe she can “have another you in a minute,” but deep down she knows you were the one she wanted in the first place. And that’s the part that really hurts.
3. Erykah Badu “Tyrone” (1997)
Album: Live
Best line: “I think ya better call Tyrone/And tell him come on, help you get yo’ shit”
Complex says: It doesn’t always take a man cheating to cause a woman’s fury to surface. This classic song has stood the test of time because Badu breaks down some of the other most common offenses committed by unworthy men… You know, things like spending too much time with the boys, and generally being a worthless freeloader. If you don’t believe me, you can call Badu yourself—just don’t ask to use my phone.
2. Kelis “Caught Out There” (1999)
Album: Kaleidoscope
Best line: “I hate you so much right now!/I hate you so much right now!/Ahhh!/I hate you so much right now!”
Complex says: Nastradamus should've seen this one coming. Long before her romance, marriage, and subsequent divorce from Nasir Jones, Kelis came into the game royally pissed.
On her debut single, “Caught Out There” she pretty much liberated every woman wanting to scream about how much they hate a dude… Kelis didn’t mind looking completely crazy so other chicks wouldn’t have to.
1. Lauryn Hill “Ex-Factor” (1998)
Album: The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
Best line: “No matter how I think we grow/You always seem to let me know/It ain’t working.”
Complex says: If songs were rated for their honesty, this classic joint by Ms. Hill would have to take the number-one spot. Nobody has ever captured the confusing roller-coaster ride of dysfunctional relationships like L-Boogie did in this song, perhaps the most wrenching on her painfully pungent solo debut.
Of course we’d need a million more paragraphs to provide sufficient background on Lauryn’s tumultuous romantic past with Wyclef Jean and Rohan Marley… so let’s just keep it simple and stick to the music.