Certainly

This is def one of my favorites.... it describes me completely..it's simply about a woman who is single, enjoying her life as a free spirit..and isn't interested in being in love...and she makes it perfectly clear that she doesn't need any man telling her what to do or how to be....!! so don't try to make her fall in love cuz you'll only be wasting ur time!...can't wait for her new album to drop!

scarlett letters - I don't think Erykah Badu tries to be all "cool and in charge" in her songs. She's just real. I've heard her sing about her own weaknesses, her insecurities & trying to be a strong woman. But anyway, I don't think the mickey line is to be taken seriously, she's speaking metaphorically. I took it as the man took it too far in trying to seduce her - not literally putting a mickey in her drink, but in her life.

I think it has a couple of meanings. The obvious one is that she doesn't want a man to come into her life and change her, and that the man has no right to come in and change her. The second meaning I got from this song after listening to the live version is that she is talking about the slave trade and the institution of slavery. Africans were kidnapped from where they lived and forced to change for the people who would own them. They "certainly" did not give them permission to do that.

i always liked this song... but the line, "then you slipped me a mickey" i wasn't really sure what it meant. a mickey finn is drugs added to a drink, for the purposes of date rape. so even though ms. badu sings like she's all cool and in charge, this song is about possibly being raped?

when she explained this song on her Live album she said something like "when coming over to america we had to change a lotta things, but we didn't give nobody permission to rearrange us" but i dont really understand that