Size Matters

Gonna break this down as folks 'round this site like to do. The meaning of this song is a double entendre, where Natasha imagines a positive correlation between the size of a man's heart (as identified by acts of kindness and compassion) and the size of his, well, you know what.

I noticed this connection when i first heard this song, and i was, like, 12 or something at the time--by no stretch of the imagination did i have a dirty mind!

~Lyrics ~ "I've been sizin' you up and stuff Watchin you live life large" Fresh out of the gate, and it's already dirty. "Sizing you up, watching you live life large" refer to watching someone, which means she's only seeing physical phenomena; such is the world we live in. Later on, once our minds have been tripped and shoved into the gutter, Natasha will explain away this apparent element of smut. But notice it's how she starts the song, when we have no other context, and must assume that she's thinking dirty.

"Enough for the both of us To big up the love" lol... yeah. ... As far as we know this far into the song, "love" is a physical thing, and "bigging it up" would naturally mean she's upgrading to a larger penis, which she's determined this gentleman possesses. Cause Natasha's a creep.

"Got the measure of the man in you" Restating that she knows what's underneath... whether that's underneath the surface of his appearance, or just underneath his clothes, seems to be up for debate.

"It's more than the sum of the parts" Now we get an inkling that she might be referring to something besides his "manhood." The phrase "more than the sum of the parts" typically does refer to something ideological/non-physical. But here, she's kind of making it out to be about the pleasure he would give her if they had sex, because as we know, she's thinking of him in "that way."

"It's true what they say You gotta big up the love" What they say is "size matters," meaning the bigger he is, the more pleasurable "it" will be. So she's letting us know that she's not dismissing this age-old piece of wisdom, though i've heard interviews where she says she is. Nope, she's agreeing: bigger you-know-whats are better in Natasha's book!

"I've been checkin' nice things you do Standing in the Starbucks queue You buy coffee for a stranger Who's down on their luck" She showed us in the previous couple lines that she's going for something beyond just the physical here, and now she is showing the behaviors that caused her to conclude that he's big in all the right ways: he's generous.

"Random acts of kindness flow, Compassion from a hand I'd like to hold" She loves using the word "flow" in this song, doesn't she? So yeah, he's compassionate, and that makes her want to hold his hand, while still letting the ambiguous language "flow."

"It does it for me and I can't get enough" Well, there ya go.

"Oh, don't confuse me when I say Oh, please don't take this the wrong way" This line has two meanings, as well. It's not concerned with sexualizing this poor gentleman that she's been creeping on, who is apparently a nice guy. But meaning 1: Refers to the message of the song as a whole: "don't accuse me of being a horny creeper" meaning 2: Refers to the subsequent lines. "Don't make a mistake when I say the following words." And those words are.....

"You can lead a heart to love But you can make it fall" Of course refers to the cliche "you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink," but Natasha's version is more direct and less allegorical than the original. The heart she's referring to is her own. She has been led to love in the past, but she hasn't been made to fall for those guys. And why not? Let's see:

"I'm tired of loving small" Ah, because their penises were too small. Oh, and they weren't nice guys like the random man in Starbucks. Seriously, though, "loving" here is ambiguous, meaning "falling in love" with someone, and also "making love."

So Natasha is bringing together personality/generosity and penis size as being connected.

"Cause size matters but not how you think I'm talking bout your heart" This is the dishonest part of the song. Just admit to having a sexual element to it. You can be talking about the heart, too, but you're also talking about... other things. You already said so.

"And what you do with it" Once again, she includes an element of the physical alongside the spiritual/emotional aspects of the song. At the moment, though, there is nothing to "do" with the heart. That means that, when you hear this line, you're forced to think of the word "heart" as a physical thing that you can "do" things with. And Natasha has already lent us the imagery to correctly substitute the "heart:" it's the penis. So this line sounds primarily sexual until the next line comes along to contextualize it:

"The more seeds you plant The more flowers will grow" Okay, so what you "do" with your heart refers to planting positivity in others. This chorus is riddled with sexual content, specifically the last three lines. But at least now we see where the heart actually fits into the previous line.

"So big up the love 'till it overflows" Homegirl nasty. And she wants people to be kind to each other, which is sweet.

Final thoughts on the last three lines of the chorus:

"The more seeds you plant the more flowers will grow, so big up the love til it overflows." First of all, "seeds" and "overflowing," specifically in reference to a person, really specifically to a guy, and especially about a guy's... you-know-what, bring with them a connotation of fertilizing, namely referencing his sperm. This is sort of a cheap comparison, if you ask me, but it's pretty clearly what she's going for. Secondly, "flowers" often refer to women's reproductive organs. Thus, the kinder/bigger you are, the more women will "respond" to you. Finally, the meaning of "big up the love" becomes clear: on the surface it means be more generous to others, and subtly it means have a big... you know.

Verse Two: "Most blokes too shallow to swim in Only interested in one thing It's all so meaningless 'cause puddles dry up" Here, calling guys who are only interested in sex "shallow" makes them puddles, and she's saying that they'll eventually become a "dry" place for her because they are small-"hearted." So a guy who is not generous in deed and in stature won't keep her sexual and emotional interest.

"With a view of the world so small It limits the size of the dream And you achieving it" If you substitute a certain aspect of the anatomy for "view of the world," then one might infer that "The Dream" is her pleasure: a small you-know-what means a smaller "dream," and a bigger one means a bigger orgasm, as well as a richer relationship.

"A new panorama With your arms around me, I see my life how it should be" Her life is forever affected by the imagined large genitals of this strange man.

Big it up [Repeat: x2] Again, she is all about big things.

On the whole, her vocal is a bit promiscuous in this song. Somewhat coy, imho.

I'm not saying the song is only about sex, but it's a bit silly to say sex has no part in the song at all. It's not a "sexy song," but it's about contextualizing sex correctly in her relationships, and that's nothing to be ashamed of, or lie about when you're put on the spot.

I didn't write the song, folks! I'm just pointing out the obvious!