The head/heart duality is a well known cultural phenomenon. In everyday speech we use “heart” as a shorthand to refer to our emotional state or our faith and “head” to refer to cognition or reason.
"Should I follow my head or follow my heart?"
Both “head” and “heart,” while they are literally the names of body parts, are commonly used to stand for non-bodily phenomena, in particular, mental processes. But, what word do we use when we want to refer explicitly to our corporeal self? Why the humble “ass” of course!
Consider the tagline for this blog (from the Funkmaster George Clinton)
“Free you mind and your ass will follow.”
…and the kid who had the locker next to mine in 7th grade gym class who said…
“Linden, your mouth just wrote a check your ass can’t cash”
…and the seminal gangsta rappers Niggaz With Attitude who in their classic track Straight Outta Compton rhyme…
“Niggaz start to mumble / they wanna rumble / Mix em and cook em in a pot like gumbo / Goin off on a motherfucker like that / with a gat that's pointed at yo ass”
Does NWA mean to say that a gun is literally aimed downwards at your tuchus? Of course not. We understand that in these contexts “ass” means “corporeal self.”
So, remember. You heard it here first. The head/heart duality is done. The head/heart/ass trinity is the Brand New Thang.