I've deleted the repetitions and the 'itchy kitchy yaya bits that aren't real words, but this is the chorus and verses. It's about a prossie called Lady Marmalade that picks someone up on the street, in the New orleans French Quarter, and takes him back to her place.
He met Marmalade down in Old New Orleans
Struttin' her stuff on the street
She said "Hello,
Hey Joe, you wanna give it a go?" oh
Voulez-vous coucher avec moi, ce soir?
Voulez-vous coucher avec moi?
He sat in her boudoir while she freshened up
The boy drank all her magnolia-wine
On the black satin sheets oh I swear he started to freak
Touching her skin feelin' silky smooth
The colour of cafe au lait
Made the savage beast inside
Roar until it cried, More, More, More
Now he's back home doing 9 to 5
Living his grey flannel life
But when he turns off to sleep
Old memories meet, More, More, More And an extract from an interview with Patti LaBelle (who originally took the song to the charts)
To anyone paying attention, the song was highly suggestive and it did ruffle some feathers, partly because it seemed to glamorize prostitution. In a 1986 interview with NME Patti LaBelle explained: "That song was taboo. I mean, why sing about a hooker? Why not? I had a good friend who was a hooker, and she died. She never took the mike out of my mouth and I never took the mattress from under her. She was a friend, doing her thing. It'd be like discriminating because you're white and I'm black, or you're gay and someone's straight. I don't believe in separating people. If your job is as a hooker, more power to you."In the Moulin Rouge/Missy Elliot version, the performers dress as turn-of-the-century(? olden days, anyway!) prostitutes, although that version does have the lyric
We independent women, some mistake us for whores
I'm sayin, why spend mine when I can spend yours in the Lil Kim rap.
Obviously music, like any art form, is open to interpretation, but my money is on Lady M being a prossie