Freak Wit It - The Five Greatest Censored Versions of Hip Hop Songs
Let’s just come out and say it: hip hop is nasty. Some vile, derelict, atrocious shit goes down in pretty much every hip hop song.
Hip hop however, is ALSO super popular with the kiddies this days! Kids love the bumpin' beats of the rap music, but parents object to the tasteless words coming from those scary men. What’s a parent to do? Monitor their children’s listening? Have open and frank discussions with their children about the music’s lyrical content?
FUCK THAT
So much work! Which is why every parent thanks God for the FCC which is always poised to swoop in and levy crazy fines in response to complaints whenever something slightly objectionable comes through!
The FCC and its policies are a major source of frustration for many hip hop fans. Who wants to hear their favorite songs mangled by radio? HOWEVER, maybe we judge too quickly. Sometimes the FCC’s puritanical policies open up new ways for us to enjoy the music. With that in mind, Rap Genius is proud to present
The Five Greatest Censored Versions of Hip Hop Songs!
Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg – “Nothin’ but a G Thang”
To start our look at the world of radio-friendly hip-hop off right, it’s important to recognize that, yet again, the old school sons all modern rappers. To hear a classic nineties track on radio is an almost surreal experience because the edited versions are seamless. Back in the days before internet streaming or even the widespread proliferation of hip-hop radio stations, artists depended on MTV and pop radio stations to get their music out to the masses, and a good radio edit could make a rapper into a superstar.
Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg clearly understood this when recording their 1993 classic Nuthin' But A G Thang. Lines from the vulgar original were completely re-written and recorded to appease the Man at the FCC. Original intent was sacrificed to appeal to a pop audience.
Now I ain’t with that shit lieutenant
ain’t no pussy good enough to get burnt while I’m up in it
These lines originally functioned as a warning to stay away from hoes (or at least wrap it before you tap it!). Obviously that would never fly on mainstream radio! How did they fix that?
Now when she burnin' I'mma chill for a minute
‘cause ain’t no lovin’ good enough to get burnt while I’m up in it
Practically worthy of Dear Abbey! A few words changed, and Snoop’s warning about STDs became a warning to stay away from your chick when she rages over you leaving the toilet seat up. When Snoop later declared the audience “in the mood for another one of them G hits” (and not “some motherfucking G shit”), he meant an audience consisting of everyone from street hustlers to old Jewish women playing bridge.
Waka Flocka Flame – Hard in Da Paint
Taking things in the opposite direction from Dre and Snoop was trap king Waka Flocka Flame, a rapper as known for his talent as he is for his diction. In our Internet Age, music of whatever niche is so readily available to any listener that it’s a wonder that rappers need to make edited versions of singles at all. Flocka seemed to have decided that radio could make him edit his single, but it couldn’t make him give a shit, because “Hard in Da Paint” is one of the most hilariously lazy radio edits of all time.
“I GO HARD IN THE … P-P-PAINT
LEAVE YOU STANKIN’ – WHAT THE WHAT TH-THINKIN?”
Flocka bellowed a capella, leaving radio silence in the gaps left by excising curse words. Once the beat kicked in, things did’t fare any better, leaving a jaw-dropping five seconds of instrumental as Flocks didn’t even bother to find a mainstream-friendly replacement for “Keep this shit 300, put that on my hood / Crips fuckin’ with me, G’s and the Vice Lords.” Waka’s minimalist masterpiece reached number 20 on the Billboard Rap Songs chart but failed to even crack the Hot 100, as it may well have done if it had been released with, you know, some lyrics left on it.
Having a good edited version was always a necessity for Eminem; as not only the biggest rapper but the biggest POP star in the world at the height of his career, Eminem always sold an incredible amount of his edited LPs to the parents who knew they couldn’t completely shield their children from him. The result of this was an approach to censoring that took cues from his mentors Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg. Eminem singles and even album cuts have always featured creative lines to replace the ones that needed to be cut for the sake of wholesomeness, and his 2001 magnum opus The Marshall Mathers LP even replaced an entire song with a less inflammatory one for the edited discs.
Eminem’s greatest achievement in censorship however was a relatively minor track called “Role Model” on his major label debut The Slim Shady LP, on which he did the impossible by replacing a vulgar line with a better one.
Eminem rapped these lines at the beginning of the track, which were serviceable, but clearly filler, Eminem clearing his throat to keep the verse’s momentum going.
When it came time to shoot a video for the track, however, Eminem had clearly put some more thought into those lines.
A hell spawn dropping a stealth bomb
6 mics in The Source — they borrowed one from LL’s arm
Cheekily referring to the infamous lines that sparked the beef between LL Cool J and underground MC Canibus (with whom Eminem had his own share of beef ), these lines constituted a major improvement from the “explicit” version.
“A Milli,” Lil Wayne’s Bangladesh-produced 2008 smash, was released as a “street” single to hype the masses for his cross-over gem Tha Carter III. 2008 was Wayne’s break-out year as a pop music figure, and it follows that he would make a serviceable radio edit for his single, but what’s truly impressive about the censored version of “A Milli” is that Wayne managed to actually make his radio edit even MORE offensive.
Take the much-loved “shy bitch” lines from the original:
“Bitch” changes to “chick” easily enough, but what to do about the very problematic insinuation of cunnilingus?
Don’t you hate a shy chick? Had a plate of shy chicks
she ain’t shy no more, she changed her name to ‘my chick.’
Y’all catch that? Now instead of just eating one shy bitch, he ate a whole plate of them, turning one surf and turf meal into a full-on pussy buffet.
That’s not even the best example from “A Milli” either. Wayne saved that for the following couplet.
How could Wayne amend a blatant reference to prostitution?
Yeah boy, that’s my girl
and she pops ‘Excellent’ up in Wayne’s World
With a subtle reference to ecstasy, hidden within a reference to the stoner classic SNL sketch and film “Wayne’s World,” of course!
The replacement lines on the edited version of “A Milli” may not be better than those of the official song, but they are brilliantly subversive, and indicative of a talent that doesn’t stop going against the grain even while selling out.
Oh, look, here’s a single from Producer / Rapper David Banner. Let’s give it a listen.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qld7WvHa5kc&ob=av2e
Not bad at all. It’s got a nice concept to it, with a series of exercise-themed puns for sex that won’t go over the head of anyone older than 12 years old, but they’re definitely fun. A couple words blanked out here and there, which is to be expected for any edited version of a hip-hop song. What’s this doing on this list though? How different could the original possibly be?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3M3xfu0m5o4
Oh. Oh wow.
David Banner took the ball from Dre and Snoop and ran with it when it came time to make an edited version of his filthy track “Play,” inventing an entirely different concept for the video treatment and radio single. Banner’s reimagining of his song turned him from a verbal lover to an enthusiastic personal trainer, changing his command for the girl from “go’n play with it” to a P90X style encouragement “don’t play with me!” He mixed this in with hilarious non-sequiters like “work it like your boy just bought you a pearl” or “you make your boy wanna work you out on this couch”. Turning a standard booty-call jam into the soundtrack of a Richard Simmons workout video made “Play” a shoo-in for the greatest Hip-Hop radio edit of all time.
Honorable Mentions:
The Ying Yang Twins – “Wait (The Whisper Song)” for best use of sound effects ; Fergie – “London Bridge” for replacing “Oh, shit!” with “Oh, snap!” for unintentional hilarity ; Lil Jon & the Eastside Boyz – “Get Low” for teaching White America what the word “skeet” means.
