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Rap "Feats." in Pop Songs VS Lame Radio Edits
11 years ago
I want to talk about something that bugs me but not enough to call it a rant, but it still bugs me so I'm not exactly musing about it, therefore I'm calling this a "munt".
It's about radio censorship, which is a pet peeve of mine. I mean, so much so that I went out and bought Purple Rain on vinyl just because I want to hear Prince scream at the end of "Doves Cry", because the radio cuts out half of the song dammit!!! Either you play the whole thing or you don't! Don't shorten my songs! Don't play the long running songs by the Who or The Doors either if you can't follow this rule! Don't cut out the bridge in "My Sharona" or "Rio" It ruins everything! "Rio" isn't even that long of a song! UGH! Anyways I'm getting off track...
This is about a relatively new phenomenon in pop music where somewhere in the song there's a rapping bridge. I actually have no problem with that, the problem I have is with whoever decides to cut the rap out of the song as a radio edit.
And... ok this is going to kind of going into a racial topic even though I'm as white as it gets, I don't really listen to hip hop because it's not my bag or culture and haven't since the 90's. That doesn't mean I can't respect the artists, their work or where they come from though. When the music execs. are all like "Lets throw this hippity hop artist into the contract with McPopStar to appeal to the urban youth!" here and then "OH SHIT THIS SONG IS ENTIRELY TOO BLACK FOR RADIO!" there, it seems shockingly unfair. Well, maybe not shockingly because I like everyone knows that entertainment people suck and are horrible bigots, and horrible people in general.
And examples? The earliest instance I remember is SugarRay's Fly FEAT. reggae artist Super Cat. One radio station back then included the reggae/rap but all the stations today play the now-old-school song without it.
Because they're a bunch of squares, dad-y-o. *Makes a little outline square* And the song is empty without the "Like a birdy in the sky I'm so high!" and Super Cat doesn't sing anything the least bit offensive, but hay, it's too black for radio right?
Another example: the Lady Marmalade remake in Moulin Rouge. Christina Aguilera, Lil' Kim, Mýa, and Pink all perform in the video, but Lil' Kim is turned into a background character on the radio who only gets to sing "HON HON HON HON HON HON" The difference between the two mediums was very noticeable. She was even mentioned by name in the song despite not doing anything! What did you do Kim? What was your contribution? "HONHONHONHONHONHONHHON!" That's it?! The 00's were weird sometimes.
More recent, and the example that made me think of this is "Suit and Tie" which I learned featured Jay Z rather innocently rapping about dressing sharp at one point. This was news to me because up until that point I'd just catch it on the radio, mostly in restaurants or the like, guess what's cut out of the song?
It's just all stupid, I dunno, I think censorship is stupid.
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It's about radio censorship, which is a pet peeve of mine. I mean, so much so that I went out and bought Purple Rain on vinyl just because I want to hear Prince scream at the end of "Doves Cry", because the radio cuts out half of the song dammit!!! Either you play the whole thing or you don't! Don't shorten my songs! Don't play the long running songs by the Who or The Doors either if you can't follow this rule! Don't cut out the bridge in "My Sharona" or "Rio" It ruins everything! "Rio" isn't even that long of a song! UGH! Anyways I'm getting off track...
This is about a relatively new phenomenon in pop music where somewhere in the song there's a rapping bridge. I actually have no problem with that, the problem I have is with whoever decides to cut the rap out of the song as a radio edit.
And... ok this is going to kind of going into a racial topic even though I'm as white as it gets, I don't really listen to hip hop because it's not my bag or culture and haven't since the 90's. That doesn't mean I can't respect the artists, their work or where they come from though. When the music execs. are all like "Lets throw this hippity hop artist into the contract with McPopStar to appeal to the urban youth!" here and then "OH SHIT THIS SONG IS ENTIRELY TOO BLACK FOR RADIO!" there, it seems shockingly unfair. Well, maybe not shockingly because I like everyone knows that entertainment people suck and are horrible bigots, and horrible people in general.
And examples? The earliest instance I remember is SugarRay's Fly FEAT. reggae artist Super Cat. One radio station back then included the reggae/rap but all the stations today play the now-old-school song without it.
Because they're a bunch of squares, dad-y-o. *Makes a little outline square* And the song is empty without the "Like a birdy in the sky I'm so high!" and Super Cat doesn't sing anything the least bit offensive, but hay, it's too black for radio right?
Another example: the Lady Marmalade remake in Moulin Rouge. Christina Aguilera, Lil' Kim, Mýa, and Pink all perform in the video, but Lil' Kim is turned into a background character on the radio who only gets to sing "HON HON HON HON HON HON" The difference between the two mediums was very noticeable. She was even mentioned by name in the song despite not doing anything! What did you do Kim? What was your contribution? "HONHONHONHONHONHONHHON!" That's it?! The 00's were weird sometimes.
More recent, and the example that made me think of this is "Suit and Tie" which I learned featured Jay Z rather innocently rapping about dressing sharp at one point. This was news to me because up until that point I'd just catch it on the radio, mostly in restaurants or the like, guess what's cut out of the song?
It's just all stupid, I dunno, I think censorship is stupid.
Being worked on next: "Cow"
"Bunny: Hiatus: I need to get back in contact.
"Merc": 100% 50% 0% 0% Second chapter Lineart Complete
"Cantina": 100% 100% 25% 0%Second chapter completed
"Roos": 100% 50% Second lineart complete
"HowTo" : 74% Flat color awaiting approval
"Delph": 67% Lineart complete
"Dane": 25% Sketch Complete
"Message": 25% Sketches almost complete
"Burr": 50% Sketch Complete
"Cow": 25% Sketch Complete
Where I've lived, I've always heard the "full" version of Fly. It's kind of a toss-up whether the classic rock stations play the "full" version (the one with the fvcks in it) of Who Are You by the Who. Usually the classic rock station has been a tentacle of Cumulus or Clear Channel, while the alt-rock station has been more independent.
About the only thing I can think of recently is "Somebody That I Used To Know" by Gotye. The alt-rock station played the "full" version - the one where there is a few bars of instrumental between each verse, and a big break between the male and female vocal parts. Some of the more pop stations played a "short" version - all the vocals were there, but they cut out out most of the instrumental bits. But this didn't really involve any rap or hip-hop influences.
Florida
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Florida