I admit it, sometimes I sing along with the radio while I’m driving. Sometimes it’s been a long time since I’ve heard the song and I get the words wrong. And sometimes the words in the song aren’t the same ones that I remember.
I was listening to the 90s station yesterday and they started playing Everlast’s What It’s Like. They cut out a lot of words. A lot. To the point of silliness. Maybe they’re trying to be overly protective because some of the words aren’t really that offensive. Everlast uses the line “if I find that man, I’m cutting off his ______” and it rhymes with “calls”… is the word “balls” really going to scar anyone for life?
But people might say, “That’s the way the single was released to all the radio stations, of course that’s how it’s going to sound!” If that’s the case, I’d like to present to you Exhibit B: Blessid Union of Souls’ I Believe.
I hadn’t heard that song in ages, so I was happily singing the words I remembered and stumbling through the ones I didn’t. Then it got to the part where the song goes “One day Daddy’s gonna find out she’s in love / with a brother from the streets.” At least those are the words I’d heard on the radio in the past. That’s not what I heard yesterday.
It turns out the phrase they use on the CD is “with a nigger from the streets.” That is what I heard yesterday. So Sirius XM doesn’t like Everlast’s use of the word “balls”, but Blessid Union of Souls singing “nigger” is okay. If you toss out the race card, can anyone else think of a good explanation?
Inconsistent censorship is pretty funny. I remember when Kid Rock & Sheryl Crow’s “Picture” came out and was popular. What I remember most was that the pop/rock stations would blank out the word “cocaine”, but the country stations left it in! I thought it would’ve been the other way around!