BARBELITH underground
 

Subcultural engagement for the 21st Century...
Barbelith is a new kind of community (find out more)...
You can login or register.


The Prodigy's new song- Shit on a stick

 
  

Page: (1)2

 
 
Our Lady of The Two Towers
19:23 / 05.06.02
Seen the video on MTV2, which incredibly they are showing on cotinual rotation for an hour, 'Baby's Got a Temper'. It is totally shit. The only funny bit is the first 30 seconds, as three middle aged men turn themselves into The Prodigy, but the song is crap. If you realised after a while that 'Firestarter' was actually a really annoying tune, 'Baby' will give you an embolism. It is criminally dull.

And the video, skinny attractive models wearing no clothes except for tassles on their nipples are forced by a big fat woman to milk cows, the milk is then sold to the public who riot to get hold of it and when they drink it seem to achieve some orgasmic high. The Prodge seem to have been hired to play the music to make the cows happy during the milking process. And the big fat woman seems to enjoy whipping the girls. She's probably a lesbo too

It's not even funny in a bad way. I don't find it offensive, because it's just like the teenage boys who think they're impressive because they swear in front of teacher. It's pathetic really. Which I never thought I'd say about the Prodge.
 
 
rizla mission
12:43 / 06.06.02
Haven't heard/seen it, but "criminally dull" is the perfect description of all the recent new material I've heard by good-in-the-mid-90s dance/rock bands.. they've all gone so .. rubbish .. so I I'm not holding out much hope for the ones who were a bit iffy in the first place..
 
 
Regrettable Juvenilia
22:03 / 06.06.02
If you make a few records that capture the, ahem, zeitgeist, to the extent that they are followed by (initially) a few other genuinely good records by talented people that use that sound as a springboard for something slightly different, and then (inevitably) a whole slew of terrible, weak, watered-down versions of the same...

If those records, once considered edgy and scary and dangerous and contentious and cutting edge, end up hideously overplayed and used by the BBC to advertise Holby fuckin' City, or the National Lottery, or somethin'...

If you then spend several years not making music, but rather spending your winnings and doing unfeasible amounts of drugs, and appearing in the tabloids falling out of the wankiest bars in the capital with yr celebrity partners...

Then you better come back with something fucking good, something that takes it to the next level, something to silence the doubters and make people remember what they liked about you in the first place.

Otherwise you'll just end up sounding tired, boring, and somewhat pathetic - a sad, faded parody of your former achievements, themselves now fading in memory and somewhat tarnished by your latest, self-indulgent, idea-free piece of wank.

Hello, Prodigy.
 
 
suds
13:42 / 07.06.02
i hate the prodigy. i hate their fucking frat boy bone-headed sexism. i'm glad their new songs suck.
 
 
No star here laces
11:21 / 09.06.02
Pray explain, suds. I'm no fan of the prodigy, but they never stuck out as being particularly sexist...
 
 
suds
11:23 / 09.06.02
oh come on now. have you not heard "smack my ...". thats just one case.
 
 
Shortfatdyke
11:40 / 09.06.02
suds - i remember 'smack my bitch up well'. and the time it was played in club v - nearly all the women there either sat on the dancefloor or went and had a word with the dj. he turned it off an went around the club apologising for playing it. check the graffitti thread in conversation for the other action a couple of us took....
 
 
that
12:03 / 09.06.02
Well, duh, Lyra. Jeez, where the hell were you?
 
 
No star here laces
12:59 / 09.06.02
Okay, that was one song which (to open a can of squirmies) was claimed to be 'ironic'. I just meant in contrast to the hundreds of other musicians who could be accused of sexism (Oasis, Rolling Stones, Jay-Z etc. etc.) I would never have particularly picked out the prodigy as major offenders.

I also think one could reasonably make the point that a sampled lyric e.g. "smack my bitch up", presented in such a way as to make it clear that it is a sample, is something that the artist is consciously distancing from themselves - saying "we found this, it is a reflection of our culture" rather than "this is what we believe". The process of sampling revolves around the "found" nature of the sounds and lyrics rather than the "created" nature. I don't know the song very well, so I don't know if it has any original lyrical content, which might change its tenor, but given all the factors at play here there's no way it would get in my 'top ten offensive songs of the 90s' list...
 
 
Matthew Fluxington
13:23 / 09.06.02
I don't know Lyra - though it is fairly obvious that it's a sample, it fits in with the Prodigy aesthetic a little too well. It's not a huge jump of logic that the "Firestarter" folks would be into smacking around their girls, you know? It's a very macho record.
 
 
Ganesh
14:16 / 09.06.02
Seems like a fairly huge speculative leap to me...
 
 
Matthew Fluxington
14:18 / 09.06.02
Well, I'm not saying that I think that the members of Prodigy are beating up women, but I do think the persona they collectively have as a group doesn't seem opposed to the idea.

Maybe I'm being hard on The Prodigy because I think they're lame.
 
 
Spatula Clarke
14:23 / 09.06.02
What Flux said. The Prodigy of Fat of the Land played with violence in their music and often the accompanying videos. Except when the videos were FHM reader wankfests, obviously.

I remember reading another reason that Howlett came up with for Smack My Bitch Up was that the constant repetition of the sample throughout the track was intended to take the power out of the statement. It's an equally pathetic excuse to the claims of irony.

It built on the rep they'd managed to get with Firestarter. It got them press coverage for what, without the sample, boiled down to a Fatboy Slim track. It sold records. There's yer reasons.
 
 
Our Lady of The Two Towers
16:38 / 09.06.02
And, although I've said this now so many times I'm beginning to doubt if it's true, he initially said he did the song deliberately to piss off the fans who had got into the Prodge because they were trendy not because they liked the band per se.
 
 
Matthew Fluxington
16:58 / 09.06.02
Whatever.

The fact that adding the phrase turned a boring and thoroughly mediocre dance instrumental track into a guaranteed radio hit sure to drum up some press probably wasn't a great motivator, right?
 
 
Rev. Wright
18:53 / 09.06.02
Never get morally caught out by jaded exploitation of marketting hype. The Fat of the Land is just that, taking the piss all the way to the.....
You cun take da boys outta Essex, bah cha can't take da Essex outta da boys
 
 
Shortfatdyke
18:57 / 09.06.02
will - that may be so, but none of the women i know particularly enjoyed walking past massive fucking billboards with the words 'smack my bitch up' printed across them.
 
 
Fist Fun
21:28 / 09.06.02
What about 'kill all hippies' by Primal Scream. Ironic or offensive?
 
 
Seth
22:11 / 09.06.02
Purely as a matter of interest, what do people think of the Ultramagnetic MCs? Specifically, "Give the Drummer Some?"
 
 
bio k9
02:01 / 10.06.02
From ohhla.com (with a minor change by me):

Artist: Ultramagnetic M.C.'s
Album: Critical Beatdown
Song: Give the Drummer Some


one two, one two
Ultramagnetic's in full effect
we talkin' about givin' the drummer some
you know what, yo, Kool Keith, tell 'em what's on your mind

KOOL KEITH:
I'm ready
And now it's my turn
To build, uplift, get swift, then drift
Off... and do my own thing
Switch up
Change my pitch up
Smack my bitch up, like a pimp
For any rapper who attempt to wear Troop's
and step in my path
I'm willing as a A-1 General
Rhyme Enforcer 235 on a rhyme test
Whatever group or vest in line
I put 'em all behind
Play MC Ultra as a warning sign of my
Skill, and what my mind deserves
I smell a grape in the duck preserves
And who deserves the right to be king of the screen
And shout wack poetry
What are you, buggin'?
Germs that want to law me
Quit it, before I heat your ear off
Let your burn deduct another year off rappin'
For a face I'm slappin'
Gimme applause when hands start clappin'
Now give the drummer some


CED-GEE:
Well I'm Ced
The Rhyming Force Delta
When I enter, you best take shelter
Cuz I'm dope, and yes I will melt a
Anyone who tried to even felt a
Emotion, or thought that they could hang with me
I cut you up, because you are my enemy
On my stage, interfering with my radius
So step back, cuz I'mma start to spray with this
Can, of Raid Spray
If you're a germ, filthy like AIDS, I'll
Clean, you up with heat
Vapors, scrubbin' and scrubbing
Like a mistake on paper, I'm rubbin'
erasin' you out like some ink
Cuz you dirty, your rhymes are stink
Like garbage, I hafta put you in a Hefty
Or instead, should I just let thee
weak MC's accumulate like dust
Take out my duster, shine them up then
Teach... them respect
Hook 'em up just like a tape deck
Mono or Stereo, cuz I'm a real pro
With a cameo, and not an afro
This beat is funky, I'm like (?????)
You know why?
Then give the drummer some

KOOL KEITH:
Some rappers are ratin' us
some are hatin' us
Some are talkin'
some debatin' us
Critically, but physically my mind is
Self-taught like a rap pro designed this
A matter to burn MC's and toys with
Flame, 500 degrees of
Rhymes, that heat and cook and
sizzle, your brain is on the grill at
Nighttime, and what about the daytime
I hear the wack ones, they get a lot of play time
Saying they're wack and wastin' my airtime
You're #2 and next in my spare time
Another rhyme has to be controllin'
And for your brain, it must have been stolen
tookin', yes, taken away
I'm on the court, and I'm fading away
with a jumper, I shoot a rhyme in your face
Add the points while I rob the bass
Incredible, come in three dimensions
Parallel with the funky extensions
I'm Kool Keith runnin' rap conventions
on time
Now give the drummer some.
 
 
Our Lady of The Two Towers
11:34 / 10.06.02
Change my pitch up
Smack my bitch up, like a pimp


Yes Liam, I can see how the line is a general rap term and not an expression of violence towards women in... any... way... doh!
 
 
Matthew Fluxington
11:42 / 10.06.02
I can accept and sometimes even be a bit of an apologist for this sort of thing in hip hop - but when a white guy comes in, cuts out the most objectionable part of a song, pastes in into his own mediocre track, and sells his album based on the shock value - that's just crass, lame, and exploitation of the source material and the audience itself.

I fail to see how "Kill All Hippies" by Primal Scream is relevant to this conversation, Buk.
 
 
The Natural Way
13:18 / 10.06.02
For my money, the Prodigy always were a bit naff. For all their "We're the anarchic face of bitch smacking dance-rock!! Roar!" it must be remembered that they pretty much single-handedly invented "Toy Town" hardcore. Which was fun, crass and silly, but made their later "dangerous" image seem a little, well...shit.

"Charlie says always tell your Mummy....."

RoooOOOOaAAAR!
 
 
ghadis
13:34 / 10.06.02
well i hope that when you've finished with the Prodigy we can start giving some shit to some other 'frat boy bone-headed sexists' such as Nick Cave and Johnny Cash...or does placing a white lilly on top of your missus' broken nose elevate it from sexism to high art...
 
 
No star here laces
14:11 / 10.06.02
Thank you Ghadis.

I actually think it's extremely superficial to single out the prodigy, for a song that has absolutely no meaningful lyrical content, over other artists who produce songs which embody in their underlying message a sexist worldview. Yes, the prodigy tune was very 'in your face' but that's actually what makes it less powerful - it's a fucking JOKE. No one was going to be influenced by that phrase being repeated to actually go out and hit a woman. Whereas don't get me started on Limp Bizkit's "Nookie" or any of the other myriad crappy songs which are sexist in a less obvious, but far more significant way than "smack my bitch up".
 
 
Our Lady of The Two Towers
16:55 / 10.06.02
Well, the 'singling out the Prodigy' thing was mainly due to their new nasty video...
 
 
Rev. Wright
17:02 / 10.06.02
Was there an outcry to Aphex Twin's Windowlicker video?
 
 
Jack Fear
17:24 / 10.06.02
In which Jack explains "Smack My Bitch Up" and a great many other things.
 
 
Matthew Fluxington
23:32 / 10.06.02
Hey, when you want to start a thread about Nick Cave and/or Johnny Cash, I'll be sure to swing by and talk some trash about them. I've always disliked those two...
 
 
The Natural Way
08:53 / 11.06.02
Hey! You get shutting yr mouth about Cave!
 
 
Saveloy
09:25 / 11.06.02
There's no point doing a whole thread on Cave. The facts are:

- everything up to and including the album with The Mercy Seat on it = good

- everything after that = boring

and that's all you need to know. Simple.
 
 
Jack The Bodiless
10:30 / 11.06.02
But that's just plain WRONG. On so many levels and in so many ways. R. O. NG. You've made a mistake, Sav. An error in judgement, if you will.
 
 
No star here laces
11:18 / 11.06.02
I'm afraid the omnisicient one is right, Sav. The correct formulation is:

anything Cave has ever done = boring

Except that novel, which was kind of fun.
 
 
rizla mission
12:03 / 11.06.02
Hey now, The Birthday Party may have been many things, but 'boring' was never one of them..
 
 
Matthew Fluxington
12:18 / 11.06.02
I'm with Lyra - Sav's only error in judgement was saying that anything Cave has ever done has been any good.
 
  

Page: (1)2

 
  
Add Your Reply