![]() ![]() On that track, he called out and verbally obliterated 12 fellow rappers (including Big Sean and the other feature on the song, Jay Electronica) and in the process ordained himself as the high priest of hip hop. It can be nauseating, but not always, and somewhere within all these lyrics from recent times there's much to learn:įirst up, Kendrick Lamar's verse on the 2013 Big Sean song, Control, worked as more of a coup. The birth of hip hop created a whole new set of rules for offending the censors (and rival rappers), and we're deep into an age now when social media exponentially exacerbates the amount of outrage a line or two in a song can cause. And if, as Steve Jones from the Sex Pistols said, "Actually, we're not into music we're into chaos," why not release a song called God Save the Queen on Elizabeth II's Silver Jubilee in 1977, ruffle the establishment's feathers and enjoy a hit at the same time? Frankie Goes to Hollywood must have been delighted when Radio 1 DJ Mike Read took offence to the chorus of their 1983 single Relax, helping it to shoot up the charts to No.1. Sometimes, though, a controversial lyric achieves little more than brisk business for a song. ![]() Songs like Billie Holiday's Strange Fruit and Public Enemy's Fight the Power held a mirror up to society and forced important debate. The history of popular music is awash with lyrics that kicked up an almighty stink and often with very good reason. The pen is mightier than the sword, the idiom dictates, and used well words can hurt just as much as sticks and stones. ![]()
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