Who would have thought that a slow jam could be so uplifting?
The song might seem gloomy, and the title ends with the words "It's Over". However, there's no comma in the title. It's not a command to stop dreaming, because it's over. It's a request to not dream THAT it's over - there's a long road ahead.
Let's not even talk about how this is arguably the greatest song ever composed by a New Zealander - it is most certainly the biggest international hit by someone from that county. Just soak in Neil Finn's lyrics.
To close out 2020, I wanted to feature songs that would be somewhat uplifting.
And when you hear about the theory about the genesis of this song, you might think that it's an odd choice for uplifting.
Written by Noah Gallagher, although he has denied it, it was originally seen as a direct response to the Nirvana song "I Hate Myself and Want To Die". I believe him. This was one of the first songs he wrote and would have had to anticipate the Nirvana song many years later. He did, however, strongly come out in favor of not dying young.
More likely, it was a tribute to his mother, and stresses an optimistic outlook. Forget how beautifully the song is crafted - the opening drum beat, the guitar solo. Forget that Oasis constantly compared themselves to the Beatles and were generally egotistical. Listen to the lyrics. They're an ode to living as long and as well as one can, as opposed to dwelling on minutia and every ache and pain in life.
In 1983, this second single from the second album for Men at Work reached #3 on the Billboard chart. The song, written by lead vocalist Colin Hay (who would later cover it himself).
The song itself is about a guy who has insomnia because he can't stop overthinking everything. I feel personally attacked by these relatable lyrics. For a hit song, it's a little dark, especially since this is the same band who had just smiled and made you a Vegemite sandwich.
We have billed this song, the title song to the 1980 disaster of a roller-skating movie, as being an Olivia Newton-John song, but that's not entirely true.
The Xanadu soundtrack was split in two parts. Side A was written by John Farrar - principle songwriter for Olivia - and performed by ONJ, with several guests backing her. Side B was written by Jeff Lynne of Electric Light Orchestra and performed by ELO - but the closing song was this one, with a guest lead vocalist.
So really, it's an ELO song. And the single - ELO's biggest hit - was billed to both of them.
At any rate, the song is a delightful coda to an abysmal movie.
Of course, we also published an ELO-only version on Totally Covered. Go check it out.
The third is that this is a great song that didn't get nearly enough attention, despite the fact that it an emotional powerhouse of a song. This was Sam's first single as Sam - she had previously gone professionally by her legal name, Leslie - and her first single as a secular, and not Christian, artist. Keep that conflict in mind as you listen to this.
We finish our week with one of the band's biggest hits.
I have to admit, when I first heard Nevermind, this was my favorite song on the album, and I was thrilled it was released as a single. It isn't still my favorite, but it's still great.
We've done a good job highlighting all the members of the band this week except for Krist Novocelic - and this is a great song to point out the bassist, who tends to not get a ton of attention. He's an excellent bassist in a band with a genius in front - and this song highlights just how reliable his work was.
Yep. We posted this in the middle of the night, on an early Saturday morning, JUST TO HIDE IT. And we probably won't share this on Twitter.
There are at least two times that Nirvana had a hidden track on albums featuring them. The first one we will mention is from the 1993 AIDS fundraising album No Alternative. Most versions of the album feature this song, titled "Sappy" as a hidden track, although some bill it as "Verse, Chorus, Verse." After Kurt Cobain's death, it was discovered that there was another song called "Verse, Chorus, Verse" in the Nirvana unreleased catalog, and so subsequent releases of this song on various compilations do restore its original title.
The second is well known for those of us who one day decided to just leave their Nevermind CD running after "Something In The Way" was done. 10 minutes of silences are followed by this very loud and forceful song.
It was not my first listen to the album when I discovered it. And yes, I did have a "what the f***" response when I did.
Thus far, we have avoided In Utero, Nirvana's followup to Nevermind.
That was not purposeful. Nirvana had a short catalog, but it was deep, and so it's hard to fit everything into one week. We're trying, though.
This song wasn't actually a single, because DGC, their record label, didn't want to cannibalize album sales. Nevertheless, the song got an awful lot of airplay. But what's it about? It is said that it is about children with cancer... but some, and by some, we mean Courtney Love, think the song is about her.... and her vagina.
Kurt's not here to tell us what this song is about, but he did leave the song behind for all of us to question and ponder.... and enjoy.
Let's look at the song live, where you can really hear Kurt belt the song. More apparent here are Dave Grohl's harmonies (with Pat Smear adding some vocal assistance). Most apparent to me is Kurt's reluctance to be in the spotlight.
By the time "In Bloom" was released as a single, Nirvana was about ready to give a middle finger to corporate rock and roll.
Except they were corporate rock and roll. So that posed an issue.
This video was their temporary solution.
Longtime fans of Nirvana know that this was the 2nd time they had recorded the song. It was originally released as a single - with this video - in 1990. The song was originally recorded before Dave Grohl joined the band - and the video recorded right after. Whereas the later single and Nevermind version includes Grohl on harmonies - the scream going into the chorus and the chorus itself is actually two voices - this version contains no such harmony vocal.
From the B-sides compilation Incesticide, this song was a great single all by itself.
Let me say that again.
This was a non-album single, not deemed good enough for Nevermind. It was a throwaway song. It's also a perfect Nirvana song - showing the time before the band got so large.
Two notes on the video. First, the song doesn't actually feature Dave Grohl on drums, as it was recorded before he joined the band. Rather, Dan Peters from Mudhoney was the drummer on this single. Second, and cutest, that's Frances Bean Cobain dancing at the beginning of the video.
Enjoy!
However, just because Dave Grohl didn't appear on the original single, it doesn't mean he didn't perform the song......
Most of you know this version of this song. It was recorded before Kurt Cobain's death as part of an MTV Unplugged special, and released as a single in late 1994, after his death. It's a pretty sounding song....
.....that was actually on their debut album, Bleach, in a very different version. What I find amazing, though, is that the same emotion shines through in BOTH versions.
It's been a long time since we've used the Hall of Fame label.
I decided that Nirvana deserved it.
I don't usually open a Hall of Fame week with a band's biggest hit, but this one was so intensely genre-breaking I wanted it to go first. I want to put it in 1991 context, though.
In 1991, when Nirvana made this video, which completely mocks music videos in general, they were big in Seattle, but not really anywhere else. They had major label money, but they didn't spend a lot of money on this video, in relative terms. And we know the day the video was made - August 17, 1991 - because they advertised for it.
Actual casting call for "Smells Like Teen Spirit"
Turns out this little video, which Kurt called his attempt to "rip off the Pixies", struck a chord with the youth of America, including me. Here's the song that started it all.
We rarely post on Saturday. But when a decade-old song reenters the Billboard charts..... well, we notice.
And, according to Variety, that's exactly what's happened today The song last was on the charts in 2009, when it peaked at #2. We will be watching closely to see how high it goes this time.
Now, it's important to note that we are not posting this song as a political statement (feel free to PM this page if you want to know how we voted. We are not shy), but we DO recognize that a lot of people are happy about today's news, so we're happy to share music we enjoy.
For the rest of you - Lena Katina was one half of a Russian duo named t.A.T.u., who played up a public lesbianism that wasn't real (evidenced by her bandmate's deeply homophobic statements about a decade later). After t.A.T.u. went on hiatus to pursue solo careers in 2009, Lena took full advantage of the shot and made some really good pop music.
I don't think it takes a genius to know that this song is about the death of t.A.T.u. No, Yulia, her bandmate, isn't dead - but they didn't end on great terms (but did reform in 2014 for the Winter Olympics). The song, from 2011, was Lena's debut single and her biggest hit to date. The video itself is a funeral for Lena and Yulia, as a symbolic and respectful end to t.A.T.u. It became a worldwide hit.
Of course, this being a member of t.A.T.u., there is an uncensored version of the video.
In the early to mid 1990's, it was cool to be a hard rock band made entirely of females.
Seriously. This was a thing. And, for some reason, it was a novelty.
L7 was no novelty act. L7 was four very talented women who knew how to rock and rock hard. That doesn't mean their music didn't have feeling. Take this song, the band's biggest hit. Donita Sparks (primary vocalist on the song) wrote this while going through a devastating breakup. It was easier for her to pretend that the guy was dead - that helped her cope. Thus, a song was born.
While they were no novelty act, L7 knew how to have fun live. On this live television performance from 1992, you can tell they're enjoying themselves.
Also, Donita drops trou at about 2:49. Oh yes. I included a performance with nudity.
By the way, I have a personal L7 live story. I was in attendance at the 1995 Warped Tour in Northampton, MA. I decided this time to do something I had never ever done at any show, and that's wander into the mosh pit for the last two bands - one of which was L7 (Sublime was the other).
I didn't expect the band to crowdsurf.
They DID stay fully clothed for that experience, but I can honestly say that I've have L7 in my hands, indelicately. This is not something I was going for - but when you have Donita Sparks surfing over your head, you don't want to be the one who dropped her.
The Warped performance here is from the same tour, different show.
To be clear, when Mark Foster wrote and performed the song, he was trying to write from the perspective of a homicidal kid thinking about shooting up his school. Written in an afternoon, Foster had been writing commercial jingles and plowed through writer's block to get this song done.
And, for a song that was just a demo, with Mark Foster singing and performing every piece, it's pretty rich and strangely beautiful.
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Of course, Foster DID put a band together, and they made the song even richer..... but he still does pick up a couple of instruments!
This video tells a story that doesn't entirely match the song. I mean, it's set in a prison - and the song clearly isn't.
And that's OK. It also doesn't hurt the song.
What it is is a great song, with a great dance beat, celebrating the great dance song, co-written by Gaga and Beyoncé - and they wrote a song on which they could BOTH showcase their unique voices. It ended up being Gaga's 6th consecutive #1 song - a feat matched by no other artist in history.
I mention that Lady Gaga cowrote this song, and I have said numerous times that this woman has a lot of natural musical talent - enough that she uses vocal tricks to her advantage without taking away her timbre. Which brings me to this live version - from 2017.
Clearly, Stefani really just wants to dance! But it is the singing in which she excels on this night - and it is huge and CLEARLY pure.
Now, Beyoncé has also done this song live. For some reason, they've never performed it together - but I hope that changes at some point in the future.
I wanted to close this post with this unique version of the song.... it is all on piano.
It's always good to hear from Miley Cyrus, isn't it? And this is her first single of the year - so it is assumed she made this video during the pandemic.
This song, released literally last week, is clearly about her breakup with Liam Hemsworth - and it's a deeply personal song, in only a way that Miley could be deeply personal. But this is Wicked Guilty Pleasures, not Wicked Guilty Therapy Sessions, so it's got to be enjoyable, and it is.
Musically, it's straight ahead bass-driven pop with significant synth. It's a great 80's throwback with a modern feel - and it's fun. And that's enough.
We've been pulling out a lot of old music lately, so I wanted to dedicate this week to song of the past twelve months.
This song, from late 2019, is the first hit by blackbear, aka Matthew Tyler Musto, a man who has made most of his money writing songs for other people. He has been a recording artist for several years as well, and this was his first hit after seven years of releasing albums.
And it's a doozy. From the repeated chorus with the chiming bell and guitar going in time with the melody, to the significant bass drops and creative use of Autotune, the song is infinitely memorable.
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That was the 2nd video, and it was clearly big budget. blackbear had made a low budget one, too.
Now, normally, at this point, I'd be pulling out a live version of the song - and I can do that if you really want (let me know in the comments), but I wanted to do something a little different here.
This is a video from the YouTube page of dancer/model/modern celebrity Dytto - who has 3.63 million subscribers. This fan video/dance performance is a homage to everything pop culture from Mean Girls, to Kim Possible, to The Purge to Riverdale. I enjoyed it - possibly more than the official videos - and I hope you do as well.
I am fairly certain this post isn't starting the way you thought it would, but stay with me. We will get to Adele Dazim before you know it.
It is a fairly recent tradition of Disney to record their recognizable songs from their feature films in the native languages where their movies are released. "Let It Go", from Frozen, for example, was recorded in several languages.
I've got to be honest - I was always Team West Coast. I never really understood why I had to choose a side, but I was a fan of the artists coming out of California more than New York, when it came to hip hop in the early to mid 1990's.
Biggie's flow on this song is just impeccable, and I cannot deny it's a great tune. I sometimes wonder what would have happened if he and Tupac would have collaborated, and it is incredibly tragic that both voices were snuffed out so young.
The "Emmylou" in this song is famed county artist Emmylou Harris, who was a tremendous influence on First Aid Kit. After you listen to the song, you are going to see how obvious that statement is.
So, I know what you are thinking - does Emmylou Harris know about this song?
This 1994 collaboration between Hope Sandoval, best known as the vocalist for Mazzy Star outside this song, and The Jesus and Mary Chain ended up being their biggest US hit - and only song to hit the Billboard Hot 100 - and HER 2nd biggest one - after "Fade Into You".
The song is a little less... dark than other Jesus and Mary Chain fare, which is probably how it was so darned accessible to so many.
I cannot believe that we are almost a decade and more than 800 posts into this blog before we get to Tori Amos. It's a surprise, because she was an early figure in the 1990's surge of women who were singer-songwriters and finally getting major label contracts.
This song - a minor hit in 1992 that sparked an EP with some pretty epic B-sides - is my favorite of hers. From her debut album - we aren't counting Y Kant Tori Read here - the song is powerful and full-on from the first note. A very piano-driven song, it was wholly written by Amos herself.
That EP did not contain the Little Earthquake album version of the song, though. It contained this very mild remix of the song, which includes some additional lyrics that I think add to the power of the song.
In stark contrast, this is a live version of the song from the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1991, before the song was released - and it's not at all remixed - and is STILL powerful. True talent - a woman and her piano - is on full display.
By the way, Tori Amos still performs. Here she is from 2014 performing a similarly pure version of the song.... and it is still as brilliant as the first time.
From the first song of theirs I heard (their cover of "Going Down To Liverpool") and throughout their career, I have always thought they were four excellent musicians who just happened to be female performing great music.
This was the first single off their third album Everything and it was the band's fourth top 5 hit. Written by Susanna Hoffs, the primary vocalist for The Bangles, it is one of my personal favorites by the band.
For our live selection today, I wanted to choose a really recent performance, for two reasons. First of all, the band hasn't lost a beat. At all.
The second is that bassist. The classic Bangles lineup included Michael Steele on bass, but she was NOT the original bassist. The original bassist was a woman named Annette Zilinskas, who left the band in 1983, just before their breakthrough All Over The Place album was released.
35 years later, in 2018, Annette Zilinskas returned to the band. And I just think that's awesome.
Sometimes, I post great songs and tell you a lot about them. There's a lot to say about this song. You can read all about it on Totally Covered today. Here, just listen to Michael Been sing this very inspiring song.
When I was younger and this song was new, this was one of my favorites. Released in early 1985, it took nearly a year to chart in the United States.... and it was Baltimora's only real hit here.
Interestingly, the man you see in the video is an Irish native named Jimmy McShane - who was kind of a member of Baltimora, as a front man. However, he did not sing the song - Maurizio Bassi, the architect of this Italy-based project, was the vocalist, and he co-wrote the song along with Long Island, NY native Naimy Hackett.
To be fair, McShane could sing - he did perform backing vocals on several other tracks - but not this one.
When it became clear that Baltimora was not going to recreate the success of "Tarzan Boy", Bassi disbanded the group.
I usually like to include live performances of the song, but, well, when you're using an actor to represent your band.... there aren't any. Instead, here is the late Jimmy McShane (he passed away in 1995) dancing on American television.
I personally have a favorite album by them - Velveteen. I consistently list it among my five favorites of all time, and usually around #3. I purchased that album the day it was released, and it is fantastic, end to end. I remember every song on that album had its lyrics printed in the liner notes, except one.
"Kiss Their Sons" was that song. And this song was a lot darker and angrier than anything else on the album - because it was angry and the band was angry - at journalists who were calling these punks with credibility and careers "sell-outs", with very specific anecdotes and a lot of very colourful language. The song opened Side 2 of the album, for those old enough to remember those - and it opened it with a guitar screech and a hell of a bassline. The lyric "If you went away and never came back, that wouldn't be too soon" is possibly one of my favorite opening lines of any song, ever.
It is my favorite song on my favorite album of theirs, and it is a go-to for me all these years later.
I include the only live performance of this song I could find - as part of a whole live show. The anger really shines through live - and unless I'm mistaken, Wendy James is naming names!
Dweezil and Moon Unit were the elder children of Frank Zappa, and frequent MTV VJs. They did a couple of singles together - this Dweezil-penned antiwar song being their best known collaboration, from 1986, when it received a lot of MTV airplay. Look for the Frank Zappa cameo at around the 2:03 mark of the video, by the way - as well as a LOT of other celebrity cameos (I count no less than 6).
I was a teenage boy. I was watching for Moon Unit.
By the way, Dweezil was 17 in this video, and reportedly wrote this song when he was 15. The WHOLE song - lyrics and music.
Moon Unit, of course, is better known for her appearance on their father's single "Valley Girl", but this is an objectively better song.
Yes, this is really Cobie Smulders singing this. I figured, let's just put that right out there.
If you are a fan of the TV Show How I Met Your Mother, you know this song well. It's possibly more iconic than the show itself - and it endures to this day, several years after the show left the air.
I mean, everybody loves going to the mall. Let this song rock your body until Canada Day (which happens to be today).
Oh, if you had doubts about my claim that it actually was Cobie Smulders.... as part of all this COVID-19 fun we're all having, she recorded an updated and quarantine-appropriate version.....
At this point in her career, Ariana Grande wanted to be taken seriously, as an adult artist. And while she tries to mask the suggestive nature of the song with this video, with ladies moving... er, side to side on exercise bikes, it ain't about going to the gym. (Nicki Minaj, for her part, is a bit more direct.)
What this song is, even with its somewhat naughty premise, is a grown-up, densely layered dancehall-pop song that is surprisingly strong.
But what if you strip the layers and the overproduction? It's still a surprisingly strong song - Grande has a voice that, while still maturing at this point in her career, is evocative and still a little innocent.....sounding.
Those of you know have read this blog for awhile know that there's a story that goes along with Juliana Hatfield for me.
I won't tell that one again. I will say that the show I reference in that story came BETWEEN the ones in which I saw Veruca Salt and Letters To Cleo. So, I figured I'd post it today.
For its part, Juliana's first all-ages show really was the Violent Femmes and the del Fuegos. She did not, however, have a sister (although she explains in all in her book, When I Grow Up) .
The Juliana Hatfield Three was a seemingly one-off project, but she got the band back together in 2015.
As many of you know, I am a fan of the show "Parks and Recreation." If I had to identify one moment in this show with which I most personally identify, it's this one:
A couple of weeks ago, I told you which was the best band I ever saw live.
Today, I tell you about the most disappointing. But there's a happy ending.
The band was Veruca Salt, opening for PJ Harvey and Live. I was a really big fan of the energy they brought to their music - but in September 1995, they brought absolutely none of that energy. Let's be clear - I have seen WORSE bands live (and, to be fair, when I wrote THIS, I had not seen the band I now consider the worst I've seen live) but this was a show I thought would be amazing, and it wasn't.
This song came after that, and they clearly recaptured the energy they had lost that one day. So, I'll forgive them. Plus, this song is so creative, it completely switches tempo and plot at 2:25 - which I always found to be intriguing. Veruca Salt knew what their fans wanted, so they catered to it.
Besides, now we know who the seether is.
It's Louise.
Two years later, they seem to have gotten their mojo back, so maybe I'd give them a 2nd chance.
I brought back Guilt-Free Sunday because I'm on a Luscious Jackson kick.
I have spent the last week walking you though their catalog, but I had up until now avoided their debut EP, In Search Of Manny. The seven songs on that set (3 early Jill Cuniff/Gabby Glaser demos and four others) were hip-hop/pop/rock fusion unlike anything the music industry had ever seen.
"Daughters of the Kaos" was their first video and you can see the hip-hop group influence, with Cuniff and Glaser taking turns on verses, not unlike other similar artists of their time, and the heavy use of samples - which persists through their music going forward. Lyrically, the song is possibly a little more badass than their image going forward (remember, this was also a single of theirs), but they were well on their way to finding their sound.
Somehow, the song is better live. When the song opens, you don't expect police sirens to follow the Spanish guitar - and yet, there it is.
I may have taken forever to get to the earliest Luscious Jackson music, but they don't at all avoid it. Somehow it sounds a little less dark as they perform it twenty years later, but it's still tight.
Luscious Jackson broke up in 2000, but they started undoing that breakup pretty quickly, and by 2010, they were back together.
In 2013, they released a really solid album called Magic Hour. This was the first single. It clearly retains the hip-hop sensibilities, but it's edgier than their earlier stuff. Listen to this post from two days ago, then come back to this one - and remember that it's the same band.
Here they are in 2013 on Letterman. They always look like they are having so much fun live, so I love sharing these.
Yes. The answer to my question yesterday was yes. I am posting another Luscious Jackson song today.
I am posting this for four reasons..
1) Luscious Jackson in general deserves a lot more attention and respect than they get. You've got a band with four REALLY good female musicians, making inventive yet accessible music. That they didn't have more huge hits is criminal.
2) This song features all three vocalists, and three part harmonies are awesome.
3) Few videos were more blatantly made prior to the song being put on a movie soundtrack (Clueless), forcing a movie tie-in to be added where it could be.
4) The song is exciting and easy to dance to. You know you're dancing to it right now. If you aren't, why not???!!!
As per my style, here's the band performing live. No Clueless tie-ins necessary.
At the end of my post YESTERDAY, I alluded to the fact that Vivian Trimble left Luscious Jackson and the group made another album, this one as a trio.
This was the relatively well-received single from that third album, Electric Honey. The group broke up soon after, but not because they thought they were were making bad music or not enjoying it. The official word was "they wanted to spend more time with their families" but really, females weren't getting radio airplay in 1999 and 2000 - which is a shame, because this is excellent music.
You can see how much the band loved performing - and really, they didn't stay broken up for long.
Will I post another Luscious Jackson song tomorrow? Tune in.
I know - I've written about Luscious Jackson before, and I will write about them again. But it's different this time.
I wrote about the harmonies between Jill Cuniff and Gabby Glaser before, and today I won't be doing that. Reason: these harmonies don't include Glaser, but rather, keyboardist Vivian Trimble - that's right. There are THREE solid vocalists in Luscious Jackson - or rather, there were. More on that in a minute. - and they all harmonize well together.
Between their first and second albums - Natural Ingredients and Fever In, Fever Out - Cuniff and Trimble did a side project, called Kostars. A single album came out of it - and even though Glaser and drummer Kate Schellenbach were both part of the recording of that album, it was quite clearly not a Luscious Jackson record.
This song was more classic LJ - a significant hip-hop feel, while retaining a rock feel. It ended up being the band's only Top 40 hit - peaking at #36 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1997 - and remains a cool song to this day. The video itself is somewhat cool looking - with all four band members never appearing together but also seemingly playing the same stoic role.
They had a lot more fun and were a lot less stoic playing live, as you can see in this clip from Late Night With Conan O'Brien from 1997.
Vivian Trimble eventually left the band, and they broke up completely in 2010 after an album as a trio (see a future post for details on that) but they reformed in the early 2010's, still as a trio, to make new music and tour. Here's a stripped down version of the some, featuring Cuniff and Glaser, who does NOT step in on Trimble's vocals.
It's the mark of a great song - when it works so brilliantly both with a full band, loudly, and stripped down, quietly. And THIS is a great song.
(edit: 18 June 2020): I have discovered that the Luscious Jackson Twitter account recently posted a handwashing guide based on this song. And yes, I did.
This is possibly the first time I am purposefully repeating a song. But I have a good reason.
In 2012, I wrote a very long post about Game Theory, featuring many of their lesser known songs. Scott Miller, lead vocalist and mastermind behind Game Theory, passed away a year later, and I appended that post to include this song and one other ("The Real Sheila").
I regretting not giving this beautiful, snarky piece of pop jangle its personal due. So, today, I remedy that.
"Erica's Word" was the big single from Game Theory's 1986 breakthrough album The Big Shot Chronicles. Of course, between the time the song was recorded and the video's release, there were a couple of lineup changes to the band - which was OK. Scott Miller was the only constant in the band. It was his baby - and it is the 1986 iteration of the band, which recorded two subsequent albums together, that appears in the video.
The song itself is beautiful, sweet, and yet ends its third verse with quite a bit of snark. How this song wasn't a huge hit is an absolute mystery to me. It's endlessly catchy.
Here's Game Theory in 1985, performing this song live, prior to its release. This is the 4-piece lineup that recorded the song - the differences being a different bassist and lack of rhythm guitarist.
I was introduced to N.W.A in the early 90's while in college. I probably missed the messages of their songs at the time, but in this time of protest, this song about freedom of expression resonates.
This is probably the only song they ever did that could be played on radio. Which is hilarious, because the song itself calls out other hip hop artists for avoiding profanity just to get on the pop charts.
They didn't need to curse to make an anthem about expression. Primarily performed by Dr. Dre, the song was written by Ice Cube.
