Censorship in rap

[EMCEE DARTH MALEK]

Many of you may have noticed that "fuck donald trump" is censored of all lines referring to the d man getting smoked -- even on the explicit version of the album! This is apparently after the secret service had a secret talk with YG and def jam. Thankfully, the uncensored version is available (and it would be cool if someone has it in CD quality).

So def jam's been doing this for at least ten years now, having butchered the title track to "hip hop is dead" in 2006, afterwards proceeding to tie nas upside down, castrate him, and let him bleed out -- resulting in "untitled". This from the label that brought us PE!

1. Why have they turned snitch?
2. Are other labels this egregious?
3. Any other examples of def jam undermining and destroying the culture?

[step one]

More minor but Ghostface, Peedi Crack & Nore all had to change their names under Def Jam or their affiliated labels.

This kind of thing has been happening since Ice T, NWA & Paris though

[GUCCI CONDOMS]

More minor but Ghostface, Peedi Crack & Nore all had to change their names under Def Jam or their affiliated labels.

This kind of thing has been happening since Ice T, NWA & Paris though

Good point, and fuck Def Jam.

[Gyangsta 4 Life]

when Cam dissed Mike Lighty on "Dead or Alive"

[EMCEE DARTH MALEK]

oh shit u just reminded me of the og version of "no vaseline" where cube mentions jerry heller by name three times

[jukeboxvandal]

bad boy censored styles p "stack chips like hebrews" from benjis

[EMCEE DARTH MALEK]

jews man.... they wouldn't let canibus say "if you a jewish bitch a nail you to a crucifix" on that horsemen joint..........

and after all the gruesome lines about dismemberment...... after all the horrible, nonsensical homophobic punchlines in this joint.... what the hell did the censor at the end of canibus's verse???

[step one]

the original version of Nas 'You're Da Man' has some lyrics at the start of the 2nd verse that were cut - something about preacher's blood. They're on the acapella though; I made a rough version using the instrumental if anyone wants it although its the clean acapella so some parts are still edited.

The original version of Cam's What Means The World To You was called Gimme Some Head.

I seem to remember something about P's verse on Mobb Deep 'Pearly Gates' (off Blood Money) being censored

[step one]

Puffy made Lil Kim remove the Faith Evans and 2Pac dis in Big Momma Thang and replace it with a guest verse by Jay Z

http://djstepone.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05 ... eased.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Stretch Armstrong16 December 2011 at 23:39
This was just something that was a little more gully than the album version (of which there several versions floating around) for the Back2Back Mix that DJ Ev and I did. For the record, though, Kim DID write this song with some editing by BIG. Jay was hired to replace the Kim's verse where she was popping a lot of sh*t, and as a result, Puffy said the verse had to go. Remember, Atlantic, Kim's label, needed to be on Puffy's good side because the Junior MAFIA deal wouldn't have made much sense without the ability to get clearance for BIG from Bad Boy.

[fatboybrandon]

I assume the reason they and most labels turn snitch is rooted in the fear non-censorship could compromise their business goals. I can't think of any more Def Jam examples but there's definitely more labels out there responsible of flipping on their acts. Like Jive did to Tribe with this one:



plenty of demos exist that are more raw in lyrical content than the version that came out on the official album. I usually assume that it might've been a label decision. The demo version of Wrong Side Of The Tracks by The Artifacts is another example.

[GUCCI CONDOMS]

the original version of Nas 'You're Da Man' has some lyrics at the start of the 2nd verse that were cut - something about preacher's blood. They're on the acapella though; I made a rough version using the instrumental if anyone wants it although its the clean acapella so some parts are still edited.

The original version of Cam's What Means The World To You was called Gimme Some Head.

I seem to remember something about P's verse on Mobb Deep 'Pearly Gates' (off Blood Money) being censored

Pearly gates was def censored, which butchered an amazing verse from prodigy.

Here's the uncensored version...

[Hush]

I remember getting the 12" for Eminem's 'My Name Is' and the lyrics were changed on the album version. From wikipedia:

Before The Slim Shady LP was released, an uncensored version was available on the Internet. The original lyrics on the dirty version of the song were: "Extra-terrestrial, killing pedestrians / Raping lesbians while they're screaming, 'Let's just be friends!'" The version on the album was changed to "Extra-terrestrial, running over pedestrians in a spaceship / While they're screaming at me, 'Let's just be friends!'" There is also a line that was changed from "My English teacher wanted to have sex in junior high / The only problem was, my English teacher was a guy" to "My English teacher wanted to flunk me in junior high / Thanks a lot; next semester, I'll be 35." These lyrics appear on the acapella version of the song, featured on a 12" release of the song.

[EMCEE DARTH MALEK]

^^way better lines. if lesbians can take a fist, they can take a joke imo.

i don't notice the difference in P's verse at all, in fact. the line about beating the shit outta jesus is still there. gonna have to peep the album version.


MAAAN i'm still shook up about FDT though. trump can talk about hunting down mexicans with SWAT teams........ murdering families of terrorists............. nipsey hustle can't point out the obvious fact that if trump wins, he'll "probly get smoked" ????

why does the secret service only let catholic presidential candidates get assassinated? can't they let this protestant/atheist whatever fag catch a couple hot ones?? if they're not gonna allow that because of newfound professionalism, can't they at least lay off the music industry? is that really your job, SS man, to walk into def jam offices and meet with whatever jew replaced lyor, complaining about rap lyrics?

which brings us to the crucial point: no secret serviceman wants to really do his job for trump. imagine your son telling your grandchildren that you died in the line of duty -- jumping in front of a bullet for that tubby orange faggot. the kids will probably laugh at you.

[battlecatmeowstab212]

Keith Murray's verse on "5 Boroughs" has two lines censored on the dirty version.

You can only hear them uncut from a character's car in the 1999 New Line Cinema release The Corrupter -

[Jedisdope]

I wouldn't give a fuck if you're tnangerp
Give me the baby rings and the #1 Mom pendant

[TheBigSleep]

They made L change it from "I'm rollin' with Satan, FUCK JESUS CHRIST!" to "I'm rollin' with Satan, not Jesus Christ!" on Devil's Son. Jewlz still has the demo with the original lyrics locked away somewhere.

[EMCEE DARTH MALEK]

Can't believe i forgot about

Blow up like the ...................



What are we to do about this? The only recourse is to obnoxiously shout out the original lyrics whenever the song comes on. This might be annoying but activism has never been pretty.

[sleazy_j]

i read that changing Eminem's "homophobic" lyrics in "My Name Is" were bargaining rights to get the sample in the beat cleared. not sure how true that is..

here's one you guys might not know about (which is alright considering the artist)

Twiztid released an independent album Mostasteless in 1998, and on their song "Diemuthafuckadie", their lyrics include:

"The president is predjudice against you and me
Takin half our money and he chillin tax free
And if you ask me that's another smack in the face
We need to burn the white house and piss in his face
And every judge should do a minimum of twenty to life
If they can dish it they should take it tell me that ain't right
And every cop should be beat like rodney king
Nonstop from the summer till the turn of spring
Shove a donut in they mouth and a badge in they ass
Because the pigs dont get no class, they get they wig split"

and guess what, their album got re-released by Def Jam
, no joke, thanks to ICP being on Island Records at the time.

In the Def Jam version of the song, they censor "burn", "beat" and "pigs" from the song.




also, OG Def Jam censor: "you tell me stop drinking and driving, i say what is this; pass the heineken and mind ya business. roll up a fat one and pass it around". the boomin system.

or DMX "Slippin" that one always threw me off. why the hell put a clean version of a song on an explicit album, and only have it dirty on a 12" single? again, Def Jam.



i see a youtube comment claiming something similar about DMX, about sample clearing vs cleaning up a song; might not be true, but indeed all the tracks i posted about had samples. probably a coincidence.

[sleazy_j]

The original version of Cam's What Means The World To You was called Gimme Some Head.

hah i had no idea



i notice the verses on "what means the world to you" are cleaned up versions of this Gimme Some Head,
as "dick" gets replaced with "stick" and some other words like "fucking" are changed.

[sleazy_j]

ooh i just remembered one that wasn't Def Jam.

Juvenile's "400 Degreez".

I even have my own special version of it uploaded on my Google Play Music to fix all the edits. it's mostly just "violent content" they edit.

on "Gone Ride With Me", they edit every time he says "homicide" in the hook, probably 5 or so times in the song, I dunno.

On "Welcome To The Nolia":
"Put a pistol in his face, make em' empty out his pockets
If he think we fakin', he gon' know after we cock it"

On "U.P.T":
Baby says "I'm gonna kill me a nigga"
Turk says "Make him suffer, shoot his hands and beat the bitch with her bag"
Juvenile also says "I'm gonna kill me a nigga" in the next verse

on the Hot Boy$ song "Too Hot" on Guerilla Warfare,
Juvenile says "Lil One got them calicoes"; that gets censored.

[jukeboxvandal]

never understood why this was censored on the album


this being left off their old album made sense i spose..

[battlecatmeowstab212]

here's one you guys might not know about (which is alright considering the artist)

Twiztid released an independent album Mostasteless in 1998, and on their song "Diemuthafuckadie", their lyrics include:

"The president is predjudice against you and me
Takin half our money and he chillin tax free
And if you ask me that's another smack in the face
We need to burn the white house and piss in his face
And every judge should do a minimum of twenty to life
If they can dish it they should take it tell me that ain't right
And every cop should be beat like rodney king
Nonstop from the summer till the turn of spring
Shove a donut in they mouth and a badge in they ass
Because the pigs dont get no class, they get they wig split"

and guess what, their album got re-released by Def Jam
, no joke, thanks to ICP being on Island Records at the time.

In the Def Jam version of the song, they censor "burn", "beat" and "pigs" from the song.

And yet, despite going back for edits on the Def Jam release, don't they keep every single n-bomb both these caucazoids drop?

Also, the Eminem sample-lyrics change thing is true. In markets where Labi Siffre didn't have publishing rights, "My Name Is" still was released in the original version. The compromise was made to appease a North American release.

[battlecatmeowstab212]

never understood why this was censored on the album

Original artist not letting them clear the sample.

It's an interesting case as, his parameters were that "bitch" couldn't be used to literally refer to a woman, but could be used in the same "ain't that a bitch" as the original, so you hear it censored in some parts and clean in others.

[Gyangsta 4 Life]

Eminem "Hailey's Song" had a lyric flipped backwards.

[sleazy_j]

oh yeah on "Kim" theres a line about a 4 year old baby dead on the floor, or something similar. edited on the album cut, but uncensored on the song when it was titled "Bitch So Wrong" and was on a sampler for the Chronic 2000, before the album name change to 2001.

https://www.discogs.com/Dr-Dre-Featurin ... se/2299458" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

on "Get You Mad" the label censors Eminem saying Mystikal's name.

[Hush]

On Lordz of Brooklyn's only notable single "Saturday Nite Fever", 'crazy white boy' Admoney has the line 'So tell me right now nigga / who's the mack?' but the n-word was flipped.

[GUCCI CONDOMS]

Does an uncensored version of this exist...

[EMCEE DARTH MALEK]

that video doesn't even exist homie.

[GUCCI CONDOMS]

that video doesn't even exist homie.

Works fine for me, upgrade the tech you're using to view , playboy.

Here's the link tho...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfnr69zKezU" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Lyric783]

MC Eiht "Str8 Up Menace"

"Off to the corner store, owned by the fuckin (Japs)"