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View Full Version : Do "Clean" Versions of Songs ruin the song?



DJ HMS
02-25-2012, 10:16 AM
Hey guys so i've been wondering recently, do you think that censoring music, usually hip hop, ruins the song? Or is it just a good way to widen the audience for a specific type of music?

I say this just because when i'm in the car and i listen to the radio and something like "Hard in da Paint" by Waka Flocka comes on, but only around 70% of it because everything else is edited out. I feel like alot of the message or even experience of listening to that song is lost when you just blatantly cut things out, sounds simple and obvious but thats how the radio does things, or change swears into less offensive words.

So what do you guys think? Do you think that radio's etc. should edit the songs that play on their radios or should they just play the songs the way that they were ment to be played in all their uncensored glory? And if your performing a set, do you play the explicit version or the clean version (if their is that distinction)?

Dix
02-25-2012, 10:51 AM
Personally, I think just the opposite. The foul language in the original version ruins the song. I am no "high on my horse" kinda guy, but language "just because" has gotten completely out of reason. jmho...

rchecka
02-25-2012, 11:59 AM
You'd be surprised about clean versions, some clean versions are WAY better then the dirty versions because the producers know that they want it to sound banging on the radio.

Here's some clean versions that don't suck... http://officialperiodic.blogspot.com/2011/01/oh-snap-not-clean-versions.html

I'd add that a lot of the clean versions that really suck, suck only because their choice of clean words doesn't mean the same thing or because their choice of stereotypical Hip Hop noises that replaces the curse word is cheesy. (Like beeper noises, sirens, gun shots, in place of curse words) Or when there is silence instead of the swear, and\or the reversed swear word being over used. Tihs! kcuf!

Sigma
02-25-2012, 12:29 PM
It depends for me. If it's a "proper" clean version with different lyrics, then sometimes I prefer it. I prefer this version of Punks Jump Up To Get Beat Down for instance: -


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxBvUqLs_eU

I hate when words in songs are censored though. Here's an example of the sort of thing I don't like: -


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnt9se7JCYQ

And this one. Listen to the way they censor "shit" in "pass that shit" near the beginning, lol: -


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFtGWl8pP2I

mostapha
02-25-2012, 01:15 PM
I don't really care about cursing. At all. But sometimes I like listening to the clean versions because they're freaking hilarious. It's obvious the producer was tokin' a J and cracking the F*** up while doing the editing. If not, some studio intern was.

Example: the intro of Weezy f/ Gucci Mane - We be steady mobbin, as it is on the radio


Man … these …, im-im scared of everything but ….
i … the … then …… these …, take the … out the … and … these ….
yeah, and … these …, i swear i care bout everythin but …
I dont care i so-what these … and i put young moolah baby way before these …

I had to look up the lyrics because I've never heard the 4th line in the censored version…I'm cracking up to too hard by then.

Linguistic censorship is a terrible, terrible crime against art……unless it's funny.

Or you could do what the guys on BSG and Firefly/Serenity did……Goram and Frak get the entire message apart…work exactly the same way…hit you the same (after the first few times when you laugh your head off)…and get by the sensors. Sam idea as ish. I almost prefer that, but that's just because the frakin' FCC is filled up with goram yuppie pricks and soccer moms that confuse the ish out of you…i mean who in their right mind would ever frak such fugly cnuts.

Sigma
02-25-2012, 01:21 PM
The best "censorship" ever was when Cypress Hill released "When The Shit Goes Down" from Black Sunday as a single. The label just changed the name to "When The Ship Goes Down", but they changed absolutely nothing about the track at all and it was played all the time on day time radio here and it got to number 19 in the pop charts.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pCQS6_hJ28 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pCQS6_hJ28)

RDRCK
02-25-2012, 05:27 PM
The best "censorship" ever was when Cypress Hill released "When The Shit Goes Down" from Black Sunday as a single. The label just changed the name to "When The Ship Goes Down", but they changed absolutely nothing about the track at all and it was played all the time on day time radio here and it got to number 19 in the pop charts.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pCQS6_hJ28 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pCQS6_hJ28)

I remember that radio censorship was really light in general in the 90s. It seemed like you could hear the whole spectrum of curse words on any given day on "alternative rock" stations.

shocase241
02-25-2012, 06:31 PM
8 out of 10 times I'm playing the clean version....but in some cases the clean version does ruin a song.

PONTUS.2
02-25-2012, 06:59 PM
zagin

moyo wilde
02-26-2012, 12:47 AM
i got that tommy boy hiphop compilation like 10 cd's or more. man some of them have the clean , one that comes to mind is b!tch betta have my money", i think. now how you gone do a clean version without rerecording the chorus.

big pun's "i ain't player" was okay, so was luda's atea codes, although pros, sounds like he knows prostitutes all over the country.

The Judge
02-26-2012, 07:15 AM
I really dislike clean versions. They tend to ruin songs for me, whether they cut words or put in clean ones. The only clean version I prefer over the original is Country Grammar. Clean versions can be quite pointless too. Cut out all the swear words but the message is left untouched - ok to rap about uber violence or sex but the swear words are the only bad thing?? Don't buy it. Either censor the message and the content or don't censor any of it.

DJ Rob One
02-27-2012, 04:30 AM
it really depends on the clean version. Very rarely do they do the original justice when they put out a clean version. Every single that dropped off Dr. Dre's The Chronic album in 92 was better than the original version, imo. I don't mind cursing on albums but a lot of the cursing on that album was just extra and unnecessary. The clean version of Nuthin But a G Thang is waaaaaaaay better than the original. Then you have great edits a year later with Wu Tang. When RZA decided to throw in the martial arts sound effects over the curse words, GENIUS!

9 times out of 10 I prefer the original mix. But when done right the clean version is fine by me.

Hipno
02-28-2012, 05:06 PM
Depends who you're playing for, it doesnt really ruin the song. If your looking out for the youth ofcourse you dont wanna play a song that slurs out bad words in every bar. Me personally i like the dirty ones cause i play at house parties haha but hey thats just me.