Ex-Prodigy disses Beastie Boys

[stillill]

Originally Posted by Runoutgroove

Oh for christ's sake. I like the Beastie's music, but in this instance they are plain wrong on so many levels. The "smack my bitch up" sample doesn't mean hit women on the Prodigy track, nor does it even mean that in the original Ultramagnetic MC's track. What about freedom of expression?

I'll tell it to you straight, the vast majority of fans have never even thought that this song was promoting violence against women - they just hear the word "bitch" and think that sounds slightly controversial. Thats what the Prodigy are about, they are the sort of band that parents hate because they are brash.

Lets see what shall we censor next, I think Raging Bull has some wife beating and how about video games...

I'm sorry, where did I say that we should censor things? I'm simply saying that lyrics such as these promote violence. Of course it is the right of people to put out whatever they want, but that doesn't mean that music listeners should support it.

Obviously some people (such as the woman mentioned in Yauch's post) did take it at face value. You have no idea what it is like to have a painful memory brought up because of a stupid song. I'm not sure how the Beasties are in the wrong for trying to prevent that. The Beasties did not demand that the song not be played, they simply requested that it not be played and gave their reasons for it.

This is probably the best thing that ever happened to Liam H. I mean, Jesus, it six years later and we're still discussing this! I'm sure that is why he said something negative about the Beastie Boys in the press, to receive more attention for his own band.