Chicago - Oct. 29, 2020

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Song Of The Moment: Smack My Bitch Up

Change my pitch up

"The Chicago Cubs have fired a DJ who played The Prodigy's 'Smack My Bitch Up' after reliever Aroldis Chapman left the mound against the St Louis Cardinals on Sunday," AP reports.

"Chapman served a 29-game suspension to begin the season under Major League Baseball's new domestic violence policy."

Oy. Let's take a look.

Artist: The Prodigy

Writer/Producer: Liam Howlett

Released: November 24, 1997

Length: 4:45

Album: The Fat of the Land

Charts: Reached No. 89 on the Billboard Hot 100

Mixmag: No. 3 dance record of all-time

Wikipedia: "Although the song wasn't as big a commercial success as their previous singles, it gained a cult following.

"The song caused considerable controversy because of its suggestive title and respective music video, which depicted scenes of drunken and drug-fueled sexual excess and violence."

Rock On The Net: "Time-Warner, Prodigy's parent company, was feeling the heat from the National Organization for Women (NOW) over the track. Although the tune's lyrics are few but repetitive ('Change my pitch up. Smack my bitch up'), NOW has stated that the lyrics are a ' . . . a dangerous and offensive message advocating violence against women.'

"Prodigy member Liam Howlett responded to the attacks by claiming that the song's lyrics are being misinterpreted: '[The song means] doing anything intensely, like being on stage - going for extreme manic energy.'

"The lyrics are also not a product of Prodigy's songwriting abilities, but are sampled from an Ultramagnetic MCs' track.

"Several radio stations defended the song's message, yet only play the track at night. The video for the song also featured women being pushed and images of injecting drugs. MTV only aired the video between 1 and 5 a.m. in order for mature viewers to see the 'groundbreaking' images.

"Walmart and Kmart later announced they would pull Prodigy's The Fat Of The Land off their shelves."

Songfacts: "The band took every opportunity to explain that the title is not to be taken literally, as it means to do something with vigor and intensity. The Prodigy didn't shy away from the controversy this song caused, and the resulting media attention gave their sales a boost . . .

"Howlett told Q magazine, June 2009: 'The Americans picked up on it and wanted to make out it was a song about violence. We thought we'd have a laugh with it and set out to make an extreme video. That's the one time we thought we'd be controversial.'"

Sarah Spain:

Chapman closes out the inning & at the inning break the Cubs play "Smack My Bitch Up." You gotta know better. C'mon.
— Sarah Spain (@SarahSpain) August 15, 2016

Pat Tomasulo:

Hey, I've got a better idea for how to punish that Cubs DJ who played the bad song. pic.twitter.com/jIyei43Se5
— Pat Tomasulo (@pattomasulo) August 16, 2016

Lyrics:

Change my pitch up
Smack my bitch up
Change my pitch up
Smack my bitch up
Change my pitch up
Smack my bitch up
Change my pitch up
Smack my bitch up
Smack my bitch up
Eaaaheeyheeaheyyyee
Aaahaaahaaaaaaaaaaahha
Eaaaheeyheeaheyyyee
Aaahhaaaaa
Aaahhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
Smack my bitch up
Change my pitch up
Smack my bitch up
Change my pitch up
Smack my bitch up