This is the last time we’re gonna take down a rock band for mishandling a rap song, we promise.
The ’00s were the decade of the ironic hip-hop song, an irrefutably hilarious-to-dipshits conceit used by everyone from F2K favorites Dynamite Hack to MC Stephen Hawking to that totally hilars brohammer from your freshman dorm who borrowed your laundry basket all the time and then freestyled that funny rap about laundry baskets, remember that? It was almost enough to make us want to listen to the practically limitless amount of actual rap records that still exist somewhere on Earth.
Los Angeles “indie” (read: self-indulgent art-fucks) “punk” (read: practically bleeding with cliché) band Say Anything took the powerful step of pushing “ironic” into “completely disingenuous” with their cover of Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s 1999 track “Got Your Money.” The song is from Punk Goes Crunk, an album so worthless that it doesn’t even improve on something called Yo! Indie Rock Raps. (That was the original version of the comp, which Immortal Records promptly aborted when they realized that multiple instances of pants-pissing guyliner bands making booger-picky faces to Bone Thugs was a seven-layer burrito of puerile.)
When Immortal dropped this steaming turd onto a MySpace page in 2007, the supporting image juxtaposed Say Anything frontlump Max Bemis with—we are not kidding—Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s mug shot. Somehow, the song is even less tasteful. At no point in its rubber-faced buffoonery do you get the impression that Bemis even enjoys O.D.B.’s music, rap music in general, or anything that isn’t his own band’s insufferable star-bellied sneech tirades. For starters, I’m not even sure Say Anything plays on it—the backing track consists mostly of keyboard farts. Bemis sings ODB’s lyrics like doing so is a fucking chore, like it’s the worst thing humanly possible to be on an ironic rap cover that’s gonna be passed around the Warped Tour message board like a brown bag of glue in a Hardee’s parking lot. And you know what? It actually may be the worst thing in the world. The only solution I can think of is not doing every single thing your record label tells you.
I can’t even open the can of worms about how Bemis annoyingly yells “N-WORD!!!” in place of ODB’s actual n-words. Also he name-checks Cisco Adler. I’m not well-versed in whatever MySpace cuddle parties these L.A. scene leeches were having together circa 2007, so I can’t be certain if it’s a shout-out or a diss or whatever. But I do pray that this is the last time someone writes “Cisco Adler” on the Internet.
Got Your Money $ (cover) – Say Anything – PUNK GOES CRUNK! [YouTube]
Say Anything [Official site]
F2K: Idolator Counts Down The 50 Worst Songs Of The ’00s, One By Ear-Splitting One
Cisco Adler.
@MayhemintheHood: “Ya crucified it. Ya ruined it!”
Damn that ate my ‘Raymond and Peter’ tag there.
Honestly, I didn’t even listen to the above song, because I’ve heard enough Say Anything for a few lifetimes. My sister, who lives in a farm town in Kansas, loves them and I heard an entire album while driving to the Tulsa airport once. Seriously, it was probably one of the worst albums I’ve ever heard. Words cannot express.
This is wholly unbearable.
I graduated high school a few years before this came out, but this sort of cloying, half-assed concept of what constituted irony was popular then, as was this sort of band’s schreechy concept of popular muzak. I was a sensitive child, and I remember thinking that it was incredibly disrespectful of the original artists to decide, when recording a cover, that their music was shit and useless and had no artistic basis. And that’s what these sorts of covers are: one artist in a field that is itself largely considered without artistic merit, covering another artist as if to say “listen to me nasally recite these lyrics, this means nothing.” This isn’t homage, this isn’t someone who loved the song and wanted to make their own version; this is a person thinking it a joke. Bad taste is not irony.
What I am thankful for is how dated and embarassing this seems on a mainstream scale only two years after the fact, which must means something about pop culture’s musical trajectory.
@MayhemintheHood: Words cannot express.
Well played, sir:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_YXqvvmXGg
While it’s certainly an irreverent take on the song (oh, the nerve!), if you actually make it past the admittedly droll opening verse, I don’t know how anyone can think Bemis finds this a “fucking chore.”
This could not suck any little bit more.
I’m listening to it while I write this.
Ok, I may have been wrong in my first statement…
FML, this sucks bad! OMG, why is he growling?! Oh, how sad, there are some people forced to wail in the background!… Well, no wonder all of them are whining and snarling about getting their money, I mean, look at how low they’ve stooped to get it.
Hey Anthony, there’s some hairs you forgot to split in the Aaron Carter entry…
@MayhemintheHood: Was it their monstrosity of a double album? I pitty anyone who sat through that in its entirety.
I’m a big Say Anything fan, I think Is a Real Boy and In Defense of the Genre are great big, dramatic pop records in the tradition of those last few Fall Out Boy records.
And yeah, this is vile, but so is (probably) every other song on that compilation. Moreover, it’s the second alt-rock-band-covers-hip-hop-classic-and-man-they-are-so-white entry on this list, except this wasn’t even released as a single but as a one-off on a bullshit compilation.
I mean, maybe this is meant to be a list of easy targets, but there are far more than 50 songs in this decade that went way more out of their way to be awful.
Also, there’s no reason to read malevolence into the band’s intentions just because the cover is shit, ampersandparade.
@BradNelson: maybe this is meant to be a list of easy targets
I am so not getting this criticism of the list (in all its iterations on comments here and elsewhere). While there have been particular entries that were gimmes (“You’re Beautiful” is the slam dunk for me, at least), a good chunk of them are completely obscure. Hell, you’re saying YOURSELF that this song is completely obscure! So which is it, a list of easy targets or a list of digging out one-offs to make acts you love look bad? You can’t have it both ways.
@NedRaggett: For something to be an easy target has little to do with its omnipresence or obscurity. It’s just, it’s on a goddamn compilation called Punk Goes Crunk. I just find it hard to engender a bunch of hate toward a cover that was never going to be good in any sense.
I like Say Anything, and have avoided listening to this track because I would like to continue liking them.
@Christopher R. Weingarten: I was afraid of his dingleberries.
Which, I realize, songs that were doomed from inception to be evil should find their way into this list. It just feels… too easy to me.
I’m realizing how untenable my position is with each successive comment!
@drunkwithpower: They have a freaking double album? I couldn’t tell you to be sure, but it sure seemed to last forever. Some of the worst lyrics I’ve ever heard, but my sis is midwest-smalltown-”outkast” and is right in the Hot Topic wheelhouse, so she loves it.
@BradNelson: Oh so mean to tell me that perhaps they went into this wanting to treat the track with respect, or from some place of admiration? I’ll take that with a Costco-sized case of salt.
haha I actually like Say Anything, but I enjoyed this takedown immensely.
Punk Goes Crunk was a monstrosity of the highest order, but Set Your Goals’ cover of Lil Jon’s ‘Put Your Hood Up’ therein absolutely slays.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PBBJoZVBIU
I am also a fan of Say Anything’s first album, which is about as good as emo punk gets. At the same time, as their video for “I Can Get Sexual Too” presents, Say Anything have a detached and unfortunate view on rap cliches, and this cover sadly slams home their tone deafness on this subject. Since this song was already forgotten the moment after its release, I don’t think it really makes sense for this list. So many of us can think of actual bad songs that plagued us in worse ways. In other words, “Beverly Hills” better rank fucking high.
I think the irony being is that he didn’t do it because the label said he should, but because HE WANTED THE MONEY :) I think the song is hilarious, the whole album is so bad, there is only one good song on there (Person L’s Seed 2.0) and the rest is a travesty.
I really like penis imagery, but the cover of their first album made me want to kick them all in their stupid heads. Then I heard their hit single and decided to just kill myself instead.
Got Your Money < My Humps
As a regular reader of Idolator I was dismayed to see this song make your list. While you are entitled to hate the song as much as needed, I just want to clear one thing up: the conclusion you came to regarding Cisco Adler is wrong. All we knew of him in 2007 was that he has an enormous nutsack as evidenced by a picture on the internets. That picture was used as a torture device throughout the recording process & Adler seemed a perfect choice for the updated Eddie Murphy diss from ODB’s version. Since then, Cisco Adler has been, uh, stuffed down our throats via the mtv. If only his talent were as large as his balls… Anyway, good luck on your continued list-making.
Best- Brad
hahaha wow i’m laughing so much. i just want you guys to know that you all sound like a heap of pompous, uninformed assholes. and i’m guessing that you are pompous, uninformed assholes.
clearly, max bemis does not take this seriously whatsoever, thus resulting in high-quality entertainment. this is not an actual say anything take of odb. there are countless other songs that deserve your attention for “worst songs of the decade”.
Hey. Apparently you kids don’t do your research. And you probably haven’t even heard much of Say Anything’s music. Unsupported claims about a band and its associations, interests, and label make you seem just as stupid and imprudent as your obtuse, one-sided rambling. Of course, your heads are probably too far up your asses to read or comprehend this, but I’ll say it anyway. This “cover” obviously isn’t meant to be taken seriously, and if you even thought the title “Punk Goes Crunk” could mean anything serious for just one second, you’re an idiot. If you ever decide to call anyone a self-indulgent art-fuck again, take a look at this article and all of your pretentious bullshit. And they aren’t “indie-punk,” they’re whatever the fuck they want to be. So much for your clichés.
I love this song :)