Getting a Bad Rap

Yesterday I heard a hip hop / rap song on the radio. I could tell a certain word was edited out by the rhyming scheme. The song is "Gold Digger" by Kanye West and Jaime Foxx.

There's a video here.

You can hear Kanye singing/speaking:

Now I'm not saying she's a gold-digger,
but she ain't messing with no broke

The fairly profane lyrics are here, and here is the uncensored recording of the song.

It put me in mind of the recent prank Bill Maher played during his show. He read a quote from Paul Ryan, and let a couple of panelists criticize it roundly. Then he read another quote from Ryan, of similar import, about how lazy young people who want to be rappers. He then immediately revealed the second quote was actually from Michelle Obama. The revelation was met, as Maher himself declared, with "hushed silence".

Of course, criticizing your own group usually is safer than criticizing somebody else's group.

When you compose a song,
remember where you belong,
and who you can burn
without being burned in return.