A life without music is like a movie without a soundtrack: stale— providing your playlist is actually good or at the very least listenable. Growing up, my experience was, I imagine, one that most people can probably relate to. Back in my day (read: mid 2000s), you could hear all sorts of music on the radio, resulting in a lot of us singing along to some quite-out-there lyrics— and that’s not only by Arab world standards.
Eons ago, (10-years-ago), artists like Pitbull, Katy Perry, and Lil Wayne were monopolizing the Billboard Music Chart and whether you were a fan of them or not, you couldn’t escape them. To make matters even more complicated, singing along to their tracks would more often than not land you in hot water with your parents. You see, the industry moved differently back then. Artists weren’t as explicit as they are today and would often use metaphors and different kinds of placeholders to get their messages across. As you can imagine, being in the peak of our childhood, many of these subtleties flew over our heads (sorry mom, I honestly thought Flo Rida was singing about being a referee on the side line in “Whistle Baby”).
For the sake of nostalgia, we took a trip down memory lane to bring you a comprehensive list of the songs we truly had no business singing as kids. Read on for our top six tracks from the early to mid 2000s that sound totally different when you listen back to them as an adult.
“My Humps” by Black Eyed Peas
Singing about your “lovely lady lumps” as a little boy is not a good look.
“Smack That” by Akon
Smack what mate? In hindsight, I can’t believe I was so oblivious.
“Lady Marmalade” by Christina Aguilera, Mya, Lil Kim, and P!nk
Who would have thought that belting out “voulez-vous coucher avec moi, ce soir?” (translation: “do you want to sleep with me tonight?”) as a six-year-old was a punishable offence?
“Oops (Oh My)” by Tweet
I now understand why my mom turned off the radio every time this came on.
“Candy Shop” by 50 Cent
Spoiler alert: He’s not talking about an actual candy shop.
Lollipop by Lil Wayne
Honestly, no comment.
