30 Day Song Challenge, Day 19: A Song Bar Bands Should Stop Playing

Ok, in sticking with yesterday’s substitution of “DJ” for “Bar Band,” I’ll pick a song DJs should stop playing in their sets. I’m really tempted to say something like “All songs by VNV Nation,” but as with all the ‘dislike’ challenges thus far, I’ll focus on songs that I otherwise like and/or think are valuable.
After LOTS of thought (this was a *really* hard question!), I’ve decided that DJs need to be very, very selective about playing this particular song. Not because it’s dated or doesn’t hold up, but because it’s like the one hip hop track that basic white people who don’t know anything about music, let alone hip hop, want to hear when they’re out dancing.

50 Cent, “In Da Club”:

This song was released in 2003, and the groove still holds up, even if the percussion and production don’t sound particularly au currant. But over the years this song has become a go-to record for white people to request when they want to really get loose and dance. And that’s…yucky and racist. Like, it’s pretty common that people don’t even know the real title of the song: they call it “The Birthday Song,” not “In Da Club.” This 2 Chainz song is actually “The Birthday Song”; it explicitly references “In Da Club,” and internet rumor has it that 2 Chainz thought he would be clever and turn the mistitling of 50 Cent’s song into his advantage: every time some drunk white person requested “The Birthday Song,” the DJ would play HIS track.

So, I’m not saying DJs should never play “In Da Club.” I’m just saying it should be dropped with care.

 

Runner Up: Lana Del Rey, “Summertime Sadness” (Cedric Gervais Remix) (This song is last year’s summer banger; time to put it away for a while.)