Me So Horny
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"Me So Horny" is a Dirty Rap hit song for rap group 2 Live Crew from their album As Nasty As They Wanna Be. It reached #1 on the rap charts and #26 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1989 despite lack of airplay due to the controversial nature of the lyrics. The explicit nature of the lyrics of this song and the album led to the initially successful prosecution of the group on obscenity charges and the album being banned from sale in Florida. This ban was overturned on appeal. The song samples "Firecracker" by Mass Production and a supposed pornographic tape in the beginning for the constant moaning.
Origin of the phrase
The chorus of the song was sampled from the Stanley Kubrick film Full Metal Jacket. In the movie, UK actress Papillon Soo Soo, credited as "Da Nang Hooker" speaks the lines:
- Hey baby, you got girlfriend Vietnam? Me so horny. Me love you long time.
The other part came from a Richard Pryor movie, Which Way Is Up?.
Success and controversy
Despite, or perhaps because of, the explicit nature of the lyrics, the song became a major hit for 2 Live Crew, topping the rap charts and going to #26 in 1989. As Nasty as They Wanna Be reached #3 on the rap album charts and #29 on the album chart. The album eventually sold three million copies.[citation needed]
The success of the single and the album led to concern over the explicit nature of rap lyrics both by 2 Live Crew and by gangsta rappers such as Ice-T and N.W.A.. George Will highlighted the group in an article called "America's Slide into the Sewers" and referred to the group's lyrics in the context of the brutal rape and murder of a woman in Central Park.[citation needed]
Broward County prosecutor Jack Thompson prosecuted 2 Live Crew on obscenity charges and persuaded a Federal District judge to declare the album obscene in June 1990. 2 Live Crew performed songs from the album including "Me So Horny" and were prosecuted for obscenity. Record store clerks who sold copies of the album were taken for questioning.[citation needed]
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. gave evidence on behalf of the group during the trial. Sinéad O'Connor was one of the celebrities who supported the group on the grounds of the right to free speech.[citation needed] The decision was later overturned on appeal and the ruling was upheld by the US Supreme Court. The publicity from the trials led to further sales of the album.
In 1999, the group, minus former bandleader Luther Campbell, rerecorded the song as "Bill So Horny" during the impeachment of U.S. President Bill Clinton for allegedly lying under oath about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky.[citation needed] However, the remix failed to chart.
Music video
The music video mainly features the members of the band rapping while scantily clad women are shown dancing on a stage.
Two versions of the video were ultimately released. The original "uncut" version featured the dancing women in G-string bikini bottoms (with rotoscoped black squares placed over the women's buttocks) and sport brassieres. The MTV version featured alternate lyrics for the song (to comply with MTV's standards and practices) and alternate footage of the dancers in cycling shorts instead of bikinis.
Popular culture
- A comedy hip-hop duo known as 2 Live Jews (whose name is an obvious parody of 2 Live Crew) released a spoof of the song, called "Oy! It's So Humid". This spoof replaces the line, "Me love you long time" with "It's like a sauna in here." This is one of the tracks of their first album, titled As Kosher As They Wanna Be.
- Richard Cheese and Lounge Against the Machine did a Lounge cover on the 2005 album, "Aperitif for Destruction".
- In the movie Disturbia Ashley (Sarah Roemer) changes Kale's (Shia LaBeouf) ringtone to "Me so Horny" whenever his best friend Ronnie (Aaron Yoo) calls.
- A parody group known as the "4 Live Crew" made a spoof of the song called, "Me So Hungry". This title was also used for a similar spoof by 3 Local Boyz.
- Andy LaPlegua of Combichrist made an EBM of the song for his solo album "13 Ways to Masturbate" released under the moniker of Dj Scandy
- The phrase "Me so horny" Is used in the Howard Stern show as a sound effect played by Fred Norris.