Time Warner is again taking heat, this time over a song by the electronic-rock group Prodigy that critics say is at best insensitive and at worst promotes domestic violence. "Smack My Bitch Up" was released last week on Maverick, a record label owned by Madonna and distributed by Warner Bros. The LA Times reports that the song is under fire by the National Organization of Women, as well as Gloria Steinem, the feminist founder of Ms. magazine, as being dangerous.
Rather than going the making-an-artistic-statement route, Prodigy producer Liam Howlett offered the stranger explanation that detractors misunderstood the slang. The phrase should be understood as meaning doing anything with intense, manic energy, Howlett offered.
The lyric was sampled from a nine-year-old record by the group Ultramagnetic MC's, on which the intense, manic rapper Kool Keith exclaims: "Smack my bitch up like a pimp!"
Time Warner has buckled under controversy in the past. In 1993 it pulled rapper Ice-T's "Cop Killer" off the market after police groups objected to its lyrics, and in 1995 the company sold its stake in Interscope Records after criticism that the labels' rap stars Snoop Doggy Dogg and Dr. glorified misogyny and gang violence.
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Violence against pedestrians: The Brazilian government last week ordered all copies of videogame Carmageddon off the shelves, claiming that the game had led drivers to acts of violence. GameSpot reports that Brasoft, the game's Brazilian distributor, will not only comply, but has announced that it will release an educational CD-ROM about driver safety. (4.Dec.97)
