This is Dr. Dre’s 1992 song Bitches Ain’t Shit. The repetitive percussion beat, rhythmic staccato rapping, and the lyrics all date this song as being a clear product of the early nineties. The song features themes of crime and violence often associated with hip hop. With one verse of the song having the singer getting out of the county jail and immediately getting his gun to try and teach someone a lesson. The song also focuses on the theme that you should not trust women and if you do, they will only end up hurting you. This is a theme that if a song so explicitly focused on today, it would likely destroy the artist’s entire reputation; however, since this song was released in the nineties it was able to get away with this more questionable message. That is why it is so surprising that in 2005 an alternative singer-songwriter by the name of Ben Folds released his own version of the song, and even more surprising than that is the fact that the song actually released to find a decent amount of success.
Ben Folds is an artist who regularly tries to push boundaries in the mediums he performs in. He first achieved success by writing music utilizing his classical piano skills in combination with rock style and themes. This was something no other artists at the time were doing so, through his ingenuity, Folds was able to make a space for himself in the industry. Along with his unique style, Folds was able to achieve success by providing many different themes in his songs with incredibly different messages. One of Folds’ first majorly successful songs Brick tells the story of a high school abortion in an incredibly slow and emotional style. The very next song on the same album, entitled Song For The Dumped, features heavy use of drums and a chorus that sings “Give me my money back, you bitch” Folds has gone on to achieve success with songs like Rocking The Suburbs which focuses on making fun of middle-class white artists complaining about the difficulties in their lives. This all culminates at the end of the song which is a cacophony of bass, drums, electric guitar, and Fold’s screaming.
Then comes Ben Folds’ version of Dr. Dre’s Bitches Ain’t Shit. Comparing this with Folds’ other works it is strange to imagine that he didn’t write it. Folds performs this song in a mostly slow tempo making it into something of a tragic ballad. The song opens with a few seconds of ambient wind and then it goes into the piano and a quiet folds singing “Bitches ain’t shit” This song is everything that makes Folds’ music Folds’ music. Presented in a highly emotional style centered on piano coupled with Folds’ high nasally voice the song is able to evoke an emotion that is a lot harder to find in the original. Folds is also able to almost completely transform the themes of the song. Folds is able to change the story of the song from being that of a man who is resentful and suspicious of all women, to a man who is hurt by the betrayal he experiences. The song becomes something to connect with and feels like a dissection and critique of the original’s themes and message. Combining the gritty dark and sexist lines with Folds’ trademark nasally voice and classical piano feels almost comedic and because of this, the song is able to be a parody while still being able to stand alone as being distinctly one of Folds’ songs. It is no wonder then that the song has become a favorite of Folds’ fans with recordings of the song on YouTube getting hundreds of thousands of views more than Dr. Dre’s original version. It is worth noting that Folds does make some small cuts to the song, removing a couple of verses likely to maintain a regular length; however, in the removal of these verses Folds still keeps the verses which hold some of the most offensive lines and messages so these cuts do very little to affect the changes in theme.
Folds’ song is a type of cover called a transformative cover. He takes what Dr. Dre wrote and he transforms it, presenting it in his own style. When you compare the two versions the similarities begin and end with the lyrics. Beyond the words, Fold’s transforms everything from form to theme making it an excellent example of how to properly create a transformative cover. In terms of instrumentals, the only instruments the two songs share are the voice and drums; however, they are used in incredibly different ways. To start Dre’s song uses the drums to form the foundation, the beat that backs up the rap. These drums make heavy use of the cymbals and snares in a constantly repeated rhythm. Folds’ song uses the drums to balance the piano with the rhythm ranging from heavy use of the bass drum to a larger focus on the cymbals. Dre’s use of drums focuses on creating a foundation for his song, while Folds’ uses the drums to further the atmosphere of the story he is telling. Neither of these uses is necessarily better or worse than the other, but it stresses one key difference in the songs, that being genre. Folds is able to successfully transform Dre’s 90s hip-hop rap song into a piano ballad. Folds saw the tragic potential of the lyrics in Dre’s song and stressed this meaning by changing the presentation of the lyrics and their surroundings. Dr. Dre’s rap tells the same story; however, through its delivery and presentation, the song does not evoke this tragic feeling. Dre’s song which features an upbeat rhythm and energized verses doesn’t address the intense sadness in his words; whereas, Folds’ slower tempo and softer presentation bring out these aspects of the lyrics.
It is impossible to discuss this cover without also discussing the topic of race. In a way, Folds’ emphasis on the tragic meaning in the lyrics and the reception of both songs provides strong support for the theory of the sonic color line. Looking at comments of the two songs on YouTube it is fascinating to analyze the trends that come up in response to each song. In response to Dre’s song, the comments are almost entirely discussing the message of not trusting women. These comments are either saying how offensive the message is or that they are still agreeing with it. To contrast comments of Folds’ song almost entirely discuss how emotional the song is and how it made some listeners come to tears. This goes with one of the arguments of the sonic color line stating, “U.S. white supremacy has attempted to suppress, tune out, and willfully misunderstand some sounds and their makers and histories” (Stoever). The key word in that quote is misunderstand, both songs share the same lyrics, themes, and story yet when Folds presents the song in a style that is seen as “higher class” it is praised for being a brilliant emotional story; whereas, the original’s traditionally “black” sound is only discussed in the context of having misogynistic themes. While Folds’ song brings up some interesting points about race it is still fairly divisive in terms of that subject. In a Huffington Post article entitled “How NOT To Perform A Cover Song” the author argues that since Folds moves the song to such a dramatic extreme that “Folds is encouraging listeners to hear the words as ridiculous, as ‘other’” (Crum). This is an argument that is not unreasonable as, there is a long history of white artists covering black artists work and as they put it in the Studio 1A podcast “It’s such a complicated question, what’s aloud, what’s appropriation, what’s homage?” (Take Me On: The Art Of The Cover Song). It’s a difficult question to answer; however, I believe that in the context of Folds’ cover the emphasis of showing that tragedy in the story Dre originally presented shows that Folds does view these problems as real.
Folds’ cover is one that shows how an artist can take a song they didn’t write and completely transform it into a piece of work that blends perfectly into their own styles and themes. That said the song is one of many modern examples of how artists need to be careful and respectful whenever they are covering other artists’ work. In the case of Folds, he was able to bring out a message that many people missed or ignored in the original, and it is an excellent example of how changing the musical context of the lyrics and words can completely transform what people perceive as the meaning of the song.
Works Cited
Ben Folds. “Bitches Ain’t Shit.” Supersunnyspeedgraphic, the lp, Ben Folds
Crum, Maddie. “How NOT To Perform A Cover Song.” HuffingtonPost, 18 Nov. 2015, www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/how-not-to-perform-a-cover-song_us_564a4cd5e4b045bf3df074db.
Dr. Dre. “Bitches Ain’t Shit.” The Chronic, Dr. Dre.
Lam, Barry, editor. “Cover Me Softly.” Hiphination.org, hiphination.org/complete-season-two-episodes/s2-episode-5-cover-me-softly-feb-27th-2018/.
Stoever, Jennifer Lynn. The Sonic Color Line. Race and the Cultural Politics of Listening. NewYork University Press, 2016.
“Take Me On: The Art Of The Cover Song.” the1a.Org, 18 Jan. 2018, the1a.org/shows/2018-01-18/take-me-on-the-art-of-the-cover-song.
