Smack My Bitch Up

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Smack My Bitch Up
The Prodigy
publication November 1997
length 4:45
Genre (s) Breaks
Author (s) Liam Howlett
album The Fat of the Land
Chart positions
Explanation of the data
Singles
Smack My Bitch Up
  DE 51 December 01, 1997 (7 weeks)
  UK 8th 11/29/1997 (16 weeks)
  US 89 12/20/1997 (7 weeks)

Smack My Bitch Up is the thirteenth single release by the British big beat group The Prodigy . The song was the third and final release from their album The Fat of the Land .

song

The track is based on a breakbeat and contains several synthesizers - Loops and various vocal samples , including those of ultra MCs sampled lines "Change my pitch up, smack my bitch up" (rapped by Kool Keith ) and one at Arabesque reminiscent -music female Voice taken from the song Nana (The Dreaming) sung by Sheila Chandra .

Further elements come from the following songs:

Music video

Using a subjective camera perspective, the clip shows an excessive night trip by a person who initially remained unrecognized.

At the beginning she is in the bathroom and then gets dressed while she is already drinking alcoholic beverages and cocaine . The person then goes into London's nightlife, where they become conspicuous through overreaching and aggressive behavior towards women and men (as well as other guests, bar staff and a DJ ). In the meantime she vomits several times and takes heroin (cut out in the official TV version); their perception is increasingly impaired with the progressive effects of the drugs taken (represented by the use of visual distortions). Later, the person goes to a strip club , where they approach one of the dancers who are engaged there and take them into a car that has just been stolen. They go back to their apartment where they have sex. The dancer has an ant tattoo that resembles the ribbon logo .

At the end of the video, the subjective camera shows a look in a mirror, which means that the viewer can see the person for the first time. Surprisingly , the person initially perceived as male is a woman.

Controversy

The video won two MTV Video Music Awards . Directed by Jonas Åkerlund , who also made a variety of other music videos. Even during production, the video caused controversy because of the violence. The band even jumped off the production while filming, so Åkerlund continued to shoot it "for himself" in order to have a production for an international band in his portfolio. When it was finished, The Prodigy did commit to the video and it came into rotation on music television. Today it is considered one of the best music videos and a milestone in the genre. Liam Howlett told UK music and entertainment magazine Q about the intention of the video:

'There's a realness to that video. Most people have had nights out like that, off their head on coke and drink… It's not to everyone's taste, but not everything we do is. No radio station was gonna play the song, so we thought we'd make a video that no one would play either. '

“There is a authenticity in this video. Most people have had nights like this, head to toe in cocaine and alcohol ... It's not for everyone, but not all we do is. No radio station wanted to play the song, so we thought about making a video that nobody would play either. "

- Liam Howlett : Q

Individual evidence

  1. Chart sources: Germany - UK - USA
  2. Jim Pavloff: Making of "The Prodigy - Smack My Bitch Up" . In: YouTube . December 15, 2009, accessed April 24, 2016.
  3. Music video on theprodigy.com
  4. Visions - Jonas Akerlund. In: arte . November 27, 2003, archived from the original on August 8, 2014 ; Retrieved April 24, 2016 .
  5. Hollow Skai : Lewd Music Videos: When Britney Spears breaks a sweat. In: Spiegel Online / one day . December 19, 2011, accessed April 17, 2020 .
  6. ↑ a lot of violence, a lot of sex and the illusion of narration ( memento of the original from July 4, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . In: Pleasekunst.de . Retrieved February 20, 2013. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bittekunst.de
  7. ^ Paul Elliott: Their year: The Prodigy . In: Q magazine . February 1998. Issue 137. Page 95. (English)

Web links