Title: Bitches Ain't Shit
Artist: Ben Folds
Year: 2005
Album: Songs for Silverman (LP only)
I never really got into Ben Folds Five, a band which clearly had a lot of talent but always seemed to be teetering on the brink of jock rock, especially where their lyrics were concerned. Ben Folds' solo efforts are much more introspective in nature and even the vitriolic rockers (on Songs for Silverman, the very BF5-ish "Bastard") have lyrics more likely to be uttered on a psychiatrist's couch than in a bar fight.
But even as he has reached the age of being old enough to have a kid in college, Folds continues to earn credit with the university crowd by doing things that are creative and subversive. Songs for Silverman is an excellent album and my thirty-something self felt right at home drinking it in in 2005. In fact, I continued to enjoy it so much that I picked up a vinyl copy a few years ago. Imagine my surprise and delight when the record spun past the last track to reveal Folds' recording of Dr. Dre's 1992 classic "Bitches Ain't Shit," a song he has been performing in concert for years.
Folds' version is less of a cover than a re-imagining of the original. He reharmonizes the song, setting Dre's words to a melancholy tune that makes for a rather evocative piano ballad. Of course, the words are still caustic and offensive and misogynistic. If anything, this gentle setting makes them even more shocking and, of course (if you can have a sense of humor about such things), ironic.
And what do college kids love more than irony? My favorite piece of evidence to support this claim comes in the form an all-female a cappella group who must have worked forever to learn this excellent rendition of Folds' cover, one of MANY covers you will find of this song on YouTube. Enjoy!
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