The Prodigy appear to change lyrics to ‘Smack My Bitch Up’
Dance pioneers The Prodigy appear to have changed the lyrics to their controversial 1997 hit, ‘Smack My Bitch Up’.
Following an extended down period after the death of frontman Keith Flint in 2019, the band recently hit the road again. They are on a European tour, including two successful shows at London’s Alexandra Palace last weekend. Footage from the Friday show on November 24th, shared on social media, shows vocalist Maxim at the opening of the track.
He seems to repeat the opening lyric, “Change my pitch up”, instead of the controversial, eponymous second line “Smack my bitch up”. However, when contacted, representatives for the band declined to comment, according to The Independent, so the change has yet to be confirmed.
Notably, ‘Smack My Bitch Up’ is taken from the band’s hit third album, 1997’s The Fat of the Land, and has been a source of debate ever since. As well as coming under fire from prominent artists such as Tori Amos and the Beastie Boys, the song was condemned by the National Organisation for Women (NWO), who decried it as promoting violence against women as “a form of entertainment”.
In response to the NWO statement, the album was removed from some shops in the US, whilst the BBC also banned the song from stations or played a lyric-free redux. Regardless of the debate, The Fat of the Land topped the UK Albums Chart and the US Billboard 200 and has sold over ten million copies worldwide.
“At the end of the day,” Keith Flint told Rolling Stone at the time, “The girls who come to our shows are hardcore girls, and they don’t look at it as that.”
He continued: “If some girl in an A-line flowery dress decides there’s some band somewhere singing about smashing bitches up, let’s get a bit militant. They don’t know us. They never know us. They never will.”
“It’s so offensive,” Prodigy leader Liam Howlett maintained in the same discussion. “That it can’t actually mean that. That’s where the irony is.”
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