People complaining about supposedly offensive pop lyrics is hardly anything new. It’s as old as the form itself; never-ending proof that everyone is offended by something and that every era has its own set of taboos. But the speed with which music stars appear to be acquiescing to other people’s hurt feelings today is surely something new.
Take Beyonce. She’s one of the biggest stars in the world. A genuine living legend. And yet because a handful of disabled charities and irked right-on tweeters have complained about one word in one of the songs on her new album Renaissance, her ‘team’ has almost immediately promised to scrub and re-record the offending lyric as soon as possible.
The word that has caused so much offence? ‘Spaz’, which Beyonce uttered a couple of times on the track ‘Heated’, which was co-written with Canadian rap star Drake. You might have struggled to work that out from some of the coverage however, given many news reports – including the BBC’s – have confusingly omitted the word itself, such is its apparently thermonuclear nature.
Beyonce’s run-in comes just weeks after singer Lizzo was hauled over the coals
So, here’s the offending line in full: ‘Spazzing on that ass, spaz on that ass.’
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