Sunday, November 18, 2007
The Illest Christmas Song Ever
A lot of people don't know this, but OutKast's first single "Player's Ball" was a Christmas song. It was featured on the LaFace Family Christmas album.
Since the Christmas album did so poorly in sales and "Player's Ball" was the only bright spot on the album, L.A. Reid decided that it would make a good single to introduce the group to the rap world. They went back and edited the song to make it sound less holiday-ish. They banked on the single being successful because they figured no one would link it to the Christmas album.
I used to wonder why there were so many censored words on the video back in '94, but it turns out that the bulk of the censored phrases were Christmas and New Year's references.
If they would have released this as a Christmas song as their very first single, they could have possibly been brushed off as a gimmick by the mass public, LaFace may have put their project on the shelf, and we may have never heard anymore from hip hop's greatest duo. That was a hell of a risk to take.
Peep the above clip and hear OutKast spit lines like:
*notice the sleigh bells as the song starts*
"It's beginning to look a lot like [Christmas]..."
"Some nonsense about some 'Silent Night', I gets it crunk if it ain't real ain't right..."
"You thought I'd break my neck...to help y'all deck... the halls..."
"Hall-e-lujah, Hall-e-lujah..."
"Ain't no chimney in the ghetto so I won't be hanging no sock..."
"So ho ho hos, check my king-ass fro..."
"When the Player's Ball is happenin' on Christmas day."
So there's my useless hip hop knowledge for the day.
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7 comments:
Andre and Big Boi look . . . young. I wonder what they would have thought if someone had told them years later that they would be the princes of the hip-hop industry and starring in major motion pictures? Thanks for bringing to late this piece of hip hop trivia.
Man... I had no idea... I thought the Christmas album was released after Southernplayalistic... That's what's up, B... This might be the most surprising/random hip hop news I've ever heard.
I think diddy was the producer of the video
You gotta hear THIS xmas track...Amazing!
http://www.blender.com/news/comments.aspx?article=10164&src=tstbb
I'm disappointed in you B. Toni Braxton's version of "A Christmas Song" on that CD is probably the second best there is.
The TLC joint was cool too, but the best was the little interlude where they sing "spread a little love on christmas day, spreading joy awwwww awwwwww" was the hottest.
Yes, I'm a proud owner of the LaFace family christmas cd
Rell... why do you own Laface Family Christmas? Is that what's hot in the streets?
LOL, I bought it when it first came out in 92' I believe.
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