Pharrell, who wrote Britney Spears’ ‘I’m a Slave 4 U,’ says he wouldn’t use ‘slave’ in a song title today: “That’s not a word to play with these days.”
https://ew.com/britney-i-m-a-slave-4-u-writer-pharrell-wouldnt-use-slave-title-8710457
Pharrell, who wrote Britney Spears’ ‘I’m a Slave 4 U,’ says he wouldn’t use ‘slave’ in a song title today: “That’s not a word to play with these days.”
https://ew.com/britney-i-m-a-slave-4-u-writer-pharrell-wouldnt-use-slave-title-8710457
36 comments
I personally really like the song and am not offended by it, but I also think his stance is entirely valid and I totally respect where he’s coming from
“I just craaaaaave, you” problem solved. Hit my Venmo for tips….
Well it wasn’t a word to play with back then, but okay 😅 isn’t this why Janet turned it down
Lmao “these days” what are you talking about Pharrell??
It’s fine for any artist to have their own opinion about their art.
Still, literally zero people thought he meant chattel slavery and 99.9% of people understand that words, even spicy words, have more than one meaning and possibly dozens more meanings when you add in context.
Again, this guy can do what he wants but sounds more like he’s preaching that no artist should “play” with the word, which is puritan bullshit.
“But it was fine when I was making bank off it”
Come on seriously who the hell thought whatever the hell he’s talking about when the song came on. I was busy enjoying Britney Spears and not thinking the word was even remotely close to that. Sometimes people just confuse the shit out of me when it comes to things like this I don’t get it really.
Omg. Just stop. 🤦♂️ The word was used purposefully in the song to communicate the level of desire the singer had for the object of the song. It’s no deeper than that and even Pharrell knows this. No idea why he’s playing these games now. It doesn’t even come close to condoning actual slavery or hint that slavery is ok. It’s using exaggeration as a literary device. That’s it. Can’t help but notice he’s keeping all the money he made with using that word. 🙄
Maybe not get triggered so easily and understand the context of how the word is used. Censoring words can possibly backfire as the use of the word/term requires understanding of it. If we don’t remember or understand what a slave was, how do we recognise one today?
Society seems to be going backwards.
Wait until he finds out about the Nword
Sucker instead of slave.
Oh please, the word slave is not used a negative context in this song. This is like Lucasfilm renaming Boba Fett’s ship from Slave 1 to whatever the fuck it’s called now just because of the word “slave”
TIL he wrote that song. I had no idea!
The use of the word slave is very much alive and well in kink spaces. I don’t think anyone other than Pharrell has ever connected it to chattel slavery. Especially considering she was also running around in sexy Catholic school girl uniforms and pleather body suits and handling giant anacondas, like the subtext of fetishism was pretty overt.
And I guess we can get into the lofty conversations about unpacking the kink community’s tendency to fetishize the taboo and terrible, if we should treat misatribution of arousal as something normal or something we should keep on the margins, etc. but that seems above the pay grade of music producers and audiences tbh.
Like the actual conservatorship and economic exploitation of Britney Spears just objectively matters so much more than the 20 year old usage of the word slave. And I don’t think he’s ever spoken on that (and while not explicitly abusive, he’s been accused of some pretty shitty contract exploitation stuff himself) so this feels fairly hollow to me. Like he’s entitled to not use words he doesn’t like anymore obviously, but I just feel like theres not much sentiment or thought behind it other tjan “chattel slavery is really bad”, which yeah no shit. I think people thought that in 2001 too, which is why I don’t think anyone thought for a second that’s what the song was referencing?
He should be more embarrassed by Blurred Lines. Vile.
Hahaha what a moron trying way too hard to keep his irrelevant name in the news. Brave stop using the word after making millions off the song.
Pretty funny that a black guy has to assuage concerns of a liberal white audience about the use of a word that was used to denigrate his own people
He sounds like he just hangs out and does acid and mushrooms everyday
Yeah back in 2002 it was slave this, slave that, now you go around saying it you better watch out
I’ve very tired of this trend, can’t say or write. rape, suicide, domestic abuse and many other trigger words. Its a rough world people, if you get offended by common words and descriptions you are going to have a tough time.
Pharrell is on his way to being the Neil DeGrasse Tyson of hip-hop. Really smart but always says a bit too much and makes people roll their eyes. This is definitely one of those moments.
Looking forward to 2054 where saying ‘stupid’ gets you cancelled.
Hes full of it. Hes just less hungry now thats hes rich as hell.
I knew Pharrell wrote a lot of hits but this is new to me. I respect his reasoning.
I disagree with him very much, the context words are used in matter. but he can write whatever he wants.
Wait – people thought he meant “slave” slave?
Slave my favorite band of all time.
I was too young when this song came out to really have a strong opinion about the lyrics, but I totally see where he’s coming from now. There’s a reason Janet passed on the song (which I only learned in the last few years). The people bemoaning this should probably read the article, because he also talks about slavery in terms of sex trafficking. Seems like he thinks slavery shouldn’t be sung about in a frilly pop song, even if it was acceptable in the early 2000s. I don’t understand why people even have a problem with this. Pharrell has evolved, why can’t you?
….was it a word to play with in those days? Cos Im pretty sure slavery had still been a well known thing then too.
Things like this are just so dumb. Everyone knows what he actually means. No one is listening to the song and thinking about the horrible things that happened in Americas past and continues to happen around the world today.
We know what words mean inside their context.
“Im head over heels for you!” Then why are you not rolling around doing cartwheels?
“Im a sucker for a good burger!” Wouldnt it be easier to chew it?
“I love that dog!” You sick bastard!
“Im going to put dinner on.” Wouldnt rather put clothes on and eat the dinner?
How did we all get so sensitive to words? They are just words. Sounds. They have no power over us that we dont give them. We can certainly judge people who would use certain words in certain context, but we can understand those words when we have a different context.
“Id be that girl/guys sex slave!!!” We all know this is just a colourful way of saying that you find that person attractive, right? No one has their mouth gaped, thinking “omg, I cant believe X wants to sell themselves into slavery to Y!”…right?
I had no idea he wrote that. That’s cool. I get why he changed his mind on the lyrics. Obviously if the singer had been black the song would have felt a whole lot different.
I wonder if he saw someone singing it in a car or at karaoke and felt some kinda way about it.
So hard to take artists seriously when they say crazy shit like this
When did Pharrell write the song? 1860?
I’m a Stave 4 U. 2X4
TIL he wrote my favorite Britney song
I guess he saw another Ferrell getting media attention for saying something stupid about historic artistic work and said, “Hold my beer…”