A weblog by Ernie Hsiung

The boyfriend and I, there are some things we have in common. And there’s some stuff where we’re… uhmm… pretty different.

The setting: in the car with Mike, listening to a CD of Gang Starr.

... Cause without some of them
I wouldn't be here
And they all know how I feel
Cause suckers be like playin themselves
to have Massengill

Ernie: Well, that’s pretty weird.
Mike: What is?
Ernie: They’re giving props to douche?
Mike: … what are you talking about?
Ernie: “…suckas be like playin themselves to have Massengill.”
Mike: Wow. Just… wow.
Ernie:
Mike: Massengill? MASSENGILL? He’s saying “mass appeal.” “Playin themselves to have mass appeal.”
Ernie: C’mon, man. I don’t listen to hip-hop that much…

Mike: (looking incredulous)
Ernie: Soo, you wanna grab a bite to eat?
Mike: Massengil. I mean, WOW.

This happened a week ago, and he still hasn’t stopped laughing at me with me at me.

§1384 · June 16, 2003 · Uncategorized · · [Print]

39 Comments to “your hiphop-fu is weak, young grasshoppa”

  1. Mir says:

    Ernie, did you have that “not fresh” feeling when you were listening to the rap song?

  2. Mir says:

    Hi thess!

    Man, they’ve had the same picture on the box since I was a little kid…that was like…erm…20 years ago.

    *Cough*

  3. I’m with you Ernie, I feel your pain. The girlfriend enjoys gangsta rap and heavy metal (on occasion) and I don’t get half of what they’re saying.

    Of course there’s also something a little off about listening to my femenine half singing, “and I slap that ho bitch ass down…”

  4. Ken says:

    Ernie, you need to hang on to that rhyme for your own hip-hop career.

    Suckas step up and I gotta get ill,
    Cleanin’ out pussies like Massengill.

    Then again…

  5. The Narrator says:

    Where are the other pics from your Orlando trip?

  6. ernie says:

    Narrator: they’re uploaded, but they haven’t been properly thumbnailed / captioned / censored yet. (never get me drunk off my one Shmirnoff Ice)

  7. lil says:

    It’s OK, Ern. That’s totally something I would hear also. I also dated a guy who thought that “Ev’ry time you go away, you take a piece of me with you” was “…you take a piece of meat with you.”

  8. Eddie D. says:

    That reminds me of an Ellen DeGeneres bit about singing along to Billy Joel. Apparently, she thought “Keepin’ the Faith” was “Kicked in the face.”
    “Whoa, oh, oh… kicked in the face”

  9. Brendyn says:

    Yeah…I think the worst part is you knew the exact product name of a douche with a touch of vinegar. Why/how on earth would you know that?

  10. ernie says:

    dude, doesn’t EVERYONE know about Massengill?

    *ernie pauses, crickets chirping*

  11. DK says:

    this book is for you, man

    http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0684825090/qid=1055798061/sr=8-4/ref=sr_8_4/002-3793158-6760857?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

    I have it already. I should add yours in there. Seriously, Massengill? wtf

  12. bob says:

    i went to see “coming out of hiding” Pamela Stanley sing in a club and she told everyone that someone asked her to sing her hit song “aluminum siding”…. and she said, What?????
    it was hilarious! when she sang “coming out of hiding” she sang “aluminum siding” instead….. god, i sure hope anyone reading this knows what i am talking about…..

  13. Cheryll says:

    Maaaan, Ernie, don’t ever get me in a room with you and your man or else it might just turn into an Ernie-clown-session. Of course, I’m sure you could more than school him on some Hikaru Utada lyrics… what! what!

  14. mike biggz says:

    Well he still gets mega points for knowing “ex-girl to the next girl” and “Dwyck” by Gangstarr. Plus everytime I play De la Soul, he sings along with “Ring, ring, ring” which brings a big smile to my face ;)

    Hey we all fuck up classic songs, for instance…
    I remember back in the day, when Janet Jackson released “When I think of you” the line in the chorus “Ooh, so in love, Ooooh so in love”…I thought she said “Oooh soak n’ scrub, ooh! soak n’ scrub”

    I was like, what does cleaning have to do with this song? Is she a maid madly in love?

    But that was 86 and I was like 11. But yeah Mass Appeal, baby, mass appeal. No love lost boo!

    -Mizzle fa shizzle!

  15. gwen says:

    You’re not alone. I know that album backwards and forwards and *I* thought it was Massengil til I read this, and I’m not entirely convinced it’s not. Some of those poet-rapper types come up with some odd metaphors.

  16. jOn says:

    u learn something new everyday, who knew…massengil?

  17. hieu says:

    When I was a kid, I thought that Smashing Pumpkins’”Butterfly With Bullet Wings” had this chorus:

    …despite all my rage, I’m still just a radish enraged…

    as opposed to

    …despite all my rage, I’m still just a rat in a cage..

    You know, *I* identify with short tempered edible roots all of the time.. ^_~

  18. arlyn says:

    i’m laughing at, uh, with, er, at, with, uhm, at…….i’m laughing.
    love this site. why can’t i have friends like you????????????

  19. Ernie, that is SOOO something I would have done.

    If you don’t believe me, my Hunny will verify some of the stupid lyrics I thought people were singing.

    Like there’s this one song where a guy was singing about “this girl” and I kept think the song was about “the squirrel.”

  20. tom says:

    Thanks for a good laugh – it came when I really needed one. If it makes you feel any better, I would proabily have done the smae thing. But, as a somewhat older white guy, I’m not expected to understand the lyrics.

  21. nah. we are just laughing NEAR you.

  22. boing says:

    I do the same thing, but on purpose when my bf listens to his cantonese pop. For me it is a game like surrealist translation.

  23. Lauren says:

    Hee! Reminds me of a friend of mine who had the lyrics to a J.Lo song messed up. She had the wrong kind of girl power idea going when she heard “if i wanna floss, I got my own” in Love Don’t Cost a Thing.

    “Yeah, girl, you don’t need to borrow crap from his bathroom. You can use your own stuff or stay at your own place.”

    I only wish I’d made that up. I felt so bad for giggling while I had to correct her.

    But yeah, I would wish that you actually did know that Gangstarr song and thought that your lyrics were the right version. I’d pay ten bucks to see you rappin’ all hard about douche. LOL

  24. Christin says:

    But it IS “If I wanna floss I got my own”… :/

  25. Melody says:

    I used to think the song Paradise City was actually Very Nice City.

    OK. Actually, I thought that until last week when it came on the radio, and my girlfriend caught me singing Take me down to a very nice city…

    We had to stop the car.

  26. Joey says:

    Ernie – I came across this website like a year ago and got hooked. You’re hilarious! You’re also not alone in musical misinterpretations; you know the song “Rapture”? Good song, right? A little weird, though, if you hear the lyrics, as I do, as “rabbit tastes so sweet.” For all I know, that could be accurate, but trance seems like a strange forum for an epicure’s commentary. lol!

  27. Cornelia says:

    That would be called a Lady Mondegreen.
    Pardon me while I kiss the sky. (aka Kiss this guy) : )

  28. Agatha says:

    Ya gots to give the props to douche and ya gots to have da paper.

  29. Koopa says:

    Ill share one too… In Sophie B. Hawkins “As I Lay Me Down”, I always thought the background singers in the chorus were singing “Who likes tacos?”

  30. Julie Moore says:

    This is entirely unrelated Ernie, but I thought you’d really enjoy this:

    Mac Killed My Inner Child.
    :)

    Jules

  31. Chris Shieh says:

    Wait, I think your mistake was defensible. You probably own or at least have heard De La Soul Is Dead which has the song “Bitties in the BK Lounge”, which has the following lyrics:

    Speaking of fat, would you like a diet soda?Cause less fat on you would spare us all the odorOr better yet pour it down your pantsAnd let the acid kill the smellThat should have been left to Massengill

    So, there was a precedent.

  32. Lauren says:

    “But it IS ‘If I wanna floss I got my own’… :/”

    Yeah, but my friend thought it was about dental floss. Hence the bathroom remark.

    … you didn’t think it was about *dental* floss, did you?

  33. ernie says:

    uhmm.. it’s not about dental floss?

  34. walter says:

    Two things:
    1. http://www.kissthisguy.com

    2. This blog reminds me of the blog surrounding Prince and his song titles [The Artist Formerly Known As The Artist Formerly Known As Prince]

  35. maggie says:

    George Michael’s “Father Figure”… “greet me with the eyes of a child” sounds too much like “rape me with the eyes of a child”. Freaked me out for a long time.

  36. Pearl says:

    When I was a kid, I thought the lyrics to the Flashdance song were not “Take your passion and make it happen” but “Take your pants off and make it happen”. I could never figure out WHAT you were supposed to make happen without your pants… although now, it makes more sense. I used to think I was stupid until I told this story in college and my RA said, “wait, that’s not what she is saying?” She was totally serious. Also, my friend thought the lyrics to En Vogue’s “Don’t let go” were “don’t you want to be old and frail”… I think everyone has a story like that.