00:00Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're breaking down songs released between 1990 to 1999 that
00:13have taken on a darker meaning in the years following their initial release.
00:17Out of respect for those involved, all entries to follow are unranked and listed in chronological
00:24order.
00:30Come As You Are, Nirvana
00:33Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain was widely noted for his dark, often cryptic songwriting style.
00:48This, combined with his keen instinct for Beatle-esque pop hooks, captivated the public's
00:53imagination, along with the tight musicianship of bassist Chris Novoselic and drummer Dave
00:58Grohl.
00:59Come As You Are is a shining example of this, combining all of the above traits and executing
01:05them masterfully.
01:06Cobain's 1994 passing devastated not only the band's fans, but music fans en masse, who
01:13looked to the Washington natives' lyrics for answers.
01:17Once again, Come As You Are stood out within Nirvana's discography, largely for its tragically
01:23prescient hook, in which Cobain declared that he didn't have a gun.
01:29Age Ain't Nothin' But A Number
01:34Aaliyah
01:35We have just two words that will answer any questions you might have.
01:46R. Kelly
01:4715-year-old R&B-slash-pop prodigy Aaliyah was taken on by the Pied Piper himself in a mentor-mentee
01:55relationship that very quickly deteriorated into something much more sinister.
02:00The two secretly wed while working on Aaliyah's debut album, which shares its title with this
02:11song in 1994.
02:13The marriage was annulled the following year by her parents due to her age at the time.
02:18Knowing that leads modern-day listeners to hear age ain't nothin' but a number in a different,
02:24wildly off-putting light.
02:26There I am, and there you are.
02:31Bump and Grind, R. Kelly.
02:33But my body, my body's telling me it hurts.
02:40Remember Kelly from the last entry?
02:42As you might have guessed, he managed to get himself into even more trouble than when he
02:47convinced an underage girl to marry him.
02:57While 1994's Bump and Grind might have worked as a playful, if deeply corny, plea to shed
03:03a potential lover's inhibitions, Kelly's misconduct in the following decades makes the song read
03:09as a serial abuser's manifesto.
03:11Accused of nearly 30 years' worth of disturbing misconduct, the R&B giant was indicted and
03:17arrested on federal racketeering and human trafficking charges in 2019, making Bump and Grind an endurance
03:24test for listeners.
03:26Robert.
03:2730 years of my career!
03:30Y'all trying to kill me!
03:33You're killing me, man!
03:35This ain't not about music!
03:37Nutshell, Alice in Chains.
03:47Much like Kurt Cobain, his contemporary, Alice in Chains frontman Lane Staley, struggled with
03:54substance use disorder and ongoing mental health issues.
03:58This was reflected in his songwriting, which often resulted in raw, vulnerable lyrics like
04:04those found in Nutshell, a deep cut from the band's 1994 EP, Jar of Flies.
04:10The singer later passed away from an overdose in 2002, making Nutshell's already intensely
04:16personal lyrics hit even harder.
04:27Tragically, Staley wouldn't be the last founding Alice in Chains member to lose his life in such
04:32way. Original bassist Mike Starr died in 2011, also of an overdose.
04:39Jerry Cantrell, the band's guitarist and alternate lead singer, now dedicates performances
04:44of Nutshell to his fallen bandmates.
04:47Suicidal Thoughts
04:54The Notorious B.I.G.
05:01Even during his lifetime, Biggie Smalls made Death an integral theme of his music.
05:06This is evident from the titles of his two albums, 1994's Ready to Die and 1997's Life After Death.
05:15For a clear example of this, look to this pitch-dark track from the former album.
05:25Biggie describes his own hellish version of It's a Wonderful Life, in which the rapper
05:31fantasizes about and considers his own death. The hip-hop icon was gunned down just over two
05:37weeks before the release of his second record, making Ready to Die, B.I.G.'s only album to be
05:43released during his lifetime.
05:45Forgive me for my disrespect, forgive me for my lies. My baby mother's eight months,
05:50my little sister's two, who's to blame for both of them?
05:52So Many Tears
05:54Tupac
05:55Back in elementary, I thrived on misery. Left me alone, I grew up amongst a dime
06:02brief.
06:02Much like his contemporary arch-rival, Biggie Smalls, Tupac Shakur seemed to be preoccupied with
06:09death and dying. This was most commonly in the context of the Los Angeles gang violence he
06:15so often lamented, but he often contemplated his own passing. So Many Tears stands out in the rapper's
06:22catalogue and its crystallization of themes the influential performer often covered.
06:32Notably, the song features Pac bluntly addressing his personal desire to end his life,
06:37as noted by Rolling Stone's Chio H. Coker. So Many Tears deals with the senseless violence that
06:44marked his childhood, but with the internal demons that threatened to consume him, snapping at his
06:49conscience like hellhounds on a blues man's trail.
06:59Pretty News
07:00Soundgarden
07:01In what emerged as a heartbreakingly common pattern for grunge frontmen, Soundgarden and
07:14Audioslave lead singer Chris Cornell's death was untimely. The Black Hole Sun vocalist took his own
07:20life after a 2017 concert in Detroit. While Audioslaves later, like a stone, might hit harder for
07:28Cornell's fans who are still mourning, Pretty News catches its eye due to its unfortunate association
07:35with the method by which Cornell ended it all.
07:45However, beside that, the song otherwise bears no indication of ideation. Cornell once described
07:52Pretty News as being about an attractively packaged bad idea, something that seems great at first,
07:58and then comes back to bite you.
08:06Morphine
08:06Michael Jackson
08:15While King of Pop Michael Jackson had experimented with heavier styles of music before,
08:20Morphine stands out as a groovy, distorted, almost industrial jam that almost recalls Trent
08:26Reznor's Nine Inch Nails. In line with Jackson's songwriting during the 90s, Morphine is a scathing
08:33indictment of media scrutiny regarding his well-documented personal life, acting as an impassioned plea
08:39for privacy on the singer's parts. While already a difficult listen at the time of its release,
08:52it took an even darker layer following Jackson's 2009 death, the result of acute propofol intoxication.
08:59This was later ruled as involuntary manslaughter on the part of Conrad Murray, his personal physician.
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09:29Satisfy You
09:31Diddy featuring R. Kelly
09:32Somehow, two of the biggest figures in 90s hip-hop and R&B turned out to be two of the most sinister
09:44villains of the decades since. And in an entirely predictable yet super creepy turn of events,
09:50their collaboration Satisfy You has aged, well, about as well as you might expect, which is to say,
09:57like milk. Over a barely tweaked instrumental sample of I Got Five on it by Looneyz, Kelly and
10:11Sean Diddy Combs desperately plead with a romantic interest to break up with her significant other.
10:17Knowing the extent of the musician's misconduct will have you shuddering after the fact, particularly
10:22Combs' assertion that, I'm the feeling that you can't leave.
10:34Which 90s song is hard for you to hear nowadays? Be sure to let us know in the comments.
10:48Is
10:54a
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