10 Disturbing 90s Songs That Hit Different Today

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They sounded like hits back then — but now they’re seriously unsettling. Welcome to WatchMojo, where we’re counting down the 10 most disturbing 90s songs because of what we know now, from tracks with dark hidden meanings to songs linked with shocking real-life events.  Which 90s song do you think aged the worst? Tell us in the comments!

Transcript

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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09:23If you're on your phone, make sure you go into your settings and switch on notifications.

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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