Skip to playerSkip to main content
  • 12 hours ago
We couldn’t resist singing along to these catchy tunes, even though the lyrics were way too adult for our ears back then. From innocent-sounding pop bops to songs packed with suggestive metaphors, these hits had us hooked without us really understanding what we were listening to. Get ready to revisit some nostalgic tracks that had us jamming, all while wondering how we ever got away with it!

Category

🗞
News
Transcript
00:00Make you scream, make you scream, cause of my heart
00:03Welcome to Ms. Mojo
00:05And today we're counting down our picks for the radio hits that had us singing along to lyrics that were
00:11way too grown for us
00:12Have some fun, this beat is sick
00:15I wanna take a ride on a disco stick
00:18Number 10, Peacock, Katy Perry
00:21Wanna see your peacock, cock, cock, your peacock, cock
00:25This is one of those songs where the meaning is obvious
00:28But you also get the plausible deniability
00:30She wants to see your peacock
00:32What's wrong with that?
00:33Who are you to say that Katy Perry isn't really just interested in ornithology?
00:45Like much of her music during that time
00:48It's bubbly, buoyant, and almost naive sounding
00:51Even with that, there's no escaping the real meaning behind Peacock
01:01Dressing up such a suggestive idea in an innocent sounding cheer is kind of ingenious
01:06It broadens its appeal and makes it much easier for young ears to respond
01:10It is one of those songs that might have an obvious innuendo in it
01:17It's really a cute song
01:20Number 9, Get Low
01:22Lil Jon and the East Side Boys featuring Ying Yang Twins
01:31This really explicit early 2000s hit popularized the crunk genre in the mainstream
01:36The chorus starts with, to the window, to the wall
01:39We'll let you fill in the rest
01:41We know you remember it
01:45Get Low has some of the most memorable lines of any song of the era
01:53There's even a call and response structure that makes it impossible not to sing along
01:57Not that we had any business singing along to it
02:05Even in its less explicit radio edit
02:09Get Low includes at least one vulgar euphemism that got past the censors
02:18Number 8, Blame It
02:21Jamie Foxx featuring T-Pain
02:28There are plenty of songs about excessive drinking and impulsive behavior
02:32But none quite as easy to sing along to
02:34Blame It is an ode to overflowing alcohol, backseat liaisons, and impaired judgment
02:48Jamie Foxx and T-Pain made it all sound so cool
02:51The repetitive chorus just lodges in your brain even more
03:02Bumping this track gave a lot of us a window into a world we were still a few years away
03:06from experiencing
03:07In our defense, there are adults who probably don't recognize how questionable some of the antics in this song are
03:13You see the video? It's like us, I'm just like trying to be hard and I'm just like rolling like
03:18this
03:18And it's just all of us going
03:23Number 7, Genie in a Bottle
03:25Christina Aguilera
03:32Like many of the pop girlies of the late 90s and early 2000s, Christina Aguilera's image was about merging youthful
03:39femininity and sexual confidence
03:41There's a streak of self-determination in Genie in a Bottle
03:52It's as much about tantalizing a potential lover as it is about advocating for her own pleasure
03:58Of course, that's a pretty intellectual view of a song that we just uncritically added to the playlist of our
04:03childhood
04:09The song's images of physical touch and repression are all tied to the central metaphor
04:13But even in isolation, they're pretty steamy stuff
04:22Number 6, It Wasn't Me
04:24Shaggy featuring Ricardo, Rick Rock, Ducent
04:35A catchy enough song can make you glaze right over the lyrics
04:38In It Wasn't Me, the narrator and his friend come up with myriad ways to throw a woman off the
04:44scent when you're being unfaithful to her
04:53Where other songs might take these themes seriously, this track finds humor and mischief in them
05:02When you grow up a little and learn a few things about relationships
05:09This is one of those songs you go back to and wonder what about it spoke to you when you
05:14were young
05:14Let's just hope its message didn't take
05:25Number 5, Candy Shop
05:2850 Cent featuring Olivia
05:36Like any great poem, sometimes a song finds fun and interesting ways to say something without saying it
05:43Candy Shop's metaphor works on multiple levels
05:5250 Cent actually devised the track as a challenge to himself
05:56Could he write an intensely sexual song without having to be vulgar or obscene?
06:01Mixing the sweet, innocent imagery of candy and sweets with an undercurrent of sensuality fits the bill
06:07Cause I ain't never put it down like
06:09As soon as I come through the door she'll get to pulling on my zipper
06:11It's like it's a race who could get undressed quicker
06:14Yeah, it's pretty obvious when you're an adult
06:16If you're young enough though, it might be easy to take the lyrics about lollipops at face value
06:21And maybe that's for the best
06:22You can have it your way
06:25How do you want it?
06:26Gonna back that thing up or should I push up on it?
06:29Number 4, Love Game
06:31Lady Gaga
06:39Once upon a time, there was a brand new artist with an interesting name and even more out there fashions
06:44One of Lady Gaga's earliest singles doesn't leave a lot to the imagination
06:56Love Game has some of the best hooks on her debut album
06:59But she also had a singing about disco sticks
07:02What could she possibly mean by that?
07:05Maybe it's our minds that are in the gutter
07:07Because the lyric in the song is
07:09Do you want love or do you want fame?
07:11So I have a torrid, torrid, torrid love triangle
07:14Between love, fame and myself
07:17Surely this is a song about having fun at the club with your friends
07:20We're gonna choose to live in ignorance just like our parents did in 2009
07:32Number 3, Work It, Missy Elliott
07:42Fewer Y2K era songs were so well written yet so full of filth
07:47Work It is a masterclass in R-rated poetry
07:50Missy Elliott doesn't get the credit for how layered, complex and hilarious her rhymes are
07:55Even if they are full of adult-oriented meaning
07:58And that goes for the words that aren't hidden behind that elephant sound
08:02Is it worth it? Let me work it
08:04I put my thing down, flip it and reverse it
08:06It's kind of impressive what she gets away with in these words
08:09It's not all that explicit, but it is as suggestive as it gets
08:18This may not be for kids, but it didn't stop us from jamming out to it
08:22Who didn't see child performer Alison Stoner's dance in the music video
08:26And wonder if that could be us someday?
08:29It's worth it, let me work it
08:30I put my thing down, flip it and reverse it
08:33Number 2, S&M, Rihanna
08:36Yeah, the clue here was in the title
08:42Rihanna's absolute bop from 2011 was originally envisioned for Britney Spears
08:47But by the time it was released, the Umbrella hitmaker had put her own spin on it
08:51Don't rip it back, but I'm perfectly good at it
08:56To me, yeah, I don't care, I love the smell of it
08:59Obviously, the whips, chains and other taboo sexual imagery
09:03Are what lands this squarely in the inappropriate column
09:06So much so that we can't even show you most of the music video
09:10Without YouTube flagging us for it
09:11Not that Rihanna has ever not been for adults
09:21Still, this one takes the cake
09:22If only it weren't so fun to sing
09:25Provocative, knowingly naughty, and well-produced
09:28It was like catnip when we were still learning about the birds and the bees
09:39If you love games, be sure to check out WatchMojo's new game, Terrible Influence
09:44Just launched for purchase at terribleinfluence.com
09:47Terrible Influence is a satirical board game about the dark side of fame
09:50From the writer of the most popular girls in school and us, WatchMojo
09:57Click on the link in the description to check out the game
10:00And be the first to play Terrible Influence
10:14If you put a catchy enough beat behind a song, you can get away with a lot
10:18At first listen, My Humps by the Black Eyed Peas just sounds a lot like any other bouncy
10:23And repetitive pop song
10:32Sure, there's the overarching theme of materialism and money
10:36That's not exactly imparting a wonderful message
10:39Radio-friendly references to lovely lady lumps
10:42And all that junk inside your trunk
10:44Were not quite as innocent as we may have first thought
10:54It didn't stop us from bumping it on our iPods
10:57Or getting it played at the middle school dance
11:07What inappropriate songs were you bumping when you were too young to understand them?
11:11Let us know in the comments
11:13Stay tuned
11:13Take care
11:13Let us know in the comments
11:14DC
11:14Public
11:14Public
11:14Public
11:14Public
11:16Public
11:16Public
11:17State
Comments

Recommended