Bitches Ain't Shit

"Bitches Ain't Shit" is the final song of Dr. Dre's 1992 album ''The Chronic''. Though never a single, it was an underground hit that contributed significantly to the album's sales. In addition to Dre's verse, "Bitches Ain't Shit" also features Dat Nigga Daz, Kurupt and singer Jewell. It proved controversial due to its prevalent themes of misogyny.

Production

"Bitches Ain't Shit" was originally a hidden track, but was added to the cover art from the 2001 reissue onwards. It was a last-minute replacement for "Deep Cover", which the label felt was too risky to release on ''The Chronic'' in the wake of the " Cop Killer" controversy.

The song is written in the G-funk style which Dre pioneered, including a bass riff interpolated from Funkadelic's " Adolescent Funk" and a whistle synthesiser riff in the "Funky Worm" style, plus samples from MC Shan's "The Bridge" and Trouble Funk's "Let's Get Small".

Bassist Colin Wolfe later recalled: "One day, I was alone in the control room and Dre and Daz were up in the back room, trying to mess around on the keyboard for the 'Bitches Ain't Shit' bass line. So I stepped in the doorway and I could hear what they were trying to do. I said, 'Man, look out, y'all trying to do this.' I straight did it, recorded it, and then I was like, 'Yo, I got another part,' and did the high Moog part right after that."

Lyrics

The song opens with the lines:

These lyrics have become well-known in pop culture and hip-hop history as an example of misogyny.

Dre's verse was ghostwritten by the D.O.C., a rapper whom Dre discovered in Dallas and who helped him form Death Row Records. It never directly comments on women, but is actually instead intended as a diss towards Eazy-E who is referred to as a "bitch" and by his legal name Eric Wright. The "white bitch" refers to manager Jerry Heller.

Daz's verse continues the anti-Eazy sentiment, while Kurupt's focuses more on his resentment of women and sex workers. Snoop's verse tells the story of being released from prison and learning that his girlfriend Mandy May has been unfaithful, then going to her house to seek revenge only to learn that his cousin Daz is the culprit.

Eazy would later retort to the song with "Real Muthaphuckkin G's", which became his biggest solo hit.

Critical reception

The song, and ''The Chronic'' in general, was released in the context of a moral panic about rap music in which the Parents Music Resource Center's " Parental Advisory" labels became prominent, a court case which deemed 2 Live Crew's ''As Nasty as They Wanna Be'' album obscene, the Rodney King riots, a backlash against gangster rap from Harlem preacher Reverend Calvin Butts and a number of high-profile legal proceedings against rappers, including Tupac Shakur and Dre himself for his assault of Dee Barnes. In Harlem, T-shirts reading "Bitches ain't shit but hoes and tricks" were sold on the street as a response to Butts' attacks.

Criticism of the genre began to target from not just the violent but also the misogynistic content. Kyra Gaunt's ''The Games Black Girls Play'' quotes a Black woman named Malike's opinion on the song from 1993: "I don't admit to liking it because it is downing women in everything that the song says. I shouldn't like it, but I love the song 'cause it's the jam." Gaunt then comments that "(Black) women appear to be dissociating themselves from the misogynistic lyrics, but their stance leaves them looking like they are afraid to criticize Black men in public. It also leaves them looking like their participation is all about the body, not the lyrics."

When Snoop was later questioned about his use of the word "bitch" by Kevin Powell, he responded: "It's just a word, you know, that you grew up with. It's some shit that's hard to shake." Ice-T later compared it to the words "nigga" and "ho", arguing that the context was important and adding that he had often heard women say "All men are dogs".

In September 1993, C. Delores Tucker, chair and 1984 founder of the National Political Congress of Black Women, a lobbying group in Washington, DC, was critical of "Bitches Ain't Shit" and demanded Congressional hearings into the genre of gangster rap.

In October 1993, rap journalist Dream Hampton called the song "the best on the best album of a pretty slow year."Dream Hampton
"Dreaming America—hip hop culture"
''Spin'', 1993 Oct;9(7):111.

In 1999, rap magazine ''Ego Trip'' named "16 Memorable Misogynist Rap Music Moments" and put "Bitches Ain't Shit" at #2.Ego Trip's Book of Rap Lists (New York: St. Martin's Griffin Press, 1999), p 40.

In the 2006 film ''Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes'', Jadakiss said about the song: "This shit is entertainment. If it was so bad like that, Snoop wouldn't have no fans or nothing like that. Snoop has been talking that 'Bitches Ain't Shit' shit since the beginning of time. (Women) want to hear that. They the main ones out there."

In 2008, ''The Source'' chief editor Kim Osario recalled: "Once Snoop said, 'Bitches ain't shit,' it was a wrap for us."Kim Osorio, ''Straight from'' The Source'': An Expose from the Former Editor-in-Chief of the Hip-Hop Bible'' (New York: Pocket Books, 2008)
p 15

In a 2012 article commemorating the album's 20th anniversary, ''Billboard'' commented that misogyny is the album's elephant in the room and that "women are treated like disposable sperm receptacles".

Answer songs and remixes

In 1999, Trina recorded an answer song called "Da Baddest Bitch" with the line: "Niggas ain't shit but hoes and tricks/Lick the pearl tongue, nigga, keep your dick/Get the fuck out after I cum, so I can hop in my coupé and make a quick run". In 2000, Lil' Kim also answered with "Suck My Dick": "Niggas ain't shit, but they still can trick/All they can do for me is suck my clit/I'm jumping the fuck up after I cum/Thinking they gon' get some pussy, but they gets none".

In 2001, Dipset's mixtape ''Diplomats Volume 1'' offered a synthesis, "Bitches Ain't Shit (Remix)". In 2010, Boosie's mixtape ''Gone Til' December'' included "Niggas Ain't Shit". In 2011, YG's mixtape ''Just Re Up'd'' featured a new version of "Bitches Ain't Shit" with Tyga and Nipsey Hussle that samples the original and reached #90 on the Billboard Hot 100. Outside of these notable versions, "Bitches Ain't Shit" has been sampled many times over the years and has become a pop culture staple.

Ben Folds version

The Ben Folds version of "Bitches Ain't Shit" was first released as the B-side to his 2005 single " Landed". It was also later included on '' Supersunnyspeedgraphic'' and as a bonus track on the vinyl edition of ''Songs for Silverman''.

Folds' version is a new composition featuring melancholy piano chords in a minor key, and in which only Dre and Snoop's verses feature. He originally wanted to cover Public Enemy's 1990 song "Can't Do Nuttin' for Ya, Man" but found it "too symmetrical for a good melody". He then settled on "Bitches Ain't Shit", feeling it had similarities with a country song by Johnny Cash or a scene from a film by Quentin Tarantino.

Folds' version drew criticism both for amplifying the misogyny of the original and for his intact use of the word "nigga", as he is a white man. While opening for John Mayer in 2007, Folds' performance of "Bitches Ain't Shit" was often booed by the audience. He would spitefully respond by playing it again or even a third time. Folds later noted that the mostly white audiences were in his view offended only by "the dick-sucking stuff... Those white people were not concerned with the N-word at all. But me saying profanity, that’s simply something they don’t approve of. It’s not something that makes them feel bad."

In 2012, L.V. Anderson wrote in ''Slate'' that Folds' cover "was part of an ugly mini-trend (of ironic hip-hop covers) in alternative pop... this bit of quasi-minstrelsy ostensibly pokes fun at Folds’ whiteness, but comes across as sneeringly chauvinistic".

By 2019, Folds had decided to stop performing the song. He explained:

In 2020, in the midst of the Black Lives Matter protests following the murder of George Floyd, Folds decided to also remove the song from streaming services:

Notes

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1992 songs
Dr. Dre songs
Snoop Dogg songs
Kurupt songs
Songs written by Dr. Dre
Songs written by Daz Dillinger
Songs written by Jewell (singer)
Songs written by Kurupt
Songs written by Snoop Dogg
Songs written by The D.O.C.
Song recordings produced by Dr. Dre
Ben Folds songs
2005 singles
Diss tracks
Obscenity controversies in music