{{{Article at mtv.com on artists with misspelled song titles: http://www.mtv.com/news/a...lines=true}}}

Y Kant Artists Spell? Christina, Jimmy Jam, K-Ci Explain
11.13.2002 7:53 AM EST

When informed of the title of Snoop Dogg's latest single, "From Tha Chuuuch to Da Palace," B2K's J-Boog mused, "In a minute, nobody's going to be speaking English anymore."

If music's growing leniency toward spelling is any indication, he could be on to something.

Scan the latest charts and you'll notice dozens of misspelled words, including some of the year's hottest singles — Nelly's "Hot in Herre," Avril Lavigne's "Sk8er Boi," Aaliyah's "I Care 4 U," 3LW's "Neva Get Enuf," LL Cool J's "Luv U Better" and Nappy Roots' "Po' Folks," to name a few.

And it's not just pop and rap. Country star Shania Twain's new single is "I'm Gonna Getcha Good!," while R&B singer Daniel Bedingfield's is "Gotta Get Thru This."

So what prompted this unusual trend? Elementary teachers everywhere will be happy to know it's not a case of our entertainer role models forgetting their ABCs.

Artists say it's about making songs their own.

"'Dirrty's spelled D-i-r-r-t-y was a way for me to kind of personalize it," Christina Aguilera explained of her sexy single, which she also considered spelling "Dirtee" and "Dirrdy." "I felt like having two r's, kind of like grrr, like when you say it you want to go, 'Dirrrty,' 'cause that's how it's supposed to be. Gritty, like the video, [with] underground, illegal stuff going on."

With thousands of new songs written every year, misspelling the titles has also become a way to stand out from the pack. According to an All Music Guide search, more than 30 artists have recorded a song called "Dirty." Only one has recorded a "Dirrty."

"I think what it does is it makes the song, or at least the title, inherent with the artist," explained producer Jimmy Jam (Janet Jackson, Mariah Carey). "When you see 'Hot in Herre' with two r's, you know it's Nelly. But you know there could be another song called 'Hot in Here.' When you see it spelled his way, you know it's Nelly."

Actually, there are two "Hot in Here"s by other artists, according to AMG. And, in the age of the Internet, "you have to pay attention to how the songs are spelled," Jimmy Jam pointed out. A recent Yahoo search for "Hot in Here" turned up 4,490,000 pages, while "Hot in Herre" turned up a more manageable 38,800 pages.

Misspellings are all the rage these days, but it's been around in music for decades. Bands have long spelled their names incorrectly, even the biggest band of all time, the Beatles. Now there's Korn, Musiq and Puddle of Mudd, to name a few.

As for song titles, though, the most influential misspeller was Prince, dating back to "Jack U Off" from his 1981 album, Controversy. Now all of his titles, liner notes and Web postings are written in his own shorthand spelling, as seen on 1999's Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic, which featured "Hot Wit U."

"I'm still trying to figure out what Prince does," said K-Ci of K-Ci & JoJo. "But I love it."

Hip-hop artists were quick to disregard traditional spelling, particularly N.W.A, whose 1987 self-titled album featured "Tuffest Man Alive" and whose 1998 disc, Straight Outta Compton, has "F--- Tha Police," "If It Ain't Ruff" and "I Ain't Tha 1."

Nowadays you'd be hard-pressed to find a rap album without "tha," "ya," "watcha," "gotta" or "wanna" on it, and the trend doesn't look to be going away anytime soon. (Interestingly, one of hip-hop's most influential groups, Run-DMC, never misspelled, even avoiding the common "sucka" on 1984's "Sucker MCs.")

"It gives a song a great deal of identity," explained K-Ci. "Like me, when I'm writing lyrics on a sheet of paper, if it's 'I Love You,' I don't write it like that."

Jimmy Jam, who said he doesn't think he's ever released a song that was misspelled, believes there's room for both proper and improper English.

"[Janet Jackson's] 'All for You' was going to be the number 4 on the original track sheet, but before we put it out we asked which way and she said normal," Jam recalled. "If it's for a gimmicky song, then I think she feels it's kind of cool, but if it's straightforward, let's do it normal. We don't want people to trip out on it."

'Cuz trippin' out would B badd.

—Corey Moss

when an Artist/Musician xpresses themselves they spell WOrds. in a way phonetically... the way it should b spelled.

as an xample u can spell "Bear - The Animal" or "Bare - as in Naked"...

i agree with that as being Ecclectic & just being Different. just like some1 who wears a SUIt everyday 2 work & some1 like P wearin what he wears EVERYDAY. (no suits or ties)...

Boy, this is something to really be proud of.

Yeah, once again Prince leads the way.
Brilliant musician, fine as hell and illiterate. Prince, you da man!

misssepllling iz fukkin dum!

PrincPDC said:

yeh, butt peple dig itt wheyn yew kan't spelll korectlee...



man, that wuz hard 2 "misspell" that...

shygirl said:

crackin the phuc up @ "fine as hell and illiterate"...yeah, phuc "hooked on phonics"!

Hawksley Workman does something cool, where his lyrics are spelled with a slash to show the two different meanings.

Like in the song "Clever Not Beautiful", he writes.

"Mountin'/Mountain up a notion/an ocean"

Why does MTV sound more stupid, day after day?

reading "Princebonics" (& all its immitators) is hard enough for me as a native-born US English speaker..

imagine how much harder it is for those for whom English is a foreign language..


The dumbing-down of this big, dominating, cultural gorilla continues..



maybe, instead of intentionally misspelling words (for who knows what effect), Prince should focus on making really good music, unlike most of what he's put out in the last 5 years..

I guess you haven't seen Prince in concert lately. He's making great music. Better than anything on Purple Rain.

Dickens did it first. See Great Expectations.

...and maybe those who criticize Prince's CHOSEN way to spell words in his lyrics should check their OWN spelling before they post, since I'm SURE their misspelled words are NOT intentional.

Well, thatz Prince's own uneeke way uv spellin. & Eye Luv It! It haz alwayz bin 1 uv hiz tr8demarx. All theze little MTV Kidz r jus now learnin how to m8ke their titlez eye catchin. Eye mean, since tha L8te 70'z Prince haz bin ontop uv hiz g8me. He mus b doin sumpin rite, rite?!

I Adore Prince, His Talents, and his genourosity to other artist whether up & coming, or already established. He is just demonstrating yet another example of "Love4oneanother"

Plus, Da Man just Kix Much A*#, especially LIVE. Thank You Prince for sharing yourself with me and all your loyal Fams!

Luv2UfromMe

Where's the CheechWizard when you need him.

eyelikefunkymusic said:

...that's just it.
it's Prince's trade marx, not urs, apparently.
TR8DEMARX? that should b TRAYEDMARX. OR TRADEMARX...THERE IS NO 8 N THAT WORD.

u get an F n Princebonics 1A EyeLikeFunkyMusic, and u also get this: ELFM-->

...and lighten up Mltijcri, most non-english speaking ppl r already master righters of PRINCEBONICS!
and they r not even trying 2 b.

Ur Angel rights n fluid Princebonics, or don't cha no? bisous