We've all heard songs that make us shake our heads and think twice about what the artist was on when he/she wrote the lyrics.

I mean everyone likes to hear humor in a song every once in a while, keywords, once in a while. You all know the kind of songs i'm talking about, the one's where the artist actually crosses the line that divides "funny" and just plain dumb.

Take the song "shake ya tail feathers" by nelly, puffy,and murphy lee. Can anyone tell me what nelly meant when he said "is that your ass or your mama have reindeer"?

{note - ROTFLMAO - ed.}

When i sit back and think about it, i honestly believe that artists sometimes actually just make lyrics up to take up space on an album. And it wasn't just nelly. Dr. Dre once said "i get so much ass they call me an astronaut",i mean come on,what is that?!

{note - ROTFLMAO to the point of epilepsy- ed.}

and then you have mr. cheeks with "she said she wants to be a lawyer,in other words shorty studies law",well duh that wasn't too obvious or anything,someone give that guy a cookie.



Metaphors are a great tool in songs, but it usually helps when they make sense. Back in the day you saw a lot of artists saying stuff that didn't make any friggin sense at all,but it was expected,hip hop had just started. You've got to kinda look at it like this - when we're babies we babble alot,just alot of jibberish. But if we were to talk like that after the age of 5 people would think we had down syndrome.

Its the same way with lyrics,i can understand old hip-hop, they were just startin out, but the genres been around for 20+ years now, give me a break. So if you're gonna say something that doesn't make any sense,at least make the whole song humorous, don't throw a good song off with one bad line......

It means that 'is that your ass' = Is your butt really that big and 'or did your mama have a reindeer?' = because your ass is so big I thought your mother had given birth to a reindeer. Although I can't quite get the link between reindeer and big butt to be honest

In some warped way it makes some kind of sense I guess. Or maybe not...

This is not news. This is something that should be in a forum somewhere.

70's music and 60's music have weird symbolism for things and I don't hear people complaining.

Shut up.

This is what it means.

Are you just fat, or are you related to Santa Claus, who has reindeer, and also is fat.

I remember my dad saying the same thing in the 60's and 70's

ok go to dmusic's forums youll see there is a thread "worst rap lines", go there i dont see what this has to do with anything

Maybe it means you guys ate a reindeer for thanksgiving and thought it was a turkey.

Oh boy- and I thought rap music couldn't go any lower than that song:

My name is Larry and my brother's Harry and my mother's Mary and my sister's Shari... oh that was an awful song

and old school hip hop did make sense, maybe you just dont get it, and those were the best years of hip hop, if you go and listen to a rapper that sucks like nelly and mr cheeks of course you are going to find rhymes that suck or doesnt make sense and dr.dre is more of a producer than a rapper hes an ok rapper.

It's not just hip-hop that has weird lyrics. On the other hand, sometimes weirdness can rock. I'm a big fan of Talking Heads, and some of David Byrne and Chris Frantz's lyrics make absolutely no sense at all. Take the song "Burning Down the House": "Watch out, you might get what you're after, cool babies, strange but not a stranger." Makes absolutely no sense at all, but the music is still great.

In response to "is that your ass or your mama
have reindeer"?It's a joke on her mama and a
compliment on the girl he's talking to.

Nelly is well known for slang and dark tone words. Nelly is really saying: "is that your ass or your mama "HALF" reindeer"?
Nelly is joking asking the girl is her mama "HALF"reindeer because the girl's ass reminds him (In a joking way)of a reindeer's ass.

I can see from the comments that even the people who think they know what the ass and reindeer phrase meant don't as they obviously disagree with each other.....

And it is also true that lyrics have been placed by chance into songs so they fit the music for a long time.....The talking heads is a great example....but an even better one is REM. All of their songs from green make absolutely no sense at all. Self admitted by the lead singer himself.

So is it the music or the lyrics that make the song??

i think GMANgerald just broke it down for us on the ass half reindeer thingy.

I'm going to half to agree with Elu on this on. It's not about the lyrics. You don't hear the lyrics when you first hear a song. You hear the song and if the lyrics match the music as far as if they hit the beat right, or if what you mind is processing sounds like a good song. You have to really want to listen to the lyrics of a song to pick up the fact that some have bad lyrics (of course sometimes, they do just stand out). I bet half of you making jokes on these "verses with curses" probably had to read the lyrics in order to catch them, eh?

Well, I've said to much - this news article really does belong in the Board.

- Wes Hysell (DJ Hyse)

Mr. Cheeks is ill. And although that is a pretty stupid line, it makes sense. Your thread is supposed to pointing out lines that don't make sense so I don't know why you mentioned it. "Renee" is a classic song, and 90% of the rhymes are pretty simplistic. A song doesn't have to been complicated for it to be good. Cheeks tells a great story, and the song flows great as well.