The 2000s was such a glorious time for music wasn't it? From hits like "Stacy's Mom", the best from Britney Spears, to Kayne West and Jamie Foxx's "Gold Digger", us millennials were set with harmless, completely appropriate, musical gold. Or, so we thought. Looking back at some of the songs we listened to and sang at the top of our lungs with friends and hummed while doing homework or assigned chores, may not have been so innocently crafted as we would have believed. You might find yourself a little embarrassed when you read the list of songs, and some of their contained lyrics, your pre-pubescent self-sang in front of your grandmother and throughout the grocery store.
1. Lady Gaga- "Love Game"
"Love Game" appeared on Lady Gaga's debut studio album, The Fame in 2008. Radio listeners of all ages caught on to the song's catchy lyrics fast, but maybe the less than mature fans did not quite realize the raunchiness of Mother Monster's lyrics. This includes the opening line, and perhaps one of the most catchy of all: "Let's have some fun this beat is sick, I wanna take a ride on your disco stick". Yeah, cue the red faces.
2. Asher Roth- "I Love College"
Everyone loved this song when it came out and it had even us youngins dreaming of life in college. While the words are definitely less coded than that of Lady Gaga's "Love Game", you still probably weren't entirely aware of what you were singing; including moments of, to put it delicately, sexual relations, contraception, and lots and lots of alcohol. My mother reads my Odyssey posts, so I'll provide you the song's lewd lyrics link here and you may relive this 2009, uhm not so appropriate song of your childhood.
3. Lil Wayne- "Lollipop"
If you were anything like me, you probably heard Lil Wayne's 2008 hit "Lollipop" and didn't think it had anything to do with sex, but instead pictured a wonderful, bright colored candy on a stick. Wrong. As of most the songs you sang of your childhood unless you learned them at church camp, you were singing a string of obscene sexual similes, metaphors, analogies, puns, not a song about candy.
4. Shaggy- "It Wasn't Me"
Yeah, this one is just bad. I really don't know A) how we got away with singing lyrics like those found in Shaggy's extremely sexually suggestive "It Wasn't Me", including the various locations and instances he was caught with another woman and B) how we didn't realize this is probably a bad song to sing at volleyball camp. We should be ashamed.
5. Young Money x Lloyd- "Bedrock"
Now that we're all grown you would think it obvious that this song is a little less than appropriate and probably not something a fourteen-year-old should have set as their ringtone on their Nokia track phone. Yeah, my mother was mortified when my phone buzzed and boomed the lyrics "my room is the g spot, call me Mr. Flintstone, I can make your bed rock" at the grocery checkout.
6. Usher Feat. Lil Jon & Ludacris- "Yeah!"
Between the three Usher, Lil Jon, and Ludacris you really don't get much of a break from the borderline stripping and sex references, but thankfully I basically just knew the chorus, which consisted of yelling the word "yeah". It's still bad, isn't it?
7. Ray J. -"Sexy Can I"
Even if you had what they call the "clean" version of "Sexy Can I" on your little iPod Nano, this song was certainly not made for middle schoolers. If you had the explicit version, this may have been your first time hearing a few X-rated words.
8. Fergie -"London Bridge"
How many of you actually just visualized a bridge in London falling down when Fergie sang about her London bridge going down? Yeah, not quite what she meant. The opening lyrics may have been a good sign that this song was a little raunchy.
9. The Black Eyes Peas- "My Humps"
I probably don't really need to explain this one, hence the title "My Humps". Although, you probably didn't even know what you were singing about. I pictured some sort of women-camel hybrid when I sang along to this as a kid. I was pretty surprised/embarrassed to learn the true meaning of "lady lumps" a few years later.
10. T Pain- "I'm In Love With A Stripper"
Again, the title sort of says it all, but in case you needed just a little more reasoning to understand why the song may have been a little less than appropriate why don't we take a look at some of the lyrics including "I need to get her over to my crib and do that night thing" and "she climbing that pole".
11. Nelly- "It's Getting Hot In Here"
Yeah you probably could not complain about the heat without someone following with "It's getting hot in here, so take off all your clothes". Then you would respond "I am getting so hot, I wanna take my clothes off". Oh, the adolescent impropriety.
12. Pussycat Dolls- "Buttons"
"Buttons" and its incredibly catchy lyrics left young millennials traveling up and down their elementary halls singing "I'm telling you to loosen up my buttons baby".
13. Ciara Feat. Petey Pablo-"Goodies"
All together now, "my goodies, my goodies, my goodies, not my goodies!".
14. Kelis- "Milkshake"
"My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard, and they're like, it's better than yours".
15. Katy Perry- "Peacock"
"Peacock" was a little bit harder to get away with singing in school and around parents, considering the line "I wanna see your peacock, cock, cock, your peacock". Not quite as sly as disco stick.