We can't look at these tracks the same way anymore. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re breaking down songs released between 1990 to 1999 that have taken on a darker meaning in the years following their initial release. Out of respect for those involved, all entries to follow are unranked, and listed in chronological order.
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00:00Yeah, he don't understand you like I do.
00:05Welcome to Miss Mojo.
00:07And today we're breaking down songs released between 1990 to 1999
00:12that have taken on a darker meaning in the years following their initial release.
00:17Out of respect for those involved, all entries to follow are unranked and listed in chronological order.
00:24My life is in denial and when I die, baptized in eternal fire, shed so many tears.
00:31Come As You Are, Nirvana
00:33Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain was widely noted for his dark, often cryptic songwriting style.
00:47This, combined with his keen instinct for Beatle-esque pop hooks, captivated the public's imagination,
00:54along with the tight musicianship of bassist Chris Novoselic and drummer Dave Grohl.
00:58Come As You Are is a shining example of this, combining all of the above traits and executing them masterfully.
01:06Cobain's 1994 passing devastated not only the band's fans, but music fans en masse,
01:13who looked to the Washington native's lyrics for answers.
01:16Once again, Come As You Are stood out within Nirvana's discography, largely for its tragically prescient hook in which Cobain declared that he didn't have a gun.
01:27Age ain't nothing but a number, Aaliyah.
01:35Age ain't nothing but a number, but now ain't nothing but a thing.
01:40We have just two words that will answer any questions you might have.
01:45R. Kelly, 15-year-old R&B slash pop prodigy Aaliyah, was taken on by the Pied Piper himself in a mentor-mentee relationship that very quickly deteriorated into something much more sinister.
02:00The two secretly wed while working on Aaliyah's debut album, which shares its title with this song in 1994.
02:13The marriage was annulled the following year by her parents due to her age at the time.
02:18Knowing that leads modern-day listeners to hear age ain't nothing but a number in a different, wildly off-putting light.
02:25Here I am, and there you are.
02:31Bump and Grind, R. Kelly.
02:33But my body, my body's telling me it hurts.
02:39Remember Kelly from the last entry?
02:42As you might have guessed, he managed to get himself into even more trouble than when he convinced an underage girl to marry him.
02:49Nothing wrong with a little bump and grind.
02:55With a little bump and grind.
02:56While 1994's Bump and Grind might have worked as a playful, if deeply corny, plea to shed a potential lover's inhibitions,
03:05Kelly's misconduct in the following decades makes the song read as a serial abuser's manifesto.
03:11Accused of nearly 30 years worth of disturbing misconduct,
03:14The R&B giant was indicted and arrested on federal racketeering and human trafficking charges in 2019,
03:22making Bump and Grind an endurance test for listeners.
03:26Robert.
03:2730 years of my career!
03:30Y'all trying to kill me!
03:32You're killing me, man!
03:35This ain't not about music!
03:37Nutshell – Alice in Chains
03:39Much like Kurt Cobain, his contemporary Alice in Chains frontman Lane Staley struggled with substance use disorder and ongoing mental health issues.
03:58This was reflected in his songwriting, which often resulted in raw, vulnerable lyrics like those found in Nutshell,
04:06a deep cut from the band's 1994 EP, Jar of Flies.
04:10The singer later passed away from an overdose in 2002,
04:14making Nutshell's already intensely personal lyrics hit even harder.
04:18Yet I fight, and yet I fight this battle all alone
04:26Tragically, Staley wouldn't be the last founding Alice in Chains member to lose his life in such a way.
04:33Original bassist Mike Starr died in 2011, also of an overdose.
04:39Jerry Cantrell, the band's guitarist and alternate lead singer,
04:43now dedicates performances of Nutshell to his fallen bandmates.
04:47Suicidal Thoughts – The Notorious B.I.G.
04:55Don't make sense going to heaven with the goody-goodies dressed in white
04:59I like black Timbs and black hoodies
05:01Even during his lifetime, Biggie Smalls made Death an integral theme of his music.
05:06This is evident from the titles of his two albums, 1994's Ready to Die and 1997's Life After Death.
05:14For a clear example of this, look to this pitch-dark track from the former album.
05:25Biggie describes his own hellish version of It's a Wonderful Life,
05:29in which the rapper fantasizes about and considers his own death.
05:34The hip-hop icon was gunned down just over two weeks before the release of his second record,
05:39making Ready to Die, B.I.G.'s only album to be released during his lifetime.
05:45Forgive me for my disrespect, forgive me for my lies.
05:48But maybe mother's eight months, her little sister's two, who's to blame for both of them?
05:52So Many Tears – Tupac
05:54Much like his contemporary arch-rival, Biggie Smalls,
06:06Tupac Shakur seemed to be preoccupied with death and dying.
06:10This was most commonly in the context of the Los Angeles gang violence he so often lamented,
06:17but he often contemplated his own passing.
06:19So Many Tears stands out in the rapper's catalogue in its crystallization of themes
06:25the influential performer often covered.
06:32Notably, the song features Pac bluntly addressing his personal desire to end his life,
06:37as noted by Rolling Stone's Chio H. Coker.
06:41So Many Tears deals with the senseless violence that marked his childhood,
06:45but with the internal demons that threatened to consume him, snapping at his conscience
06:50like hellhounds on a blues man's trail.
06:53My life is in denial, and when I die, baptized in eternal fire, shed so many tears.
06:59Pretty Noose
07:00Soundgarden
07:01I caught the moon today
07:04Pick it up, show it away, alright?
07:07In what emerged as a heartbreakingly common pattern for grunge frontmen, Soundgarden and
07:14Audioslave lead singer Chris Cornell's death was untimely.
07:18The Black Hole Sun vocalist took his own life after a 2017 concert in Detroit.
07:24While Audioslaves later, like a stone, might hit harder for Cornell's fans who are still mourning,
07:30Pretty Noose catches its eye due to its unfortunate association with the method by which Cornell ended
07:37at all.
07:44However, beside that, the song otherwise bears no indication of ideation.
07:50Cornell once described Pretty Noose as being about an attractively packaged bad idea, something
07:56that seems great at first, and then comes back to bite you.
08:00Don't look what you got me hanging from
08:05Morphine, Michael Jackson
08:07Trust in me, but are you trusting me?
08:11You're giving me
08:13Morphine
08:15While king of pop Michael Jackson had experimented with heavier styles of music before, Morphine
08:20stands out as a groovy, distorted, almost industrial jam that almost recalls Trent Reznor's
08:27Nine Inch Nails.
08:28In line with Jackson's songwriting during the 90s, Morphine is a scathing indictment of media
08:35scrutiny regarding his well-documented personal life, acting as an impassioned plea for privacy
08:40on the singer's parts.
08:49While already a difficult listen at the time of its release, it took an even darker layer
08:53following Jackson's 2009 death, the result of acute propofol intoxication.
08:59This was later ruled as involuntary manslaughter on the part of Conrad Murray, his personal physician.
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09:293.
09:30Satisfy You
09:31Diddy featuring R. Kelly
09:32Somehow, two of the biggest figures in 90s hip-hop and R&B turned out to be two of the
09:43most sinister villains of the decades since.
09:46And in an entirely predictable yet super creepy turn of events, their collaboration, Satisfy
09:52You, has aged, well, about as well as you might expect, which is to say, like milk.
09:58When it hurt, I eat the pain, girl.
10:00Correct your frame, get them worries off your brain, girl.
10:03I'm in your corner, do what you want, it's your pain, girl.
10:05Over a barely-tweaked instrumental sample of I Got Five on it by Looney's, Kelly and
10:11Sean Diddy Combs desperately plead with a romantic interest to break up with her significant other.
10:16Knowing the extent of the musician's misconduct will have you shuddering after the fact, particularly
10:21Combs' assertion that, I'm the feeling that you can't leave.
10:25Which 90s song is hard for you to hear nowadays?
10:37Be sure to let us know in the comments!
10:44Thank you so much for listening!
11:03You