00s | 90s

10 Songs That Were So Censored, There Was Basically No Point Playing Them On The Radio

A good single off an album can make or break most artists, and it's understandable that they'd all like to put their best foot forward so they could get as many sales as possible. However, when you're an artist that skirts controversy with your lyrics, it can be hard to get a song played without censoring it a bit.

These 10 songs went from censoring "a bit" to censoring "a ton," and it's kinda hard to understand why they'd even bother putting them on the radio at all.

Rage Against The Machine - "Killing In The Name"

One of the most politically-charged bands of all time delivered a fiery, angry song, complete with repetitive cries of "F*** YOU I WON'T DO WHAT YOU TELL ME!" So of course, it just HAD to end up on the radio.

D12 - "Purple Hills"

Talk about changing a song for mainstream play! The actual title of the song is "Purple Pills," and it's a song about very, very heavy drug use. Why did they chose THIS for the single?!

The Black Eyed Peas - "Let's Get It Started"

One of the biggest smash-hits the band ever had was heavily censored, and you can probably see why when you see what the title of the song actually is: "Let's Get Retarded." Yeah.

Davind Banner - "Touching"

One of the most over the top and crass rappers of all time turned in this sentimental song about touching your lover... except for the fact that the real title of the song is "F***ing." Seriously, why go to the trouble?

The edits just get crazier from here folks.

Nine Inch Nails - "Closer"

One of the most infamously, darkly sensual songs of all time, this song has been on pretty much any goth's romance playlist for decades now, thanks to lines like "I wanna f*** you like an animal." It took some real leaps to get this one played.

Lil' Jon and the Eastside Boyz - "Roll Call"

Where do I start? How about the fact that the real title is "Real N***a Roll Call" and that the bleeped word in that title is probably said more times than any other throughout the song? The clean version honestly just starts to sound like the CD's skipping.

Dr. Dre - "Xxplosive"

Rapper Kurupt's verse gets almost entirely taken out of the song thanks to his numerous curse words, to the point that you have to wonder if it would've been better to just not have him on it.

N.W.A. - "Straight Outta Compton"

One of the most controversial rap songs from one of the most controversial rap albums. Apparently becoming an international smash hit takes getting on the radio, no matter how gangsta you're trying to keep things.

Eminem - "My Fault"

A song about abusing hallucinogenic drugs (specifically mushrooms) gets turned into a song about pizza. I'm not even kidding.

Eamon - "F*** It"

Do I even need to explain this one? Just LOOK at the title!

Which of these do you remember hearing on the radio?