Honey Singh’s Songs Are Absolute Trash. The Lyrics Are Horrifying And He Shouldn’t Be Allowed To Call It Music.

Shuffling through the radio-stations in the morning as my father drove me to the metro station, I irritably settled on a radio channel hoping there would come a time, hopefully in this lifetime, when they’d play something other than an ad. Anything. But dear god, only if I could wish for something else. Keep reading, you’ll find out why.

Finally after what was a series of never-ending jingles and commercials, the RJ announced a song for the listeners, and I was like finally. Except it turns out that they chose this exact moment to play The Hook up song. Oh I am no prude, a hook up is great if you are into that, but see, my father was also in the car with me. But his ears were also bleeding from all the radio commercials and he heaved a sigh of relief for there was some music to his ears (see what I did there?). But it only a few seconds of respite. Because the singer then crooned the lyrics khud ko samajh ke lucky, mujhse hook up tu karle na and my inquisitive father turned to me with curiosity and then he asked the dreaded question, “Beta, what do you mean by hook up?.”

Now there were three of us in the car – dad, me and awkward silence. Also, because there was no coming back from this situation, I’ll stop the narration right here and get to the point, because no one needs to know how I stuttered to explain what she meant by inviting a guy over for a quickie.  Or how my father looked gobsmacked by the concept, then felt second-hand embarrassment to be made aware of such an indecency, at the hands of a song no less. 

Now this wasn’t the first time that this happened either. Every time the radio plays any latest song, because most of them nowadays are just outright offensive, sexist or objectifying women left right and centre, I end up plonk in the middle of similar awkward conversation with my parents. Maybe it’s time I learn to drive  or perhaps it is time the music industry starts churning out something better. The odds of both seem very bleak right now, IMO.

But guess when you make stars out of people like Honey Singh and Baadshah, what more can you expect, right? Which is why recently when a very optimistic group of women, particularly, the Punjab State Women Commission’s Chairperson Manisha Gulati demanded a ban on one of such explicit song by singer and rapper Honey Singh, I jumped right on board.

She shared how she has written to the Director General of Police to register a criminal case against the rapper and singer for using lyrics like Main Hoon Womaniser in his song Makhna. She said, “A legal action and an inquiry is required to be initiated by the police on the matter as the song readied by T-series chairman Bhushan Kumar and singers Honey Singh and Neha Kakkar uses vulgar words against women.”

After a thorough research and a few re-listens to the song in context, I have to say that I did not not agree with those women. For starters, the song is about convincing the girl to call you Makhna. All the while Honey Singh enlightens us with his preference for girls with no silicon because that’s just wrong or something and how brown girls kinda leave him unsatisfied. Aww, poor thing.  Because talking about satiating his sexual desires (not by brown girls coz they ain’t good enough) is the kind of stuff we need to know. You know how girls are, dying to get into his pants. 

And that is not all, obviously. The guy then continues to objectify the patli kamar of a girl, in a tight tight jeans, as the song ups the tempo all the while talking about how his lust needs an outlet which becomes too annoying, too soon. But then again, this wasn’t his worst. The singer has time and again, outdone his own self when it comes to making melodies out of trashy lyrics, that may or may not have risen out of his own trashy mindset. It’s obvious he has a thing against women.  Honey Singh, back in 2012 came up with a genius song, that could have been ahead of its time, for it was called Main Hoon Balatkaari, and aaj kal toh har koi hi bana betha hai. The song whose lyrics I shall now re-iterate and also apologise for, seem like reading a sickening report of a rape crime with rhyming words. Don’t take me for my word, take his’

“Raat ko nikli naari, hui gaadi pe savaari, par woh raat usko pad gayi bhaari,
Peeche se aaya main, utaari uski sari, kacchi phaadi, lund gaadi aur gaand maari”

Now, honestly my intention for writing this opening stanza down was to dissect his songs for exactly what they are, but it doesn’t feel like I have to do more than make you read it. The guy was not even trying to be subtle to make a song out of a crime. Of course, later when an FIR was lodged and people called the song out for being all sorts of rubbish, Honey Singh claimed it wasn’t his song at all, but only after the complaints had surfaced, which tells us all we need to know.

And since then, clearly the remorse didn’t last too long, he unleashed a series of songs and raps that singularly focused on viewing women as objects to lust after. From their hair to waist to ass to boobs, everything was up for comment, nothing was off limits.

Badshaah and Honey Singh’s next ‘hit’ song – Ch**t, was next up.  And if the title of the song wasn’t self explanatory, the lyrics read out as like this Kehnde pechaiyaan pindaan ney teree mari, saadey lun ne vi khicheey ey tayraai. Fudi teri aj leh ke jaaun, Jeh nai liti teh main jatt na kwahoon. Which basically is him saying how he is aware men of 25 villages have fucked a girl, and that he too is ready with his prick. And in case he isn’t able to fuck her, he won’t call himself a man. 

My point here is not to make your eyes bleed, even though mine have, but just to point out that these are the kind of songs and music artists thrive on, and promote by saying, ‘this is what the youth wants to hear’. And we want to hit them where the sun doesn’t shine for this. What makes you think that we want to listen to you sing about how the validation of your manhood lies in a woman’s vagina!?! Yes, the artists later released a volume 2 version that did away with the vulgar lyrics, but why did we need it in the first place? 

But let’s not be so quick to condemn the ‘artists’ here. Soon after, the music directors, lyricists and producers, became woke (sort of but not really) and dialled down the innate and throbbing tharkiness in their songs. But sadly, they couldn’t even do that with much grace because now songs like Kar gayi chull and Baby ko bass pasand hai and Teri keh ke lunga were on loop on people’s playlists and we couldn’t roll our eyes enough. 

And since we’ve gone ahead and taken the liberty to trash talk these singers so much, it isn’t fair to not call our own selves out for dancing to such addictive beats in the clubs. Because this way we are also playing a part in normalising this culture of producing and simultaneously consuming garbage in the name of music. In fact, there have been times when we’ve gone up to the DJ, requesting him to play songs like Blue Eyes, which is by the way, another one of Honey Singh’s masterpiece. He basically uses the entire song to stress enough on the fact that he is hypnotised with a woman’s blue eyes, and finds her to be no less than a bomb in that short dress. Oh and so you know, this song was an attempt by the singer to ‘dial down’ the lewd lyrics he otherwise enjoyed penning down and singing hiding behind the veil of beats.

And not just that, after doling out so many songs about fair, slender women, the concept of inclusivity must have been introduced to the music star. He must be really feeling it for he released another song called Brown rang. The lyrics that for the first few paragraphs just talk about Honey Singh being a fan of a dusky skinned girl, quickly escalate to its prudent end by saying these eloquent words.

Vase ta mitran da bahut vadda score, but white chicks.. na I don’t like them anymore.
Ban mitran di wh**e, I mean mitran di ho tu vi tedha Tedha takkein
Saanu.. I know… now don’t say no no.. mai ta tera yo yo.

And for the lucky ones who didn’t understand what it means, it speaks about him inviting a woman to be his whore, because he knows she is checking him out too. He just knows, okay? After serious contemplation, I still find myself drawing a blank, how can everything possibly either already have or lead to something related to sex? You know, where the guy just already knows what the woman wants, and that has to be him, right? Such confidence. We really don’t know of a single woman who wouldn’t drop her clothes when she knows the man has called her a whore. I mean, who can resist that?

https://www.instagram.com/p/By2MrwOhF6x/

I could spend the entire day nit-picking on songs that drip with vulgarity and filthy content. The thing is, when played enough number of times and with thumping beats, the lyrics start to lose their meaning and we are almost immunised to this kind of absolute rubbish. I agree that every individual makes a choice when they hit play on these songs, and that they are not forced upon anybody. Are we really so out of fresh content and poetry and lyrics that we keep minting out songs about the kinds of things men do when they come of age, which is basically lunge at women, look at them lustily, consent be damned? Or are we seriously that indifferent to our social responsibility to the world that we are A-okay with corrupting young minds and thinking? The nation wants to know. 

And just to be clear, we don’t have a problem with only women getting objectified here, we have a problem with every song that finds it okay to sensationalise the human body and objectifies it. Take Jatt Ludhhiyaane da for example. The song explicitly lays out the intentions of the character played by Tara Sutaria in SOTY 2. There’s no subtlety here, she want sTiger Shroff to walk a little slower, only so she could check him out well. And, because this time it is a woman doing it to a man, it is obviously okay. Feminism, they say. 

And idiots, we say. 

How have they got the concept so wrong, we do not know. Or understand. But if Bollywood continues to bung out such deeply problematic songs, in a way of quick and easy consumption, we might as well advertise and advocate the crimes we are struggling to fight against. Or, and we must applaud them, we take the course these women from Punjab did when they demanded a ban on songs like Makhna. At least that is a start to end one of the most deep-rooted issues here. Because god forbid I have to raise my children as staunch feminists, I would fail. Come to think of it, at this point, I almost feel bad for calling out the industry on remixing old songs. In fact, i’d rather have old meaningful songs being recycled and thrown at me, than a song that explicitly talks about throwing me on a bed.

So, allow me to go on record for once and for all and say this out loud,

Baby ko na bass pasand hai, na pasand hai tumhari lambi..car
Ye sab gaane ya toh naa likh, ya phir jaa kar apni maa ko suna
Maybe she will tell you, blue eyes se zada hypnotising hota hai kya
Until then my dear Makhna, mere aas paas bhi naa bhatakna

To cut a long story short, cut the crap. And shut up Honey Singh.