Ed. Note: This article is about some of the more unusual, but perfectly legal, forms of behavior some people choose to do in the boudoir. Sensitive readers might want to keep that in mind.
Everyone's got a fetish. Some are kinkier than others, but everyone has something they like about their partners or something they like to do in bed that others might find bizarre, disgusting, or just something they aren't interested in.
Because of the stigma surrounding certain fetishes, not everyone is entirely open about their sexual interests. In America today, you can admit to liking boobies, butts, and maybe a little S&M play, but anything beyond that and you're getting too weird for some people's tastes.
Considering that everyone has a fetish, then of course musicians also have them. And like most people, they usually aren't open about them, aside from any number of rumors, or public court records in the case of R. Kelly and his fascination with golden showers.
However, some musicians are so open that they're willing to straight-up discuss their fetishes in their lyrics. Here's some of my favorite songs that give a little bit of TMI on the musicians themselves.
5. Tenacious D, "Double Team":
Revealing Lyrics:
And then you feel somethin' down by your feet.It's me, it's JB, I'm suckin' upon your toes!
We don't mind sucking on toes!
Good luck finding a boyfriend who sucks toe, oh!
Let's ignore the obvious weirdness involved in Jack Black and Kyle Gass double-teaming a girl. While JB's toe-sucking revelation in Tenacious D's "Double Team" could all be in the name of comedy, Black has openly discussed his fascination with feet in a 2008Playboy interview.
4. Lykke Li feat. Tyler, the Creator, "I Follow You (Remix)"
Revealing Lyrics:
X's and O's, you must be the roseCause my exes are hoes, and where you gonna go
When you run through my head all day?
And I got a foot fetish, so I'll probably have sex with your toes.
Speaking of foot fetishes, we come to current rap superstar Tyler, the Creator. In the context of this song, one could probably explain the passing reference to a foot fetish as being connected to the fact that "she" runs through his head all day, presumably with her feet.
Such vague connections and metaphors are common in rap flows. But Tyler brings this up in one of his solo songs as well, in the lyric "But all I really want is a kiss on the cheek in private, not public in the streets, and your cupcake how we eat and your toes cause I got a big fetish with the feet" in the song "Sarah" from his debut album "Bastard". Considering the revealing and personal nature of Tyler's lyrics, as well as the recurrence of this one theme, the evidence is pretty strong here.
3. The Smiths, "This Charming Man"
Revealing Lyrics:
Why pamper life's complexityWhen the leather runs smooth on the passenger seat?
Debate rages over both Morrissey's sexuality and the lyrics to this song in particular, but one can make a strong case for it being about a relationship with an older man, sexual or not. This lyric wouldn't be revealing in itself if one didn't have a little bit of context. According to an interview in the book Morrissey: Scandal & Passion by David Bret, even as much as Moz hates animal abuse and the leather trade, he apparently has a thing for the old leather seats in cars such as ones he grew up riding in during the '60s. Knowing that, it's not hard to read into the meaning of this song and this lyric. Not to mention he brings up "cold leather seats" again in "That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore."
2. Slick Mahony featuring Yung Humma, "Sex Syrup"
Revealing Lyrics: The entire song.
The rappers on Turquoise Jeep Records really like food. "Sex Syrup" is just one example of their artful use of food euphamisms for sex. The thing is, this isn't just an isolated song. On the crew's debut compilation, four separate songs featuring all different members of the Jeep revolve around sex and food.
If someone here isn't into foodplay, color me shocked. And let's not even get into the song "Stretchy Pants" in which group leader and record label founder Flynt Flossy goes on and on about his love of a woman's stretchy pants before proudly declaring that he "ate that ass."
1. Why?, "Good Friday"
Revealing Lyrics:
It feels exciting touching your handwritingGetting horny by reading it and repeating poor me.
Intently staring at the picture of your feet on the sticker
At the R. Crumb exhibit, I wonder who's sicker?
Jerking off in an art museum john till my dick hurts
The kind of shit I won't admit to my head shrinker.
This one really covers the range of fucked up sexuality. Almost every line is an example of Why? mastermind and frontman Yoni Wolf's dirty mind showing through, but the best has to be the quoted verse above, which is revealing of not only another foot fetish (something of a recurring theme in Why? songs, including the line about "perfect Scandinavian feet" in "These Few Presidents" in the very next song), but also an association between shame and pity and sex, as well as discussing public masturbation.
I know the song is about the wild antics of a person following a break-up, but this is the kind of perverse writing that everyone can relate to but will never admit to being able to relate to. That's what makes the song work so well, but it's also the ultimate example of TMI, with Yoni laying it all out to bare, and clearly exhibiting some deeply-rooted sexual issues and fetishes.
Honorable Mention: 50 Cent
This is not a song, but it's too funny and relevant not to include it. Rapper 50 Cent may not talk about it in his songs, but as he reveals in the interview with Howard Stern in the above video, 50 Cent loves big butts like Sir Mix-A-Lot before him. But he doesn't just like big butts, he likes doing other, vastly more disturbing things with them (and his own).
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