Beyonce Uncensored

January 31, 2018 6:35 PM

Is Don't Hurt Yourself by Beyonce censored in all version of the album? Or is there an uncensored and a censored version of the album?

I just paid real money for Beyonce's Lemonade album. On the song Don't Hurt Yourself the swear words are censored. But it's weird because swear words on other songs are not censored. Is this just the way the album is? Or did I get a weird censored version of the album? If so, I want to return it (if possible). Thanks.

(I know this seems like something I should be able to google, but I can't seem to find the answer online. Sorry if I just missed it.)

posted by crapples to Media & Arts (8 answers total)

The explicit version on Tidal certainly isn’t censored at all.
posted by advicepig at 6:58 PM on January 31, 2018

Best answer: In my copy it seems to be an artistic choice*. Three of the first four curses are clipped/censored (fuck, bitch, dick, but not ass), then from the "bad motherfucker" at 1:01 all the curses are played in full, and by 2:47 she's screaming "WHO THE FUCK DO YOU THINK I AM" and then "GIVE MY ASS A BIG KISS BOY" and then "I'M FUCKING UP ALL YOUR SHIT BOY." So is your copy just censored at the beginning or are you getting clipped/bleeped/omitted curses at the end of the song too?


*like when you're so mad but trying to stay cool so you can't even say full words, lest you freak out and scream, "WHO THE FUCK DO YOU THINK I AM"
posted by I'm Not Even Supposed To Be Here Today! at 7:00 PM on January 31, 2018 [2 favorites]

I concur with I'm Not Even Supposed to be Here Today. That's how my copy sounds.
posted by crush at 7:03 PM on January 31, 2018

Response by poster: Yes that's the way mine is. Censored at the beginning, then not at all at the end. Maybe it was an artistic choice. Seems sort of weird, but it's a great song, man. Cool. Thanks!
posted by crapples at 7:25 PM on January 31, 2018

I agree that's what it is.

For me, it super works. The start of the song, I'm warming up, it barely registers that there are curses let alone that they're artistically censored. By the WHO THE FUCK, I've been worked up into a Bey-stoked rage, and quite often find myself actually angry crying because I'm so mad that someone upset My Queen this badly.
posted by greenish at 1:45 AM on February 1, 2018 [4 favorites]

Same here, greenish. I almost knee jerk answered this question with "no, the curses are just sung in clipped speech at the beginning" but then I went back and listened and was like, well what do you know those are actually clipped in production.
posted by I'm Not Even Supposed To Be Here Today! at 6:02 AM on February 1, 2018

I had never noticed that they were like that! I wonder if my brain just autocorrected the high beep tone over the vowels as autotuning artifacts until now.
posted by advicepig at 6:58 AM on February 1, 2018 [1 favorite]

Also, I'm a huge fan of the non-explicit version of the album. It's a really fun listen to hear the amazing work they did to make it sound really good. So yeah, I the amount of curse words in the explicit track had me dismiss the idea that you had a single censored track.
posted by advicepig at 7:00 AM on February 1, 2018 [1 favorite]