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Little Wayne wanted girls to lick his lollipop, now Flo Rida wants girls to “blow his whistle.” I’m talking about the new song, Whistle. I was sitting with a parent last week who said that his kids were asking about downloading this popular Flo Rida song. The parent asked me, “Is it clean?”
Well, the song is definitely in the ears of kids today. It is currently #3 on iTunes, and this week it just moved from #58 to #20 on the Billboard Hot 100 (Billboard is always catching up to iTunes). It’s another catchy little diddy from the guy who brought us “Apple Bottom jeans, boots with the fur…” The rapper Flo Rida is slowly but steadily releasing hits.
Here’s the chorus of Whistle:
Can you blow my whistle baby, whistle baby
Let me know
Girl I’m gonna show you how to do it
And we start real slow
You just put your lips together
And you come real close
Can you blow my whistle baby, whistle baby
Here we go
Ya gotta love how on the sly this guy is. He’s had several songs on the top of the charts, each one not really blatantly raunchy, just the typical lyrics today that are talking about sex without really talking about it. Try to decipher these lines after the first chorus:
It’s like everywhere I go
My whistle ready to blow
Shorty don’t leave a note
She can get any by the low
Permission not approved
It’s okay, it’s under control
Show me soprano, cause girl you can handle
Baby we start snagging, you come up in part clothes…
So is he talking what we think he’s talking about?
RapGenius, a site that provides the meaning of lyrics, reveals the song is about blow jobs, as are most in the blogosphere. But there are those who are trying to argue that it’s about blowing an actual whistle.
Really?
Sure, I could write a song about petting my cat after I give her a bath, but is that what teenagers are going to hear? (And is there a chance that I was loading the song with innuendo?)
What are our kids taking away from this song? Is this going to be yet another song that they say, “Dad, we don’t really listen to the lyrics. Besides… it’s about blowing a whistle.”
Yeah… and Lil Wayne’s song Lollipop was about candy!
Thoughts? What do you think the song is about? Are your kids listening to it? How should parents handle this one?
MORE ARTICLES LIKE THIS FROM JONATHAN:
Overreacting or Interacting about Rihanna’s #1 Song
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Posted in Entertainment Media, Music, Parenting, Sexuality, Youth Culture | | Leave A Comment
I was amazing to see and hear the song on The Today Show, last Friday morning. All the hosts dancing and sing along. Then they pan out to the crowd to show a bunch of girls 3rd, maybe 4th grade singing along too.
Good points and thoughts as always.
Ain’t nuthin’ new under the sun tho.
I tried to look up how old some classics like The Pussycat Song or The Song Of The Woodpecker are, and I can’t even find when they were first released, they go back so far. And if you’ve ever listened to Dr. Demento for a laugh, you know that’s just scratching the surface from the middle of the last century or even sooner.
What IS different? Now even little kids know the filthy lyrics to these modern songs, and YES I think they know what they mean! It is all their pop-star heroes do & talk about. Parents have created a spiritual vacuum by not bringing their children up to know God, and to know they are special to Him; back that up with schools telling them they are pointless, accidental animals all day, and what’s going to fill the void? An uncontrolled sex drive, of course. Wormwood has an easy job in 2012 America, dude don’t even break a sweat.
Thanks for taking on a hard subject with such well thought out prose. I love how you strip away the poorly disguised excuses. People can sell themselves a lot of things to avoid battleing with their kids but they lose their kids and their respect in the process. Sad.
On another note. I enjoyed my visit to your place. I’m taking some time today to acquaint myself with Wordserve’s other clients. Have been meaning to do it since signing with Greg. Blessings~
Oh it’s definately about Netball. And good on him for promoting the benefits of team sport! 😀
(p.s thanks for all the traffic to my article too btw. Keep up the great work 🙂
Ever heard of “wet my whistle”? I’ll admit it’s probably about bj’s, but I can make the case it’s about a kiss. I like the song and I’m going with the later interpretation. My kids never asked what it was about till someone yelled foul. Times really haven’t changed that much remember Unskinny Bop, Pour Some Sugar on Me, Dirty Love, and Cherry Pie? I thought those were great and thought nothing of it until I was a parent.
Really Jim? I knew what all those songs were about from the get-go when I was 15. Hmmm…just goes to show all of us that a lot of kids don’t even think of what they’re listening to as far as lyrics go. However – I grew up listening to John Muncy, so…..LOL! For those of you who don’t know, John Muncy would travel around to different churches and do a slide show of album covers and lyrics, showing parents what was really in the music their kids were listening to. Oh, poor Blue Oyster Cult. Did he ever love to slam on those guys, ha ha.
Anyways, I see Lil Wayne and Flo Rida’s bluff and I raise them 20. Enter Twenty One Pilots. If you guys haven’t heard of this band yet, you should. They are two Christian young guys from here in Columbus, Ohio where I’m from, they love Jesus and their music is amazing. And guess what? They have been packing out the LC Pavilion and the Newport over and over, and they aren’t even signed on a label yet. If you haven’t heard their hit song “Guns For Hands” yet, look it up on YouTube.
I’ve been mentioned to Jonathan a lot lately, that as much as he writes these very timely and much needed blogs about the negative side of music, he needs to write about these Christian artists and bands who don’t get the publicity that they deserve (like my husband’s band Jacobs Dream for any metalheads out there). I’m not talking just about nicey-nice people who write songs that are okay I guess. I’m talking about people who are sold out for Jesus and love Him and they might not put His name in every song but they certainly aren’t writing stuff like Lil Wayne or Flo Rida. Seriously though. If you’re going to go all John Muncy on stuff, my fellow youth leaders, you really need to have an alternative to offer. Don’t ignore your brothers and sisters in Christ in the Christian music industry. The world is already doing a great job of that.
As a youth pastor, how would you inform the youth that these are bad songs to be listening to?
Josiah, i think the best practice is asking good questions that drive them to scripture. In other words, get them talking about it. Young people don’t want to hear us whining about bad music. But if we ask them, “Interesting, what does Flo Rida mean when he’s saying this?” “How do you think we should respond to that?” “Do you think that most people don’t listen to the lyrics?” “Then how come when the song is playing, I can see everyone singing along?” Then turn them toward scripture. In my parenting book I have a chapter titled Dad, Can I Download This Song?” In that chapter I go through a bunch of scripture that we can use to talk with our kids about this: http://www.jonathansresources.com/Books/CandidConfessions.aspx Then also consider our MUSIC DISCUSSIONS page on http://www.TheSource4YM.com where we constantly take current songs and drive kids to scripture (every discussion has small group questions as well). I hope that helps just a bit.
It’s abou net ball I agree with almingo
It is provocative. Don’t know how it made it to No2, but is catchy.
When I heard it first I thought does whistle still has that meaning.
Like sinatra is singing make the yuletude gay 🙂
The best whistles are made from young willow. Everyone can make whatever they want out of it and will be right 🙂