Side Notes - Christina & Redman (Patreon)

There's an obvious comparison to Britney which I didn't want to make because the whole point of the song is a statement of independence. And now we've had this track there's a bunch of other number ones which this will  be a useful reference point for.

There's a less obvious (?) comparison to Frankie Goes To Hollywood's "Relax", which I would have made if I'd wanted to spend even MORE time on the video. Maybe it'll go into the website version. Anyway it points up the purpose of the track even more - Holly Johnson is our tour guide into the underworld bacchanalia, Xtina is the centre of the whirlwind. 

Of course, Dirrty was never actually banned.

I know very little about Redman or Rockwilder. The initial plan for this entry was to talk about the Neptunes, as the first time I re-listened I heard this as a kind of fake Neptunes beat. But that didn't really stand up to repeat listens - particularly in the Neptunes version it's more like the very in your face, bro-ish maximalist hip-hop coming from eg MOP a couple of years before this.

I DO know that Ed Sheeran covered this for the Radio 1 live lounge. Insert "assless chap" joke here. His version.... isn't very good, though Sheeran is an actual singer at least, so it isn't the total indie joke you might anticipate. Heavy use of backing vocalists to give the song a bit more of a bluesy character, but he can't sell the liberating glee of it.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pf_ldxntwJg