I used to love H.E.R.

It's kind of ironic that my last post about Murs was titled with a line from Common's iconic track I used to love H.E.R and he recently released a remake of that same song.  With the help of 9th Wonder Murs put together a strong remake with a decidedly more left coast swing to it. The beat aside, Murs took liberties with one of the more controversial sections of the song. Common spoke about the late 80's emergence of west coast hip-hop music in less than glowing terms...

So easily I approached

She dug my rap, that's how we got close
But then she broke to the West coast, and that was cool
Cause around the same time, I went away to school
And I'm a man of expandin', so why should I stand in her way?
She probably get her money in L.A.
And she did stud, she got big pub but what was foul
She said that the pro-black, was goin out of style
She said, "Afrocentricity, was of the past."
So she got into R&B hip-house bass and jazz
Now black music is black music and it's all good
I wasn't salty, she was with the boys in the hood
Cause that was good for her, she was becomin well rounded
I thought it was dope how she was on that freestyle shit
Just havin' fun, not worried about anyone
And you could tell, by how her titties hung 

  

He continued after the hook....

I might've failed to mention that the chick was creative
But once the man got to her, he altered the native
Told her if she got an image and a gimmick
That she could make money, and she did it like a dummy
Now I see her in commercials, she's universal
She used to only swing it with the inner-city circle
Now she be in the burbs lookin' rock and dressin' hip
And on some dumb shit, when she comes to the city
Talkin about poppin glocks, servin rocks, and hittin switches
Now she's a gangsta rollin with gangsta bitches
Always smokin blunts and gettin drunk
Tellin me sad stories, now she only fucks with the funk
Stressin how hardcore and real she is
She was really the realest, before she got into show-biz  

We all remember that west coast pioneer Ice Cube took exception to this and a small battle ensued however with decades between the original Murs takes a more measured, political and nuanced approach to explain the change in "H.E.R"

So easily I approached

We met up o nthe west coast

and that was cool

Cuz I was on the streets smokin weed and ditchin school

Picked up a bandana she started doing things another way

She got a lot of money in LA

Late 8o's Reganomics had the west going wild

Circumstances forced her to change up her style

She said, afrocentricity, was good to have

But it wasnt representing what was poppin on the ave

See, black people was still dancing like it was all good

She had to put it down for the boyz in the hood

 He also changed up other elements of the song but overall it was very well done.