Stop Spazzing Out About 'Spaz'

SOCIAL MEDIA, STREAMING, AND A NEW ERA OF DIGITAL SELF-CENSORSHIP

- KAT ROSENFIELD

EVEN IF YOU didn't know about the scandal that preceded its release, you still might notice the digital sleight of hand on Beyoncé's new album, Renaissance. It comes toward the end of the song "Heated," as Bey snarls her way through the lines of a staccato rap.

Yada, yada, yah, yada, yada, yah-yah Yada, yada, yada, bom-bom, kah-kah Blastin' on that ass, blast on that ass Fan me quick, girl, I need my glass

You don't have to be a Beyoncé fan-or even able to pick her out of a lineup-to sense that something's not quite right.

Maybe your brain stalls for a moment on the question of what it means to blast on someone's ass, since neither of the two possible meanings that Beyoncé is either threatening to shoot someone or commanding someone to ejaculate on her-makes a ton of sense in context. Maybe you hiccup over the slightly disproportionate weight of the word "blasting," the extra split-second of time it takes the singer to wrap her mouth around that first syllable, so that the rest of the line feels like it's hurrying to catch up.

Or maybe you only sense the change, the way you do when you take your first step down a familiar but freshly paved street. There used to be a pothole there-or was it on the other side? The new curb is just a little higher than it used to be-or is it? Maybe you're the one misremembering. Maybe it was always "blasting." Listen again: Do you still hear it? Are you sure? In fact, "Heated" was the second song this year to be bowdlerized in post-production after some listeners took exception to one of its lyrics. Lizzo's "Grrrls" was the first to come under fire in June over the word spaz, which some British and Australian listeners described as an "ableist slur."