I don’t know what’s funnier. The fact that “DJ” Nick Skitz is STILL playing Melbourne Bounce, the fact that he obviously still digs the chant “tits out for the boys”, or that he thought it was a good idea to combine the two for his latest single. In any case, as unbelievable as it may seem, he has in fact done just that.
Teaming up with a guy who clearly likes Lil Jon a little too much and who actually calls women’s breasts “puppies”, as well as some guy on a saxophone (one is called Hook Banger and the other James Spy but I care not to even determine who is who), the three have created what is surely to be this year’s – and maybe even this decade’s – worst track ever, Tits Out For The Boys. You can probably guess what it’s about.
Paired with a film clip of cheap nightclub footage, all three guys get their sexual predator on in a big way here. The women in the clip are definitely significantly younger than any of the “artists” involved, and it’s interesting that the men are never actually around the women themselves. For example, the “rapper” is a man who just yells at the camera in a carpark in front of a car that I guess is meant to impress people – no tits there. There are also no “puppies”, out or otherwise, around Mr Skitz when he’s dropping some mad siq Melbourne bounce, nor is there any around the saxophone player. In fact, this entire clip looks like they’ve just bought a whole bunch of creepy and slightly voyeuristic nightclub stock footage and tried to pass it off as a film clip – and it looks really bad.
Now, the objectification, misogyny and blatant disrespect and disregard for women is pretty obvious here. In fact, I have to give them props for not hiding under false pretences and just admitting they could not give one fuck about a female – only their breasts. But the real question I found myself asking (after “Who the fuck is Nick Skitz and why is that his DJ name?”) was “Who the fuck thought this was a good idea?”
Surely, in 2016, even if you DID chant stuff like “tits out for the boys”, you’d be smart enough to know this song probably isn’t really a good idea. Like, seriously, come on guys. Surely you are better than this? Surely you can see, even just from the fuss that is kicked up whenever anything like this is released around the world, that you maybe, just might be offending somebody? I want to believe you are smart enough to see this is maybe a problem, if not for you personally then maybe a couple of your fans? It looks pretty clear to me that Nick Skitz, Hook Banger and James Spy really don’t care about their fans, because if they did, they would not be so intent on creating and enabling detrimental and plain dangerous behaviour. I physically, audibly groaned when I saw this. As FasterLouder pointed out (which is where I happened upon the track in the first place – in an article about sexism in the Australian music industry), your initial response if you’re at least a bit of a normal person is probably to ignore it, but things like this can no longer be ignored.
By creating and releasing this song, and no doubt playing it at whatever shows he will play at in the future, not only is Nick Skitz validating this chant as indeed a commonplace thing that “just happens” at clubs and bars, but he is also immediately disregarding the women there that could well be fans of his awful music, and immediately making them inferior to their male counterpart. I don’t care if women join in, if they do, that’s on them as well. This chant is not ever okay and for someone to literally making a song about it and including it in said song is down right atrocious.
In the recent (and rightful) public shaming of ex-publicist Heathcliff Berru, Killer Mike, a once-client of his, wrote a powerful post on his Facebook page urging men to call shit out when they see it. This song would have had to pass through at least one person, surely, and not one person thought to say, “Hang on, are you sure you want to do this?” Or even plainly say, “Look, Mr Skitz, this is not on.” Instead, in just under three minutes, Nick Skitz creates a violent, oppressive environment for his female fans and reduces them – them being real, actual humans – to nothing but a pair of tits to gawk at. This is a prime example of when to call out sexism in the music industry, but sadly also a prime example of how many people continue to fail women in our fight for equality.
You won’t find a link to the song on here, but instead you will find a link below to Jessica Hopper’s incredible speech about women in music at last year’s BIGSOUND, because it’s videos like that that create discussion and change. It’s clips like Skitz’s that do the exact opposite, and it’s something we can no longer blindly ignore and accept.
See also
Read about Best Coast’s Bethany Cosentino’s essay on sexism in the music industry
Read our feature ‘The Only Place For Women Is Back Stage On Their Knees’
Read about Dirty Projector’s Amber Coffman calling out sexual predator Heathcliff Berru