Hold Ya Head

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“Hold Ya Head”
“Hold Ya Head” cover
Single by The Notorious B.I.G. featuring Bob Marley
from the album Duets: The Final Chapter
Released April 24, 2006
Format Single
Recorded 2005
Genre Rap, Hip Hop, Emo rap
Length 02:45
Label Atlantic Records, Bad Boy
Writer(s) Christopher Wallace
Lord Finesse
Rita Marley
Producer Clinton Sparks
The Notorious B.I.G. featuring Bob Marley singles chronology
"Nasty Girl"
(2005)		 "Hold Ya Head" / "Spit Your Game"
(2006)		 Final.

"Hold Ya Head" is the title of the second single by Notorious B.I.G from his Duets: The Final Chapter album, a remixed album of Biggie Smalls' work, this being a remix of "Suicidal Thoughts". The single is a double A-side with "Spit Your Game", a collaboration with Twista and Bone Thugs N Harmony. "Hold Ya Head" features a sample from Bob Marley. The song was originally featured as the B-side to "Nasty Girl" in the UK and Australia but the song is now being released as a single in its own right.

The single was released on 24th April in the UK [1] and reached #64 in the UK charts [2].

Contents

[edit] Video

The video is directed by Bobby O'Neill and featured Voletta Wallace, B.I.G.'s mother. Biggie was projected on a wall doing a concert from before his death, and Bob Marley from another concert. The video shows scenes of Overtown, Miami, Florida (Bob Marley's origin) and Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn (Biggie's origin), and start's with a skit, with a man talking about Bob Marley, showing the mural in Liberty City, Miami, Florida.

[edit] Remixes

The song is a remix of "Suicidal Thoughts", the outro to Biggie's first album, Ready to Die. The remix of the song is darker than the original, because of the strong music it plays throughout the song, which resulted to censor suicide references in the album version. Four lines are missing from the original and some lines are rapped in a different order, and have verses, while the original was a phone call to Puff Daddy, and ended with Biggie shooting himself in the song. The Bob Marley sample is taken from his song "Johnny Was".

[edit] Alternate Versions

There are 3 versions of the song: an explicit version which no words are censored, a clean version where all profanities are censored, and the album version, which only censors references to suicide, but not bad language, though the album version of "Suicidal Thoughts" is completely uncensored.

The clean version, which removes profanities of both bad language and suicide, replaces profanity with sound effects made by Biggie, otherwise words are blanked out or played backwards. Though there are references to drugs, it wasn't censored. There's also references to guns, which "guns" was censored, "magnum" wasn't, but there is another clean version with an additional censor to "magnum". Subliminal references of suicide is not censored, eg. "Should I die on the train track" is not censored, however direct references to suicide is censored, e.g. "I wanna go to hell", the word "hell" is censored in both clean and album versions, as they believe people would go to hell if they suicide. Four words are censored in the album version:

  • "Hell" is changed to sound like "hurl" when he says "I wanna go to hell"
  • "Slit" is blanked out when he says "I wanna just slit my wrists"
  • "Dead" is blanked out when he says "I'm glad I'm dead"
  • "Suicide" is blanked out when he says "I can't believe suicide's on my fuckin' mind"

[edit] Track listing

[edit] UK - CD: 1

  1. Spit Your Game [Remix Edit] (Featuring Twista, Eightball & MJG & Bone Thugs-N-Harmony)
  2. Hold Ya Head [Main Version] (Featuring Bob Marley)

[edit] UK - CD: 2

  1. Spit Your Game [Remix] (Featuring Twista, Eightball & MJG & Bone Thugs-N-Harmony)
  2. Hold Ya Head [Main Version] (Featuring Bob Marley)
  3. Spit Your Game [MyTone - Personalized Ringtone]

[edit] UK - 12" Vinyl

  1. Spit Your Game [Remix] (Featuring Twista, Eightball & MJG & Bone Thugs-N-Harmony)
  2. Spit Your Game [Instrumental Remix]
  3. Hold Ya Head [Main Version] (Featuring Bob Marley)
  4. Hold Ya Head [Instrumental]

[edit] Promo CD

  1. Spit Your Game [Remix Edit] (Featuring Twista, Eightball & MJG & Bone Thugs-N-Harmony)
  2. Spit Your Game [Remix Instrumental]
  3. Hold Ya Head [Amended Album Version] (Featuring Bob Marley)
  4. Hold Ya Head [Instrumental]
v • d • e
The Notorious B.I.G.
Studio albums
Posthumous albums
Solo singles
Guest singles
Posthumous singles
"Notorious B.I.G." · "Dead Wrong"  · "Runnin' (Dying to Live)" · "Nasty Girl" · "Spit Your Game" · "Hold Ya Head"
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