The 10 Most Disrespectful “Your Mother” Songs

What better way to celebrate Mother's Day?

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Image via Complex Original
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What better way to celebrate Mother’s Day than by remembering how much we all care about our mothers? And what better way to do that than by noticing how nasty it sounds when somebody insults somebody’s mother?

From “your mother wears army boots” to “your mama’s so ____ that she ____s the ____,” mother insults have been around us for thousands of years. Some linguists claim that variations of “your mother’s c___” [rhymes with “grunt”] are the most common insult phrases in the world, found from China to Kenya to Argentina. While that particular phrase never caught on in the United States (no complaints about that), we’ve all heard plenty of “yo’ mama” jokes. African-American culture has developed an especially imaginative and skillful tradition of mother-insult-dueling, often called “the dozens,” which traces its roots back to ancient African ceremonial customs.

Hilariously filthy dozens rhymes have been one of the basic building blocks of black music from the blues to rap battling. Jelly Roll Morton’s “Dirty Dozen,” from 1908, with its perky chorus, “your mammy don’t wear no drawers,” used language as obscene as anything Lil Jon ever spat. Over the last century the dozens have wormed their way into funk, disco, pop and reggaeton. As a Mother’s Day treat, here’s a “top ten” of disrespectful mother songs.

Written by Elijah Wald

Elijah Wald is a musician and author of The Dozens: A History of Rap's Mama.

Jelly Roll Morton "The Dirty Dozen" (1938)

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10. Jelly Roll Morton "The Dirty Dozen" (1938)

Nastiest lyric: "I went one day, out to the lake/I seen your mammy fuckin’ a snake."

Jelly Roll Morton was the greatest composer in early jazz, but before that he was a New Orleans whorehouse piano player, and he had an amazing repertoire of filthy songs. He explained that “The Dirty Dozen” was a favorite in Chicago around 1908: “The main theme was the mammy wouldn’t wear no drawers. I thought it was a very disgusting mammy that wouldn’t wear some underwear.”

Fatty Spins “Doin’ Your Mom” (2009)

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9. Fatty Spins “Doin’ Your Mom” (2009)

Nastiest lyric: Your mom’s the best, the super M.I.L.F./ Cause she loves to toss the salad even though she ain’t a chef.

Almost 18 million YouTube viewers can’t be wrong—or maybe they can. Ray William Johnson, leader of the insipid rap trio Fatty Spins, has what's claimed to be the most subscribed channel on YouTube, with over 5 million regular viewers. This is a truly stupid song with a deeply offensive title—but nowhere near as an offensive as these annoying raps.

Max Boublil “Chatroulette (I Saw Your Mother on Chatroulette)” (2010)

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8. Max Boublil “Chatroulette (I Saw Your Mother on Chatroulette)” (2010)

Nastiest lyric: "Bientôt j’irai là où t’as passé neuf mois/Bientôt tu pourras m’appeler papa."

Translation: “Soon I’ll be going where you spent nine months/ Soon you can call me daddy.”

Adolescent stupidity goes international with the French comedian Max Boublil dancing on his bed in his underwear à la Tom Cruise, and singing about how he saw a friend’s mother on the internet chat site Chatroulette. He knows she is the woman of his dreams, even if she won’t show him her boobs. Half love song, half dis—all ridiculous.

Goldie Lookin Chain “Your Mother’s Got a Penis” (2004)

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7. Goldie Lookin Chain “Your Mother’s Got a Penis” (2004)

Nastiest lyric: "She walks around proud, with a short dress on/ Which sometimes exposes the tip of her dong."

Though not necessarily a high point of Welsh hip-hop, GLC’s track did make it into the British top twenty. They’re not insulting your mother, just telling you about her sex-change operation—part of a crusade to make fun of clichéd rap lyrics and society in general, as in their equally popular “Guns Don’t Kill People, Rappers Do.”

Butterfingers “Ya Mama” (2004)

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6. Butterfingers “Ya Mama” (2004)

Nastiest lyric: "By tomorrow night you will be hungover and sick/ And I'll be at my home with yo’ mama on my dick."

There is nothing OK about this song, but what do you expect from an Australian who calls himself Evil Eddie? “Yo’ mama’s on the top of my things to do list” made it to the top twenty Down Under in 2004, and if the dozens are about trying to piss someone off, these guys are definitely on the right track.

Willie D. f/ Ice Cube “Play Witcha Mama” (1994)

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5. Willie D. f/ Ice Cube “Play Witcha Mama” (1994)

Nastiest lyric: "I’m more dangerous than Jeffrey Dahmer/ You wanta play with somebody? Play witcha mama."

Nastiest lyric part 2: "I believe I can get them drawers, 365 cause she’s past menopause. I wanna dive in. And bust a nut on them goddamn Depends."

Taking it back to basics, ex-Geto Boy Willie D. and Ice Cube address a dis to The Source magazine and East Coast critics in general. This is more about playing the dozens than really playing with somebody’s mama, but Willie D made up for that with another song on the same album titled “I Wanna Fuck Your Mama.” 

Daphne and Celeste “Ooh Stick You” (2000)

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4. Daphne and Celeste “Ooh Stick You” (2000)

Nastiest lyric: "Ooh, stick you, your mama too…and your daddy!"

Definitely the most lightweight, goofiest dis song ever. Not sure what these girls mean by “stick you” but the rest of the lyrics are straight-up little kid stuff. The opening lyric is a classic playground family-insult rhyme: "Yo’ mama, yo’ daddy, yo’ greasy, greasy grandmammy." And those silver spandex maxi-skirts are disrespectful to mothers everywhere.

DJ Black “Chucha Su Madre (Your Mother’s Pussy)” (2008)

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3. DJ Black “Chucha Su Madre (Your Mother’s Pussy)” (2008)

Nastiest lyric: "Esta es la cancion de la chucha su madre/ Dedicado pa’ la chucha su madre Translation: “This is the song of your mother’s pussy/ Dedicated to your mother’s pussy.”

This song isn’t really dissing anybody’s mom in particular—more like all mothers everywhere, particularly in Panama. “Chucha su madre” is kind of like “motherfucker,” and the song is about all the chuchasumadres who are messing up life in Panama and how regular folks have to work like a chuchasumadre to make a living. But the insult is front and center, and it was the number one song in Panama for months—so popular that although the previous government censored it, the new president has appointed DJ Black as Minister of Culture.

The Dogs “Your Mama´s on Crack Rock”

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2. The Dogs “Your Mama´s on Crack Rock” (1991)

Nastiest lyric: "I saw the girl again… Yo, Rick, what’re you sayin’?/ She was down on her knees and the girl wasn’t prayin’."

The little kids chant the chorus like they’re playing—OK, they’re playing pretty rough, but it’s still kind of funny. The insults are typical neighborhood disses. But the video is serious as a heart attack, exposing the hard truth behind the jokes of this Miami bass act.

The Pharcyde “Yo Mama” (1991)

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1. The Pharcyde “Yo Mama” (1991)

Nastiest lyric: "Your mama’s so fat… We drove her to the drive-in and she didn’t have to pay / Because we dressed her up to look just like a Chevrolet."

Definitely the all-time greatest surrealist mama rap, this was the first single from the Los Angeles hip-hop geniuses, who provided the perfect balance to West Coast rap’s gangsta lean. The song was an instant classic, though in later interviews members of the group said they left out some of the funniest lines because they were too dirty for radio play.

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