Tuesday Top Ten: Best "Fuck You" Songs

The only thing as pure as saying "I love you" is saying "I hate you." While there have been an infinite number of popular music songs written about love, there have been some pretty damn good songs written about hate as well.

Whether these songs came about because of scorned love, betrayal of friendship, or just general animosity, they are all great songs with a message of hate.

10. "E.M.I." by Sex Pistols (1977).
What happens when the most influential punk band of all-time gets released by a short-sighted record label? The band strikes back by releasing the most influential punk album of all-time on its new label with a song ripping its old label.

9. "Song for the Dumped" by Ben Folds Five (1997).
I think the following stanza sums things up pretty well:

So you wanted
to take a break
Slow it down some and
have some space
Well fuck you too
Give me my money back
Give me my money back, you bitch

8. "Never Wanna Fuckin' See You Again" by Rich Hardesty (1992).
This is a favorite of anyone who went to IU from the early '90s to the early '00s. Hardesty was a local singer-songwriter who played mostly at colleges in the Midwest, and this song is, as far as I can tell, the best song he ever wrote. Like "Song for the Dumped," it's an unabashedly blunt reaction to a relationship gone wrong. "Whatever happened to me and you / is on page six hundred and seventy two / And that's the end of the book / So fuck you."

7. "You Oughta Know" by Alanis Morrissette (1995).
This song is a poster child for '90s angst, made even better by the fact that it is allegedly about Uncle Joey, who had apparently moved onto a woman with potentially questionably mothering skills who might not fellate him during a movie. Of course the biggest issue is that he told that he would hold her until she died. But he's still alive.

6. "Fuck Wit Dre Day" by Dr. Dre (1992).
The song was a big "fuck you" to Dre's former N.W.A. bandmate Eazy-E, and the video mocking Eazy-E added insult to AIDS-related injury.

5. "You're So Vain" by Carly Simon (1972).
This song is rumored to have been about a wide variety of '70s stars, both hairy and non-hairy, from Warren Beatty to Cat Stevens to James Taylor to Kris Kristofferson to Mick Jagger (who provides backing vocals on the song). Whoever it's about, maybe he's so vain because the song is about him.

4. "Too Many People" by Paul McCartney (1971) and "How Do You Sleep?" by John Lennon (1971).
You can't have one of these without the other. Paul took the first jab at John with "Too Many People," accusing John and Yoko of "preaching practices" and John of taking his "lucky break and [breaking] it in two." In response, on the same album that John implores everyone to imagine all the people living in harmony, he tries his damnedest to rip Paul a new asshole by calling Paul's music "muzak" and saying "the only thing you did was yesterday, and since you're gone you're just another day," a not-so-subtle dig at The Beatles' Paul-written "Yesterday" and Paul's solo song "Another Day." (Unfortunately, Playlist.com does not have "How Do You Sleep?")

3. "Get In the Ring" by Guns N' Roses (1991).
Apparently Axl Rose did not like the way that certain metal magazines were "rippin' off the kids," so he did what any self-respecting musician would do: challenged them all to a fight. Most prominently, he posited that Bob Guccione, Jr. of Spin (son of Penthouse founder Bob Guccione, Sr.) is "pissed off 'cause [his] dad gets more pussy than [him]." Axl then invites Guccione to fuck him and suck his fuckin' dick. Interestingly, Guccione accepted Axl's invitation, although the two never actually fought, which is unfortunate because I would have liked to see Axl kick Guccione's bitchy little ass. (Unfortunately, Playlist.com doesn't have this either)

2. "Positively 4th Street" by Bob Dylan (1965).
When Dylan went electric in 1965, a lot of people in the folk community turned their backs on Dylan, one of them going so far as to call him "Judas" during a 1966 concert. Just as Dylan turned to his band and told them to "play it fucking loud" after hearing the Judas comment, a year earlier, he penned a four-minute barb at his former friends and scenesters who had turned on him. My favorite lines:

Yes, I wish that for just one time
You could stand inside my shoes
You'd know what a drag it is
To see you

1. "Hit 'Em Up" by 2Pac (1996).
Damn. Has there ever been a more pointed, angry song? Obviously, I can't think of one. "Hit 'Em Up" represents the height of the famed mid-'90s East Coast-West Coast rap feud. It starts off innocently enough, discussing the fact that Tupac "fucked" someone's wife. Then he lets some of his crew take jabs at various members of the Bad Boy family, putting forth various methods of murdering them. And then Tupac steps back in and just loses his shit. He starts going insano on all things associated with East Coast rap. He makes fun of some dude for having sickle-cell anemia. He tells various rappers that he will "make sure all y'all kids don't grow." I don't know how much more clear he could have made his message than with the line "We're gonna kill all you motherfuckers." Of course, this may have backfired when Tupac himself was murdered three months later.

Are there any songs I missed?