"People take things too literally. If you said to a girl change my pitch up, smack my bitch up - she probably wouldn't understand what change my pitch up means. It just works. It's just a hook. That's the only thing behind it. The bitch is the music, not a girl thing. A lot of the girls I know say that's their favorite track. There is no message in Prodigy music really, it's just an expression of hardness. We're not trying to put messages in about 'It's cool to beat up women,' because that's just pathetic. " - Leeroy

”No woman can listen to this song and not know that it depicts abuse and torture of women.”
– protesting feminists.

This teaches violence against women in a form of entertainment. This message is damaging in general, but particularly to children. " - Janice Rocco from National Organization for Women

”I am not a prude, and I think the Prodigy are a very good group, but they should think about the message they are putting out. ... [the single is] particularly offensive and particularly in the sense of violence against women.”
– Barry Gardiner, Member of Parliament (Labour Party)

”While the lyric in question was never intended to be harmful or disrespectful to women or any other group and we sincerely regret that it may have been misinterpreted, the possibility that some will be offended or disturbed by any creative work is a risk inherent in any artistic endeavor.”
– Warner Bros

"That song is probably the most pointless song I've ever written. But live, it works. It works well. Sometimes things can be so fucking simple and you don't need an explanation of the lyrics. Why explain the lyrics? It either works or it doesn't. And for us, it works well live. It's a really exciting track and it's just a good hard track" - Liam
 
"For us, it's just about doing what we want, doing it our way, having fun. That's our way of just having fun. But it's serious in other ways. It's not a joke. This song isn't meant to be taken like a joke. It's a hard song. The sample just works. There's not really one explanation why I put it in there. " - Liam

"It's obvious that Firestarter is not about starting fires. It's about Keith's personality. I thought, "Well, if people are going to kick up a fuss about this, then they're really gonna kick up a fuss about Smack My Bitch Up". It was kind of a joke on the English press in a way, as well. " - Liam

"There's a very funny balance to them really, because they revel in people objecting to things they do. If we don't go ahead it won't be because we've bottled out of being controversial, it'll just be because the band didn't like it. " - A Prodigy spokesman

"They've been playing relatively out-of-the-way places recently. They've developed this style of nipping off and playing places where only the locals turn up. They're in the enviable position of sticking a pin in the map and going where they want. "  - A Prodigy spokesman

Perhaps inevitably, there has been a certain amount of controversy surrounding the Prodigy track "Smack My Bitch Up". As always, it's important that when controversial issues are discussed, they are discussed intelligently and with full regard for the facts of the case. For the record :

- The phrase "Change My Pitch Up / Smack My Bitch Up" is not a lyric, it's a sample, taken from an old hip hop track called "Give The Drummer Some" by Ultramagnetic MCs. The vocalist is Kool Keith, aka Dr .Octagon. "Smack My Bitch Up" is instrumental apart from the use of this phrase.
- Given that there are no more words than that, it's impossible to say that the song exhorts, glorifies, or even describes anything at all.
- The aggressive impact of the sample is carefully balanced by a beautiful female Indian vocal perfomed by Shahin Badar.
- In Prodigy songs, "bitch" doesn't always refer to women - "Firestarter" has Keith singing "I'm the bitch you hated"
- Despite their extreme image, Prodigy are categorically opposed to violence against women - or indeed, any kind of gratuitous violence. Journalists who interview them in person routinely comment about their relaxed, easy going and entirely unconfrontational manner.
- However much the media want to make an issue of this, the fact remains that Prodigy credit their audience with enough intelligence not to literally interpret or act out their song lyrics - no-one committed arson after hearing "Firestarter" (or hyper-ventilated after hearing "Breathe").

Story behind the cover and the release delay