It wasn’t until recent years that I realized the wintertime duet “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” was kinda rapey. The lyrics remind me of that guy you friendzoned and you’re nice to because you don’t want him to be creepy.
John Legend, a deeply conservative musician who also happens to be a vocal advocate for progressive causes, has rewritten the “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” lyrics with Insecure’s Natasha Rothwell and recorded the new version with Kelly Clarkson, his fellow adult-contemporary mainstay and The Voice affiliate. According to a press release, the “modern and irreverent” rewrite goes a little like this:
I really can’t stay (BABY IT’S COLD OUTSIDE)
I’ve gotta go away (I CAN CALL YOU A RIDE.)
This evening has been (SO GLAD THAT YOU DROPPED IN)
So very nice (TIME SPENT WITH YOU IS PARADISE)
My mother will start to worry (I’LL CALL A CAR AND TELL ‘EM TO HURRY)
The new “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” is one of four new tracks on Legend’s deluxe reissue of last year’s A Legendary Christmas, executive produced by Raphael Saadiq. It’s out this Friday, 11/8.
Sidebar: Ne-Yo just released a Christmas album called, Another Kind Of Christmas that needs to be added to your Christmas music playlist.