The strange history behind Brian Wilson's lost rap song 'Smart Girls'

The satellite is mourning the nonaccomplishment of euphony icon Brian Wilson, who died Wednesday astatine 82. The beloved beating bosom of the Beach Boys was 1 of the astir influential and consequential minds and voices successful euphony history. From innovations successful signaling to profound lyricism to emotive sounds that person go irrevocably intertwined with our memories and the precise cloth of Americana, that changeless creativity has led his encephalon and our ears down the roadworthy to immoderate … let’s accidental “daring” and “provocative” efforts that didn’t person rather the aforesaid popular civilization footprint of “Pet Sounds.”

Wilson ne'er seemed to brushwood a genre, instrumentality oregon question helium didn’t privation to incorporated into his soundscape. That’s wherefore it’s arsenic astonishing and wholly believable that astatine the precise commencement of the ‘90s helium recorded a rap song, “Smart Girls.” According to Wilson’s archetypal memoir, “Wouldn’t It Be Nice,” a memoir that has been challenged respective times successful court, the thought came astir erstwhile Wilson and his campy were watching an occurrence of hip-hop’s cablegram epicenter “Yo! MTV Raps” 1 time and noticed however galore rap songs were putting girls down, whereas Wilson wanted to marque thing that uplifted women. The thought of Wilson watching an occurrence of “Raps” whitethorn look improbable itself, whether the amusement was successful its Fab 5 Freddy oregon Ed Lover and Doctor Dre incarnations, but backmost successful 1987 the Fat Boys remade Beach Boys’ “Wipeout” that the set appeared successful the video for, truthful hip-hop being successful Wilson’s orbit isn’t wholly far-fetched.

“Smart Girls,” depending connected whose mythology you read, was expected to beryllium the centerpiece and/or large closing fig of his Sire Records medium “Sweet Insanity.” Wilson’s 2nd memoir, “I Am Brian Wilson,” mentions that it’s an medium helium didn’t privation to marque and each country of it was dictated by his onetime therapist Eugene Landy (whom Wilson got a restraining bid from successful 1992 and who would dice successful 2006). Wilson states Landy’s volition with the rubric (that Wilson himself hated) and the album’s conception was the beauteous things that could travel from intelligence unwellness — which would half-explain wherefore the accumulation and lyrics of “Smart Girls” dependable similar specified a pastiche of Wilson’s legendary discography and the shared corporate memories of him wrong the American euphony zeitgeist.

That benignant of accumulation wasn’t excessively acold removed from sample-heavy, Bomb Squad-style hip-hop of the time, and the beats connected “Smart Girls” were handled by legendary hip-hop shaper Matt Dike (Beastie Boys’ “Hey Ladies,” Tone Loc’s “Wild Thing,” Young MC’s Grammy-winning “Bust A Move” and yet Insane Clown Posse’s “Halls of Illusions”). According to Dan Leroy’s 2007 publication astir unreleased albums, “The Greatest Music Never Sold,” “health-nut”-era Wilson told Dike that helium thought the opus was going to marque “millions,” to which Dike (who passed distant successful 2018) thought “What are you, f—ing nuts?!”

That contradicts Wilson’s nationalist commentary connected the opus astatine the time. After the “Sweet Insanity” medium was rejected by Sire, who specifically cited “Smart Girls” arsenic 1 of the large reasons for the shelving, Wilson and Landy sent retired copies of “Smart Girls” arsenic a cassette azygous that Christmas to fans with the enactment “read astir wherefore helium wrote a rap opus successful his conscionable published Harper Collins autobiography” and “This is simply a constricted variation cassingle and not for sale. Only 250 volition beryllium manufactured arsenic a idiosyncratic acquisition from Brian Wilson to you for the holidays.”

One of those cassingles, oregon possibly a consequent bootleg, landed successful the hands of novelty drama vigor big Dr. Demento who had Wilson connected his amusement arsenic a impermanent successful January 1992. After a miraculous speech modulation from Wilson discussing the carnal maltreatment helium endured from his father, Wilson introduced “Smart Girls” arsenic “It’s a achromatic rap song, that’s each I tin accidental for it … we figured we could bash our ain marque of rap.”

While different songs from the still-unreleased “Sweet Insanity” would beryllium rerecorded and yet released connected consequent Wilson projects, namely 2004’s “Gettin In Over My Head,” “Smart Girls” ne'er saw an authoritative release. Still, it’s been circulated among Beach Boys fans done compilations likes Endless Bummer, a legendary instrumentality curated “worst of the Beach Boys” bootleg nestled beside drunk performances of “Good Vibrations” and “You’re So Beautiful,” a Spanish mentation of “Kokomo,” a demo written by Charles Manson and the re-written commercialized jingles for Hyatt Regency and Budweiser (“Be True to Your Bud”).

But for each the things incorrect with “Smart Girls,” there’s thing to beryllium said for some Wilson’s openness to rap astatine a clip erstwhile galore stone icons were inactive not adjacent considering it music, arsenic good arsenic humbly enlisting idiosyncratic similar Matt Dike to assistance alternatively of the hubris of reasoning helium could conscionable marque a rap opus by himself.

Wilson experimented a batch musically; portion immoderate of these results were songs astir transcendental meditation oregon lyrics that were conscionable directions to his location and trying to retrieve a telephone fig (“Busy Doin’ Nothing”), a important fig of these experiments resulted successful immoderate of the top pieces of euphony to ever exist. Even if we don’t person rather arsenic galore idiosyncratic milestones tied to “Smart Girls,” Brian Wilson soundtracked our lives, and we’re each the amended for it.