"Girl I've Been Hurt" is a song by Canadian

reggae Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica during the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its Jamaican diaspora, diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, "Do the Reggay", was the first ...

musician

Snow Snow consists of individual ice crystals that grow while suspended in the atmosphere—usually within clouds—and then fall, accumulating on the ground where they undergo further changes. It consists of frozen crystalline water througho ...

, released in April 1993 by EastWest America as the second single from his debut album, ''

12 Inches of Snow ''12 Inches of Snow'' is the debut album by Canadian reggae musician Snow, released in 1993. Edmond Leary and MC Shan produced the entire album, apart from one track which was produced by John Ficarrotta. The album was produced shortly before Snow ...

'' (1993). The song was written by Edmond Leary, Darrin O'Brien (real name of Snow) and Shawn Moltke, and produced by M.C. Shan. Following the wildly successful single "

Informer An informant (also called an informer or, as a slang term, a "snitch", "rat", "canary", "stool pigeon", "stoolie", "tout" or "grass", among other terms) is a person who provides privileged information, or (usually damaging) information inten ...

," "Girl I've Been Hurt" peaked at number 19 on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100, and charted internationally as well. In both Finland and Portugal, it was a top-10 hit.

Music and lyrics

While "

" documented a false murder charge and prison life, "Girl I’ve Been Hurt" presented a more sensitive theme, revolving around a breakup between a man and a woman in a relationship. The protagonist discovers that his "girl" has been cheating on him and he promptly dumps her and professes his desire to "find another lover." Whereas

Jamaican patois Jamaican Patois (; locally rendered Patwah and called Jamaican Creole by linguists) is an English-based creole language with influences from West African, Arawak, Spanish and other languages, spoken primarily in Jamaica and among the Jamaican ...

-inspired lyrics conveyed the meaning of "Informer," "Girl I've Been Hurt" mixed Snow's sensitive

crooning A crooner is a singer who performs with a smooth, intimate style that originated in the 1920s. The crooning style was made possible by better microphones that picked up quieter sounds and a wider range of frequencies, allowing the singer to acce ...

with a short

bridge.

Critical reception

Larry Flick Larry Flick is an American journalist, former dance music columnist, single reviewer, and Senior Talent Editor for ''Billboard'' magazine, where he worked for 14 years. Now he produces and hosts Sirius XM radio shows. Flick started in the musi ...

from ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

'' wrote, "The pop/hip-hop community's latest star follows his platinum-selling smash, "

", with a languid ditty that will solidify his presence at several radio formats. A slick beat-base is firm support for a catchy, sing-along chorus and occasional toasting." A reviewer from ''

Music & Media ''Music & Media'' was a pan-European magazine for radio, music and entertainment. It was published for the first time in 1984 as ''Eurotipsheet'', but in 1986 it changed name to ''Music & Media''. It was originally based in Amsterdam, but later m ...

'' said, "Just for your information, sometimes it snows in May. The white

ragga Raggamuffin music (or simply ragga) is a subgenre of dancehall and reggae music. The instrumentals primarily consist of electronic music with heavy use of sampling. Wayne Smith's " Under Mi Sleng Teng", produced by King Jammy in 1985 on a ...

man now tries his luck with a ballad and the snowball effect will continue on EHR and

dance radio Dance radio is a type of radio format that focuses on dance music, dance and electronic music. These formats typically feature current and recent hits in the genres, and may often include DJ mix, mixshows featuring songs mixed by Disc jockey, DJs ...

." Alan Jones from ''

Music Week ''Music Week'' is a trade publication for the UK record industry distributed via a website and a monthly print magazine. It is published by Future. History Founded in 1959 as ''Record Retailer'', it relaunched on 18 March 1972 as ''Music We ...

'' gave it four out of five, calling it "both powerful and different." He added, "The smooth, loping bass mix by

Sly & Robbie Sly and Robbie were a prolific Jamaican rhythm section and production duo, associated primarily with the reggae and dub genres. Drummer Sly Dunbar and bassist Robbie Shakespeare teamed up in the mid-1970s after establishing themselves separat ...

is exemplary and makes for a more subtle song." Johnny Dee from ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming and culture website, bimonthly magazine, and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a "Rock music, rock inkie", the ''NME'' would be ...

'' was less enthustiastic, viewing it as "a boring swing-beatish smoothy-woothy smoocher for the ladeeez in the house."

Music video

The original music video for the song features Snow pursuing scantily clad women in an isolated, winter terrain. By the end of the video, at an outdoor party that includes a snowball fight, Snow hooks up with "another lover." The video featured much of Snow's early entourage, including his former DJ Marvin Prince, David Eng and the late EZ Steve Salem. In addition, a second "boggle" remix video of "Girl I’ve Been Hurt" appeared and featured the "Snow girls" audition.

Live performances

While performing at Sunsplash '93, Ninjaman asked Snow to sing "Girl I've Been Hurt," saying: "Come up and sing 'Girl I've Been Hurt' because I like that song. If you sing that and the audience doesn't go crazy, I'll shoot everyone in the crowd!" As ''Reggae Report'' observed, "fortunately, the crowd went wild for his performance and Ninja never had to make good on his threats!" See: Patricia Meschino, Reggae Report Vol. 13:3 (1995)

Track listings

* CD maxi # "Girl, I've Been Hurt" (edit) — 4:01 # "Girl, I've Been Hurt" (remix) — 3:57 # "Girl, I've Been Hurt" (Dunbar remix by Sly & Robbie) — 4:00 # "Girl, I've Been Hurt" (Warm edit) — 4:58 * 7-inch single # "Girl I've Been Hurt" (radio edit) — 4:01 # "Informer" — 4:28 * 12-inch maxi # "Girl, I've Been Hurt" (Dunbar remix by Sly & Robbie) — 4:00 # "Girl, I've Been Hurt" (Warm edit) — 5:48 # "Girl, I've Been Hurt" (Dunbar instrumental) — 4:01

Personnel

* Writers: Darrin O'Brien, Edmund Leary, Shawn Moltke * Producer: MC Shan * Executive producer: David Eng, EZ Steve Salem * Co-producers: Edmund Leary, John "Jumpstreet" Ficarotta

Charts

References

External links

Girl I've Been Hurt
on

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Girl I've Been Hurt 1993 songs 1993 singles East West Records singles Snow (musician) songs Songs about infidelity Songs written by Snow (musician) Songs written by MC Shan