Hentai

Album: Motomami (2022)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • "Hentai" is a type of anime or manga with pornographic content. The original Japanese term describes an abnormal sexual desire or act, as an abbreviation of hentai seiyoku ("sexual perversion"). "I chose it because it's a sensuality, or a sexuality as well," the "Con Altura" hitmaker explained to El Pais regarding the song title. "Many times for me it is much more interesting what is not explicit and the hentai, just for the fact of being drawn. I think it is very sensual and very beautiful."
  • Rosalia delivers the verses of the sexually explicit song in Spanish, but sing/speaks the ecstatic chorus in English.

    So, so, so, so, so, so good
    Good, good, so, so, so good
    So, so, so good, so, so, so good
    So good, hmm
  • Rosalia released "Hentai" as the fourth single from Motomami on March 16, 2022. "In this new album, there's some humor. In my other projects, I didn't allow a sense of humor," Rosalia told i-D Vice. "'Hentai' is much more suggestive, much more erotic for me. Hentai is more interesting than conventional porn. And why not talk about something like that as an inspiration for a song? Having sex is part of life. It's all the same. I put everything on the same level."
  • Rosalia recorded the song with The Neptunes pair of Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo in Miami. The other collaborators were David Rodríguez, Sir Dylan, Noah Goldstein, Michael Uzowuru, Larry Gold, and Jacob Sherman. "I'm doing this for fun. I love the way he makes beats," Rosalia told Billboard of working with Williams. "I love the way he writes."
  • Rosalia wanted to explore the erotic superiority of female energy but was surprised that making an erotic song became a topic of conversation. This showed her the strictures still imposed on women.

    "I've realized that there's something that happens to many women – so many times, people reduce a woman and her talent by limiting her to a prefabricated category," Rosalia told The Guardian. "Pure cliché – the crazy one, the girl boss, the witch, the messy one, the histrionic, the diva. I hope I can dissipate all those useless categories, and take a little bit from each of them, play with all of them in my projects."

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Janis Ian

Janis IanSongwriter Interviews

One of the first successful female singer-songwriters, Janis had her first hit in 1967 at age 15.

Lace the Music: How LSD Changed Popular Music

Lace the Music: How LSD Changed Popular MusicSong Writing

Starting in Virginia City, Nevada and rippling out to the Haight-Ashbury, LSD reshaped popular music.

Jimmy Jam

Jimmy JamSongwriter Interviews

The powerhouse producer behind Janet Jackson's hits talks about his Boyz II Men ballads and regrouping The Time.

Dar Williams

Dar WilliamsSongwriter Interviews

A popular contemporary folk singer, Williams still remembers the sticky note that changed her life in college.

Commercials

CommercialsFact or Fiction

Was "Ring Of Fire" really used to sell hemorrhoid cream?

Reverend Horton Heat

Reverend Horton HeatSongwriter Interviews

The Reverend rants on psychobilly and the egghead academics he bashes in one of his more popular songs.