South Side

"South Side" is a song written and recorded by American electronica musician Moby. It was released to radio on October 10, 2000, as the seventh single from his fifth studio album, Play. Initially recorded with No Doubt frontwoman Gwen Stefani, production problems forced Moby to leave Stefani's vocals off the mix of the song included on Play; Stefani's vocals were then restored for the song's single release. The drums are sampled from "What's Up Front That Counts" by the Counts. Although "South Side" was not released in Europe or Australia, it is one of Moby's most commercially successful singles in North America, becoming his only solo single to appear on the US until 2018, when he appeared as a featured artist on A$AP Rocky's song A$AP Forever Billboard Hot 100, where it peaked at number 14. In Canada, the song reached number three on the Canadian Singles Chart. Background In April 2005, Moby stated that "South Side" was inspired by his visits to Chicago and his love for its house music scene, but that its lyrics are intended to be unsettling and imply a connection between getting used to loud music as part of clubbing, and desensitization to violence. Speaking to Rolling Stone on the tenth anniversary of its release, he described it as "essentially a song about abject amorality", as well as a "happy sing-along pop song about kids that become so inured to violence and become so desensitized that nothing gets through to them. It's about people who have become so over-exposed to stimuli that nothing matters to them anymore." During the recording sessions for Moby's fifth studio album Play, Gwen Stefani, lead singer of the rock band No Doubt, offered to perform guest vocals for "South Side". Around the time of the song's recording, No Doubt had recently achieved substantial commercial success with their album Tragic Kingdom, and Moby reflected that he "couldn't figure out why she'd want to go into the studio with me. She was a big rock star and I was a has-been." Moby was impressed by her vocal performance, but he struggled to produce an adequate mix of the song with her vocals, and ultimately left them off the version included on Play.