Heard MJ’s song You Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’ on the radio today. I always assumed that I was misunderstanding the lyrics, and finally looked it up. Sure enough:
Any clue as to what this is supposed to mean? It sure beets me and that’s no chive.
Lettuce think about that for a bit.
I don’t think MJ ever leeked what those lyrics meant.
Call any vegetable.
Did he write it before or after “Beet It?”
If enough people post, the answer might turnip.
But if he were trying to keep it secret, the answer would have leeked by now.
I’ll think about it tamale.
It’s about his early career in a hip hop group.
He was a rap scallion.
You know, a lot of people dont bother about their friends in the vegetable kingdom.
With the great Flo & Eddie on lead vocals! I love the version on Just Another Band From LA.
(by the way, where can I go to get my jeans embroidered in Fullerton?)
Maybe it represents some sort of ap-peas-ement, which will undoubtedly be squash-ed and s-corn-ed.
Could he have been writing about his break up with his wife, Lisa Marie Parsley?
:D:D:D:D:D for the win.
But his day job was cleaning pots and pans in the palace kitchens, where he was known as the rap scullion.
My old roommate was convinced that the lines at the end of the song – “Mama-say mama-sah ma-ma-coo-sah” – were actually “I’ve been saved by the sound of mambo sauce.”
I’m betting that mambo sauce would go well on those vegetables. 
If only he were still with us, so we could pepper him with questions!
I’m sure he wouldn’t carrot all
Mambo Sauce does sound delicious. In a New Orleans kind of way.
And all this time I thought he said “You’re a vegetable, your a vegetable-ah. In the '80s, your a vegetable.”
I’ve been hearing wrong all my life. There should be a name for this phenomenon. . .
As it turns out, it’s a real thing (it’s a style of sweet barbecue sauce, and is also known as “Mumbo Sauce”), and is popular in and around D.C.
There’s even a band which named itself after it; I really hope that they do a cover version of “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’.” 