1. Trent Reznor's original name.
You see, "Trent" and "Reznor" are simply names that were chosen to tone down the overall image of NIN, which was, and is, a gangsta rap group. "Trent" has had several previous names that he subsequently dropped to remove controversy. Let's look at a few of them....
I bet you didn't know this, but the names of all your NIN albums and CDs have actually been renamed to fit the less gangsta image that NIN is projecting. Here are some samples:
3. Names of songs.Industrial Title Gangsta Title Pretty Hate Machine Straight Outta Mercer The Downward Spiral Downward Spiraling Economy: Blame the Man!!! Broken Broke Fixed Fix It, Bitch!
Here's another piece of NIN trivia: Did you realize that the first single from Straight Outta...uh, I mean pretty hate machine was actually called "Head Like a Ho," but was renamed because of protests from prominent women's groups, the Christian Coalition, and People for the Ethical Treatment of Garden Instruments? There were only 1,000 pressings of this single, so if you have one, it's worth its weight in gold chains! In fact, the song "Big Man With a Gun" is actually a cover of "Nigga Witta Gun" by Dr. Dre off of The Chronic, coincidentally on Interscope Records (1992). Dre naturally sued Trent for "blatantly ripping (him) off." The case was settled out of court.
Some other song changes that you may recognize include "Reptilian Villains," "March of the Base-Heads," "No Happiness in Slavery," "Up In It," "That's What I Git," and "Trigga-Finga."
4. Rewritten song lyrics.
It turns out that the song "Straight Outta Compton" (from the album of the same name, Ruthless Records, 1990) was written while Trent was in N.W.A. At this time, N.W.A. consisted of seven members: Eric "Eazy-E" Wright, Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, DJ Yella, Arabian Prince, MC Ren, and MC Rezno. The original lyrics of S.O.C. had a different flavor, as is seen below. MC Rezno, I mean "Trent," eventually left N.W.A. to pursue NIN (note the similarity in the number of letters in each project) because of "artistic differences" (Yo! magazine interview, 1991).
I managed to obtain the original lyrics of S.O.C. at a swap meet in Compton last summer. In the final album version, Eazy-E has the spoken intro followed by Ice Cube, MC Ren and Eazy-E. However, the original order was Eazy-E, MC Rezno, Ice Cube, MC Ren and Eazy-E. My guess is that they just edited "Trent" out, but this is merely speculation. Anyway, here is the beginning of the song as originally written by N.W.A.
Note: some of these lyrics may be considered objectionable by sensitive persons and Bob Dole. Please skip the following lines if you are one of these persons.
Straight Outta Compton (Ruthless Records, 1988, all rights reserved)
Eazy-E:
You are now about to witness the strength of street knowledge.MC Rezno:
Straight outta Compton, crazy motherfucker named Rez-no'-- greg cardinale
You ask if I'm gay, and I sez' NO!
I got a gatt and a big ol' dick
My hair is BLACK and my dick is thick
And to all you bitches and big-butt ho's
I'm gonna fuck you like an-i-mo's!
I'm fuckin' full o' all that angst-huh
And I'm a motha fuckin' gangst-a...
Comin' straight outta Compton....