Mason & Princess Superstar – "Perfect (Exceeder)" (2006)

You see what I can do on this microphone

So guess what I’m gonna do to you at home

If the last 2 or 3 lines, I quoted a Psychology Today column by Jeremy Sherman that discussed the difference between irony and hypocrisy.

That column also addressed the difference between lying and bullsh*tting:

In his bestselling book, On Bullsh*t, the philosopher Harry Frankfurt distinguished between lying and BS’ing: Lying is knowing you’re not telling the truth; BS’ing is not caring what’s true.  A hypocrite is to their inconsistencies what a bullsh*tter is to falsehoods.  Hypocrites just don’t care if they’re talking out both sides of their mouths, and no one can make them care.

On Bullsh*t, by Harry Frankfurt

Sherman went on to say this:

As a side note, It’s a civic tragedy that we’re stuck with a vulgar term like BS.  We have to teach children from an early age not to grow up to be BS’ers, but we can’t use the term because it’s too vulgar.  That’s like what it would be like to potty train toddlers if the only term for poop were some vulgarity you couldn’t use with children. 

Sherman also offered this observation – which is one thousand percent true:

That’s also a problem with the term “a-hole.”  Teaching people not to be a-holes should start young and yet the prevalent term is one we can’t use with the young.

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Conflicts over what is appropriate to teach in our schools goes back to at least 1925, when a Tennessee high school teacher was prosecuted for violating a state law that banned the teaching of human evolution.

The “Scopes Monkey Trial” ended with the teacher being found guilty and ordered to pay a $100 fine.  Subsequent controversies over the school curriculum have often involved whether the Bible has a place in the classroom.  But Americans have also disagreed over the best ways to teach math and reading, how the country’s racial history should be addressed in the schools, and many other topics.

I’d like to think that if there is one subject on which all Americans can agree, it’s that we need to start teaching children not to be a-holes at a very young age!

Of course, teachers can’t do that job alone.  Parents need to get all up in it if their kids show any signs of being a-holes.

I’m asking each and every one of you to institute a strict zero tolerance policy for acting like an a-hole.  And I’m not just talking about children.  I’m talking about you, mom . . . and you, dad.

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American rapper Princess Superstar (née Concetta Suzanne Kirschner) released a single titled “Perfect” in 2005.  It went nowhere.

In 2006, the Dutch DJ and record producer Mason composed “Exceeder,” an instrumental track that was released as a B-side to a forgettable Italian disco record.

Later that year, someone created a mash-up of the two tracks.  When Mason heard the mash-up, he contacted Princess Superstar and asked her to re-record her vocals on “Perfect.”  Mason then released a new version of the mash-up, which was released as “Perfect (Exceeder).”  It became a hit in many countries, including the UK  (where it reached #3 on the UK singles chart) and Belgium (where it went all the way to #1).

In a 2024 interview, Princess Superstar said that she still didn’t know who did the original mash-up, and offered to buy a fruit basket for anyone who could tell her.

Click here to watch the official “Perfect (Exceeder)” music video.

Click here to buy “Perfect (Exceeder)” from Amazon.