paperboy "ditty"

Ed, I'm almost 100% certain that the "Radio" mix was also issued on the full length album. There is one place where a lyric was edited out of the song, and it's also this way on the album. The second verse says "every (rhythm) that I see be like 'do you remember me?'" and they clearly edited out the "n" word, replacing it with the word "rhythm" from the first verse.

What's really interesting is that the double tracked vocal is split between the left and right channel. In fact, they left one "n" word in tact on the "Radio" mix, because he only says it in one of the channels. On one side, you hear him say "n****s let go my Eggos," but he says a non-offensive word in the other channel (might also be "rhythm," which was the name of his DJ).

As a side note, he can be heard saying "you ain't seen a damn thing" in one channel and "you ain't heard a damn thing" in another channel.

I just obtained a very rare US CD single of "Ditty," which is an independent release before Paperboy was signed to Next Plateau. This is the only place I've ever heard an explicit version of "Ditty," which is called "Street." (Note this is not the same as the "Divine Street Mix" found on Next Plateau CD singles and the full length album.) Here are the full details:

Cisum Records CIS-001.2
1. "Ditty" (Street) (actual 3:42)
2. "Ditty" (Street Inst.) (actual 3:41)
3. "Ditty" (Radio) (actual 4:18)
4. "The Nine Yards" (actual 3:22)
5. "The Nine Yards" (Inst.) (actual 3:23)
6. "Ditty" (Radio Inst.) (actual 4:18)

There are some noteworthy things about the versions on this disc. First, the all mixes of "Ditty" on this CD single contain the same backing track as the Next Plateau hit version, but the "Street" mix contains a different vocal take and explicit lyrics not heard on any other mix.

The "Radio" mix on this CD is the same vocal take as the Next Plateau hit version, but it is unedited on this release and contains additional lyrics not found on the hit version. Also, Paperboy only sings the chorus ("do the ditty if you want to...") one time in between the first and second verse. (There is no third verse at all.) Obviously Next Plateau heard the hit potential, but it needed a repeated chorus/hook. As such, they cut the last half of the first verse completely (only heard on this rare CD); edited and split the second verse of this version, turning it into the second and third verse of the hit version; and finally repeated the chorus after the second and third verses.

The Next Plateau hit version can almost be spliced together using the version on this disc. The only thing that differs is the last chorus of the hit version. For this, the multi-tracks would've been used to layer the chorus vocals with the end of the instrumental track.