Music

This yearbook quote uses the periodic table to reference Juvenile's "Back That Azz Up"

by Tyler Munro

Like Cee-Lo’s “Forget You” or Mystikal’s “Shake it Fast,” Juvenile’s “Back That Thang Up” was a soft attempt by broadcast media to take the dirty out of the south. Nobody bought it, including a current high school senior who would have been in diapers when the original song first hit the airwaves.

Like when teenager Jessica Lee used the periodic table to write out lyrics from a Notorious B.I.G. song, Atlanta student Paris Gray cited the phrase Juvenile took wide in an almost inspirational bit of rebellion.

“When the going gets tough, just remember to Barium, Carbon, Potassium, Thorium, Astatine, Arsenic, Sulfur, Uranium, Phosphorus.”

Or, translated to the chemical elements:

“When the going gets tough, just remember to Ba, C, K, Th, At, As, S, U, P.”

Sure, the title is actually “Back that Azz” up, but we’ll afford her some wiggle room given there’s no “Z” assigned on the elemental table. The typos, on the other hand, we’re less forgiving of.

Unfortunately the stunt’s gotten her into some trouble, with ABC reporting that Gray’s been stripped of her commencement speaking duties and held out of whatever a “senior walk” is.

“It just completely destroyed me, and my mom’s been telling me don’t let it ruin my happiness but it’s like really taking a big toll,” Gray told ABC’s Atlanta affiliate.

Her mom isn’t mad, though.

“My first reaction was, you are such a nerd,” said her mother, no doubt beaming. She’ll meet with the school today to find out whether Gray will be held out of graduation ceremonies, a pretty tragic overreaction if such a decision actually goes through.

Educators often encourage students to memorize the periodic table mnemonically. So, really, this is their fault.