Abortion Money is a song from the early 2019 era of Mr. Morale that talks about heavy topics such as rape, abortion, trauma; topics that would fit perfectly with the idea that Kendrick had for his fifth studio album Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers. It's very reminiscent of songs such as Auntie Diaries, Mother I Sober, Father Time, etc. that also discuss about heavy topics in a similar way.
For the past year, this song has stirred curiosity within me since its leak more than a year ago. More specifically, the one who is featured on the song: the female vocalist. I tend to wonder who that could be..
And so, I did my extensive research. Here's what I found, I think you might find it interesting.
Abortion Money [V1]
The first version of Abortion Money, also known by other names like Somebody, was produced by Bēkon, Sounwave & Sergiu Gherman.
Sergiu Gherman was involved in producing Mirror and Auntie Diaries from Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers. He was also involved in producing I Am Somebody and I Feel Something. It has been confirmed that Sergiu Gherman produced Abortion Money. 3 days after the song has leaked (June 23, 2024), he has requested YouTube to remove it due to copyright infringement and is worldwide blocked from YouTube. It is different from a record label blocking a song from being shown on YouTube as the dispute process is different.
The original name of that song is Abortion Money - Hook 1. This might indicate that there might be multiple hooks or different versions of the hook for the song.
In music production, it's common to label sections like hooks, verses, or choruses with numbers if there are variations, alternate takes, or iterations. So "Hook 1" implies there could be a "Hook 2," "Hook 3," etc., representing different vocal takes, melodies, or lyrical changes for the hook part of Abortion Money.
Originally thought to be a 2024 song titled "Hollywood" before being debunked as a song from 2019 titled "Abortion Money". Features vocals from an unknown female singer. The song was updated throughout 2020 and became one of the versions of "Somebody" at some point.
Lucy Rose does not sing the chorus, she only ever collaborated with Logic and never with Kendrick so it's highly unlikely. Also the singer does not sound British and as for Lucy, well, she's British. She uses different notes mixed with effects like vibrato.
Taylor Swift does not sing the chorus as was thought and she also has a different voice from the singer. Purely tongue-in-cheek guess with no sonic or industry rationale.
Beth Gibbons does not sing the chorus since her pitch is lower than the singer in the song.
Jessica Maros, found by a friend of mine, is a possible candidate for being the female vocalist of “Abortion Money”. Although she doesn’t have any connections to the producers, it aligns with the theory previously mentioned that lesser known vocalists might have contributed to the hook of the song in a studio session.
She is mainly known for providing background vocals for the song “The Night We Met” by Lord Huron, a track produced by Ben Schneider. Here’s an Instagram reel of a song she previewed back in Christmas of this year. Hard to confirm that it is her, since we are only basing it out of her voice and it might not even be her, but it’s the most possible candidate.
Abortion Money's first version and later versions are confirmed to be made somewhere in April-May 2019 and onwards, alongside “Somebody”.
"Hell calls in the South again" in the lyrics refers to the strides for bans on abortion with the “Heartbeat Rule” in Alabama at the time.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/alabama-abortion-law-governor-kay-ivey-signs-near-total-ban-today-live-updates-2019-05-15/
It is plausible to say that the first version of Abortion Money was recorded around May or late 2019, also around 2019 the snippet for the second version of the song “Somebody” was leaked on May 10th. It’s very likely that both songs were used with each other to create different versions of Abortion Money or Somebody, similar to OG Vent and Out Of Pocket and how Kendrick reused the verse from Vent to what would become N95.
Could be meant for Look Woman. Look Woman (or Look Woman, Amen!) is a real project that was being worked on during the 5-year hiatus but was never completed alongside the 2019 version of Mr. Morale. It's not a horror album like how it was previously rumored, it's the opposite. Songs from this project were given to both Rihanna and Beyoncé. This is rumored so take this information with a grain of salt.
Thought to be sampled but actually interpolates "Things Behind The Sun" by Nick Drake. It interpolates the guitar playing and a part of the chorus is interpolated from the song’s title: “What's one more day left in the sun? / Without you, I'm not anyone”.
It’s possible to say that the song was not released because the sample has not been cleared, though it is unconfirmed.
There is also a possibility that it is a reference hook since Kendrick does use reference hooks quite a lot, just not from known singers typically. It is unlikely that it is the case though since the vocalist has a voice that does not fall under the standards of a “reference hook”.
The “Blessed” reference hooks are supporting evidence that Kendrick was using reference hooks where lesser known vocalists were laying down those hooks for Beyoncé around the same time period. “Blessed” is a song that Kendrick made for himself and later sent to Beyoncé since he wasn't going to use it. This can only be confirmed by people like Zaytop who has given the Kendrick community info dumps about albums like DAMN. and Mr. Morale.
Abortion Money [V2-V?]
The song is claimed to have been updated numerous times in 2020 and became one of the versions of "Somebody" at some point. It's unknown how many versions and when they were exactly made. These versions are currently in circulation. "Abortion Money" was on a lot of 2019-2020 tracklists.
Different versions likely didn't have any new verses, just rearrangements of the verses.
According to Alek, the song was on "E.S." [2019 Tracklist] (The acronym for Mr. Morale's 2019 album name is "E.S.".) and most likely on the Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers [May 2020 Tracklist] but it is not confirmed whether its on that tracklist or not.
The version of the May 2020 album was finished and being mixed and mastered before being delayed due to COVID.
If you would like to help with the search efforts of identifying the female vocalist, join the pgHub Discord Server, go to the #forums channel and check the pinned post.
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