Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Music "We Don't Understand Rap Lyrics, or How To Make Fun of Them."
Posted by Benjamin Sutton on Wed, Aug 12, 2009 at 3:39 PM
This single-serving blog Snacks and Shit (and other ridiculous rap lyrics) was recently brought to my attention, and while I'm all for holding rappers accountable for the dumb/offensive/ignorant things they sometimes say, the two Los Angeles-based writers behind Snacks and Shit (Chris Macho and Chris D'Elia) are terrible at it. They regularly isolate half a rhyme that makes sense so that it appears nonsensical, as with the Nas line "I got my eyes glued on" from "New York State of Mind Part II," which continues "... whoever walk in or leave." It's not a surrealist joke, he's talking about being vigilant while gambling at an illegal craps table. The writers also aren't funny, even when working with excellent material, for example:
Our own Mike Conklin had funnier things to say about this line in a recent Pop Scene: "while I'm less into that part, I think it would be really cool if that could really happen. Or if that had happened on Degrassi, I should say." But their inability to write funnily — Macho is a writer, D'Elia is a comedian and a writer — isn't the worst thing about Snacks and Shit.
They regularly (try to) crack jokes about really canonical hip hop lyrics, thereby revealing how little they actually know about rap (or humor, for that matter). Making fun of something you don't understand isn't funny, it just makes you look dumb. For instance:
Also:
And here a bad joke about a great line is made worse by the lack of any research:
Do they not have Peter Pan buses in SoCal?
It's not all bad, though, just mostly. Sometimes they pick a great rhyme and kill it with the punchline. For instance:
So, I guess you should read Snacks and Shit very selectively, and not hesitate to call them out when they say things that are dumber than the rhymes they're trying to ridicule.
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