Thugg Lyfe

Suggestion for an upcoming challenge: grab lyrics from your favorite gangsta rap song and use them in a decidedly not-hip-hop style.

Lyrically, these gangsta emcees execute the most gymnastic of maneuvers. What would these raps sound like if they were sung?

Thoughts?

posted by man vs sun (9 comments total)

They'd sound like this.
*shudder*
posted by chococat at 8:08 AM on November 23, 2009 [1 favorite]

That was, quite possibly, the best thing ever. The ending was a bit...odd, but the douchebag orchestra was made of incredible amounts of win. That's actually the kind of thing I'd like to see with this...maybe even some more abstract interpretations, or whatever comes to mind. I think it's a pretty entertaining idea, at least.
posted by askmeaboutLOOM at 11:36 AM on November 23, 2009

Interesting idea mvs. I tend (wrongly, obviously) to think these rap things all sound the same. I guess also because I'm a white, middle-class, middle-aged Scot there's a cultural gap (urban USA - mostly young black men and women) that I simply can't bridge. In other words (sic) - I don't get it. At all. Apart from that, the rap always seems to be very, very wordy - rattled out like a machine gun. So trying to find a melody line that will fit the bill will be very challenging indeed.

A variant on this idea - and one that is actually not that far away from it really - is to widen it out to include poetry set to music. I'd enjoy that challenge very much. In fact......it could go even broader and include, for example, someone rapping a Shakespeare sonnet over a backing track. Heh.

Exeunt.....
posted by MajorDundee at 12:19 PM on November 23, 2009

A classic example.
posted by The Great Big Mulp at 9:32 AM on November 25, 2009

My band once did a cover of Young MC's "Busta Move" - bass, drums, acoustic and electric guitar, 2 singers. Very fun.
posted by robotot at 11:00 PM on November 25, 2009

haha, I'm reminded of Dynamite Hack or that Nina Gordon NWA cover...
posted by First Post at 12:15 AM on November 28, 2009

I think there's potential here, but every time I hear one of these I feel embarrassed for the coverer and the "giggle giggle oh tweeing up rap is so ironic!" vibe they usually use.
posted by ignignokt at 9:35 AM on December 1, 2009

That's pretty much how I feel, ignignokt. Unless there's some thought put into actually re-enterpreting the song, it just becomes a thin one-note joke about context. That and the whole shmarmy winking irony of it make me feel like I'm wearing an itchy sweater.
posted by chococat at 9:56 AM on December 1, 2009

I'm definitely on board with that! It's an inspiring idea. Although I might have to go with "shouted not rapped," which is less of a divergence in light of MOP and the like.
posted by ignignokt at 1:24 PM on December 1, 2009