while this made me smile, it also made a little piece of me cry inside (thanks chuck):
let's be honest though, generally, muppets make raman happy.
but on the topic of gangsta rap, what is it with our fascination of it in our parody/pop culture? is it the juxtaposition of such a violent musical medium on top of seemingly innocent things (like geek movies and "innocent" starlets, see below)? if this were simply the case, then why wouldn't we be seeing more death metal parodies (beyond trogdor)? i think the more obvious racial cues/differences are where the answer lies.
anyhow, i figured i'd share some other raman favorites (in chronological order of my original consumption):
i certainly don't claim to be an expert in this space (musical parody yes, gangsta rap, no), but would love to hear your thoughts (and/or any GR parodies you want to share).
Obviously, you are asking me to comment.
ReplyDeleteRacial Cues? Hmm. The easy answer would have been that rap achieved a much higher level of popularity than death metal ever did (I think, go look that up). Or that it is easier to make a decent rap song (a good song is tough) over a decent death metal song (because you actually have to be able to "sing" or whatever they call that vocal stuff over death metal). Or that you have a higher word count in rap music, so it is easier to write funny songs.
But you are right. And I often forget how right you are. Maybe less so than on your vidoes here (especially the last video, which feels like a play on the Beastie Boys, who most people think are white), but the mobile leprechaun video you posted earlier really hammered home the difference.
When I saw it I was pretty proud of them and actually a little envious. It looked like they were having so much fun, and where I grew up people were way too serious to do something like that. When I looked up other people's internet responses, many were about calling the people from Mobile stupid. They couldn't see past their black skin to realize it was a joke. An excuse to hang out and have fun and get on TV.
I often pointed out that black people never really fit in with the rest of American culture, even though we were here before the Jews, Italians, Eastern Europeans. And probably wouldn't fit in before Hispanics and Asians that came even later. The last time I said that, the comeback was "Obama." It will be very interesting how much his candidacy changes race relations in this country by the time its over.