"Get it?" Why do rappers explain their own lines in the Age of Rap Genius?
Rappers have many wonderful traits — facility with rhymes, great storytelling abilities, clothing lines, etc.
But sometimes they do things that make us bristle — like explaining their own punchlines — and we must hate on them for it.
A classic offending example, from Fabolous' “A Milli” freestyle:
I’m like Obama to these silly muhfuckas
And you niggas is Clinton, Hill Billy muhfuckas
Nigga said you niggas is Clinton. Hill Billy muhfuckers
Hillary, Bill Clin— Fuck it, they don’t get it
Don’t fuck it! We get it! Whether Fabolous thinks the joke is over the head of his audience or it’s coming from a place of insecurity (or both) we’ll never know, but we do know it’s annoying and takes the zip out of the original joke.
Here’s Fabolous again, from “Rewind”, gratuitously pointing out that Timbaland is a type of boot:
Used to buy you nice shoes, keep you looking feminine
Nowadays, I just want to give your ass the Timbaland
Yeah, the boot; yeah, you’re cute
Dear Fabolous: 100% of your readers have been to a mall. xoxo, RG
As with most things in hip-hop, Young Hov is in a category all by himself. He has some of the most egregious examples, like this from “Party Life”:
Your boy’s off the wall, these other niggas is Tito
Damn, hey baby I said I’m off the wall I’m like a young Michael Jackson
These other niggas is Tito
Shout out to Randy
The reference to Michael Jackson’s Off the Wall is obvious to anyone in the 1st-3rd worlds. Off The Wall only sold…let me see here…20 MILLION COPIES! And the “Damn, hey baby I said” is so awkward it makes me physically uncomfortable just thinking about it. Who is he talking to?
Here’s Jay-Z again, from “Back in the Day”, making a clever joke then ruining it:
So you gots to chill ‘cause I kill at will like solid water, dude
Y'all niggas don’t get it. “Kill at will”? “Solid water”? — Ice Cube!
We get it.
As an aside, how have no rappers beefing with Ice Cube (Mack 10, Cypress Hill) made a sublimation themed diss about him melting? (“I turn ice cube into vapor / I sublimate ya”)
On the Clipse’s “Kinda Like a Big Deal”, Kanye makes a subtle department store pun and then rushes to point it out:
Fire Marshall said I took it to the max like T.J.
Y'all ain’t peep? I said “Marshall’s”, replay
But old school examples are even more overt. Here in “Love’s Gonna Getchya” KRS-One lets us in on a little neighborhood secret: a pound is a type of handshake!
I give him a pound — oh, I mean I shake his hand
He’s the neighborhood drug dealer — my man!
To be fair to KRS-One, there’s also a fist pound / pound of drugs ambiguity going on here. Much like…
Big Poppa himself succumbed in an immortal, if emasculating punchline on “Brooklyn’s Finest”:
If Fay' have twins, she’ll probably have two ‘Pacs
Get it? Tu-Pac’s?
But the worst offender of all time has to be Big Daddy Kane, widely hailed as a techinical master but definitely not on your iPod, on “Pimpin Ain’t Easy”:
The Big Daddy law is anti-faggot
That means no homosexuality
(shakes head)
If you’re so anti-homosexuality Mr. Kane, then WHO COMMISSIONED THIS PAINTING?
What are your favorite over-explained lines?
