Results for “competitive rap tradition”

Songs

(Rap) Superstar

Cypress Hill

A cautionary anatomy of the music industry told from inside it, using the fantasy of the 'rap superstar' as bait before B-Real…

disillusionment with fame industry exploitation isolation and family cost

Gangsta Rap Made Me Do It

Ice Cube

Ice Cube uses the media's stock accusation that gangsta rap 'causes' violence as a satirical device, exaggerating the charge…

media scapegoating and moral panic authenticity vs commercial gatekeeping black masculinity and self-reliance

You're a Customer

EPMD

This is a boast track built almost entirely on the battle-rap tradition: Erick Sermon and Parrish Smith trade verses…

braggadocio authenticity vs imitation competitive rap tradition

Ali Rap Theme

Public Enemy

This Public Enemy track functions as a tribute-mixtape theme, weaving Muhammad Ali's own boasts and cadences into Chuck D's…

Black pride and self-definition resistance to state power sports as political theater

Alphabet Aerobics (The Cut Chemist 2 1/2 Minute Workout)

Blackalicious

An abecedarian rap that turns the alphabet itself into a rhyme scheme, with Gift of Gab running from A to Z in a single unbroken…

verbal dexterity and craft competition and battle rap braggadocio language as raw material

The Becoming

Little Brother

This is Phonte's origin-story boast track, tracing Little Brother's formation from college battle-rapping to underground…

hip-hop origin myth competitive rap battling underdog vindication

Ain't No Half-Steppin'

Big Daddy Kane

A pure battle-rap showcase from 1988, this track is Big Daddy Kane doing exactly what its title threatens: establishing…

braggadocio competition/battle rap originality vs imitation

Musical Massacre

Eric B.

A boastful battle-rap track built around fire and combustion imagery, where the MC positions himself as an unstoppable force who…

braggadocio competition/battle rap destruction as metaphor for skill

Ching-A-Ling

Missy Elliott

A club-floor victory lap built almost entirely from boasts and hook repetition, this track is less about narrative than about…

braggadocio female sexual agency wealth and status

Doomsday

MF DOOM

The title track of MF DOOM's debut solo album is both a resurrection and a mission statement. Rapping under a new mask after the…

reinvention through persona mortality and legacy underground rap ethics vs. commercial rap

Oh No

Mos Def

A posse-cut showcase built around G-funk swagger, "Oh No" pairs Mos Def and Pharoahe Monch trading verses over a Nate Dogg hook,…

hustle and self-made success competitive supremacy coastal unity

Sweet

Common

"Sweet" is Common's confrontational rebuttal to the softer, more romantic image he'd cultivated on prior albums, delivered as a…

reclaiming masculinity/toughness hip-hop legacy and authenticity boasting and self-mythologizing

Batting Practice

Souls of Mischief

A posse cut built around a single extended conceit: rapping as batting practice, with each Souls of Mischief member (plus…

braggadocio competition/skill display crew unity

Champion

The Roots

A motivational anthem built around the word "champion," stacking boasts about relentless work ethic against a chant-like hook…

perseverance self-mythologizing competition

Rev On the Red Line

Foreigner

A straightforward car-racing anthem that uses drag-strip mechanics as a vehicle for macho self-definition. The song's pleasures…

speed and risk masculine bravado rebellion against authority

The Magic Number

De La Soul

De La Soul turns Schoolhouse Rock's arithmetic lesson into a manifesto for the trio itself, using the number three as a stand-in…

group identity and unity originality vs. imitation in hip-hop numerology/mysticism as playful device

One Beer

MF DOOM

A boozy, freewheeling posse-cut of a track built on the pun of "one beer" doubling as "one beer left" and a coded jab at fake…

intoxication as metaphor for scarcity/competition hip-hop authenticity vs. imitation supervillain persona

BALD!

JPEGMAFIA

BALD! is JPEGMafia in full battle-rap mode, using his shaved head as a running joke and a badge of honor while he torches…

hypermasculine boasting industry contempt self-image and self-mockery

Early In the Morning

Harry Nilsson

A traditional-blues lament about the aftermath of a lovers' quarrel, delivered as a loose, almost improvisational vamp built…

heartbreak and regret isolation blues tradition

You Know My Steez

Gang Starr

This is a straight-up hip-hop statement of purpose: Guru surveys a rap landscape he considers watered down and reasserts Gang…

artistic integrity authenticity vs. commercialism spiritual/moral authority

Red House

Jimi Hendrix

A twelve-bar blues in the most traditional sense: a man walks to his lover's house only to find himself locked out, suspects…

romantic abandonment resilience through humor the blues tradition itself

Represent

Weezer

A brash sports-anthem pep talk built for the 2010 World Cup, 'Represent' trades Weezer's usual self-deprecation for…

competition and pride integrity versus winning family and reputation

The Fire

The Roots

An anthem of self-motivation built around a simple metaphor: inner drive as flame. John Legend's hook frames perseverance as an…

perseverance self-belief legacy and destiny

Break You Off

The Roots

A slow-burning seduction track built around a repeated come-on hook, in which the narrator positions himself as a superior…

seduction and desire infidelity masculine competition

Go Tell It On the Mountain

Dolly Parton

Dolly Parton's rendition of the traditional African American spiritual carol is a straightforward proclamation of the Nativity…

proclamation of good news communal celebration awe and reverence

La Mañanitas

Nat King Cole

This is Nat King Cole's rendition of "Las Mañanitas," the traditional Mexican birthday and saint's-day serenade, sung not as a…

birth and renewal communal celebration dawn as symbol

Children Go Where I Send Thee

Nick Lowe

This is Nick Lowe's arrangement of a traditional African American spiritual cumulative counting song, built around a…

religious catechism cumulative counting communal call-and-response

Work

Gang Starr

A boastful street-level anthem built around the double meaning of 'work' as both hustle/grind and criminal labor, delivered with…

hustler ethic street surveillance and paranoia status and reputation

Courting Blues

Bert Jansch

A hushed, traditional-sounding love lyric built around a single reassurance repeated to a young woman: come lie beside me, no…

clandestine love youthful courtship reassurance and persuasion

Rhymes Like Dimes

MF DOOM

A dense, boastful showcase track in which DOOM treats rap itself as street-level commerce, comparing his rhymes to cheap…

rap-as-commerce braggadocio and craft irreverent wordplay

What They Do

The Roots

A mid-90s Roots track built around a single defiant refrain, positioning the group's artistic integrity against a hip-hop…

authenticity vs. commercialism artistic integrity hip-hop lineage and craft

Keep Their Heads Ringin'

Dr. Dre

A party-rap flex from the Friday soundtrack in which Dr. Dre spends three verses establishing his sonic and physical dominance…

braggadocio sonic dominance party/hangout culture

Steve Biko (Stir It Up)

A Tribe Called Quest

A three-MC posse cut built almost entirely from boasts, wordplay, and Queens pride, borrowing the name and instrumental cue of…

hip-hop bravado and lyrical skill group identity and borough pride fleeting social consciousness

Listen!!!

Talib Kweli

A hyper-percussive showcase track built almost entirely around the command to "listen," using that word as both hook and thesis:…

attention and distraction authenticity vs. commercial rap self-assertion of skill

C.C. Rider

Lead Belly

Lead Belly's take on the traditional "C.C. Rider" blues strips the song down to its call-and-response bones: a rolling…

betrayal and desire itinerant love (the "rider" figure) sexual boasting and fantasy

Country Cousins

Talib Kweli

A track built around regional hip-hop kinship, tracing how a Brooklyn upbringing steeped in New York rap culture connects…

regional identity in hip-hop cultural kinship and slang as connective tissue coming-of-age through music

Rollin' and Tumblin'

Cream

Cream's version of this Delta blues standard strips the song down to a churning, harmonica-driven groove built on repetition and…

loss and abandonment restlessness travel as escape or fate

The Midnight Special

Creedence Clearwater Revival

CCR's take on this traditional American folk-blues song reworks a prison-camp lament into a swampy rock anthem, keeping its cast…

incarceration and forced labor folk tradition and inheritance longing for deliverance

Róisín Dubh (Black Rose): A Rock Legend

Thin Lizzy

This is Thin Lizzy's most explicitly Irish statement, a medley that stitches together fragments of traditional ballads with a…

Irish identity and heritage oral tradition and storytelling myth and heroism

Voodoo Chile Blues

Jimi Hendrix

This is the slow, extended blues incantation that Hendrix later compressed into 'Voodoo Child (Slight Return),' built around a…

self-mythology supernatural power cosmic/psychedelic imagery