Results for “disdain for imitators”

Songs

Proper Aim

Souls of Mischief

This is a straight-up posse cut built for braggadocio and lyrical sparring, with each member of Souls of Mischief taking a verse…

lyrical supremacy competition/battle rap posturing craftsmanship as identity

Does This Ski Mask Make Me Look Fat?

JPEGMAFIA

A boastful, scattershot flex track in which JPEGMAFIA mocks rivals as fake and passive while asserting his own hunger,…

authenticity vs. imitation hustle and self-made success braggadocio and dominance

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

Get Ur Freak On

Missy Elliott

A pure sound-and-swagger track built around a hypnotic, bindi-and-bhangra-inflected beat, where Missy Elliott spends most of the…

self-assertion dominance and rivalry sound over sense

What You Need

Main Source

This is a straight-up posse-cut boast record, built entirely around the trio asserting their superiority over rival crews and…

braggadocio group unity authenticity vs. imitation

Is It Live

Run-DMC

This is a straight braggadocio track built around DMC and Run trading boasts about their microphone supremacy. It's less a story…

boasting and self-mythologizing rap as combat authenticity vs imitation

Quiet Storm Remix

Mobb Deep

A hardcore posse cut in which Prodigy and Havoc trade verses built on threat, street pedigree, and blunt boasting about their…

street violence as credential hip-hop as drug/addiction metaphor hardened survival and fatalism

Antenna

The Church

A terse, accusatory song that reduces another person to a receiving device rather than an independent mind — someone who merely…

authenticity vs. imitation surveillance and gossip psychic/technological metaphor

WTF (Where They From)

Missy Elliott

A regional-dance chant becomes a vehicle for Missy Elliott to assert her singularity as a rapper, alternating between mocking a…

regional identity and dance culture braggadocio and self-mythologizing female sexuality and power

Chicken Grease

D'Angelo

A loose, groove-first party track built around a nonsense-turned-metaphor phrase, D'Angelo uses the image of frying grease as a…

funk as physical/spiritual force dance as communal release authenticity vs. imitation

Somebody Groovy (Single/)

The Mamas & the Papas

A breezy mid-'60s pop-folk number built around a single, uncomplicated wish: the narrator wants a partner who can genuinely…

romantic longing authenticity vs. imitation desire and restlessness

Full Clip

Gang Starr

Full Clip is a boastful, aggressive posse-cut-style anthem in which Guru delivers a barrage of battle-rap threats, positioning…

braggadocio and dominance authenticity vs. imitation violence as metaphor for skill

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

New York

Sex Pistols

A snarling takedown aimed at a specific rival figure in the New York rock scene, accusing them of being a derivative fraud…

authenticity vs. imitation rock scene rivalry contempt and insult as art

Award Tour

A Tribe Called Quest

A victory-lap travelogue disguised as a posse cut, where the pleasure of touring the world with a hip-hop crew becomes the whole…

hip-hop craft and lineage global travel and touring life authenticity vs. imitation

Like It Like That

A Tribe Called Quest

This is a loose, party-floor track built around a simple pickup-line scenario that expands into a broader meditation on musical…

pleasure and confidence musical self-assurance community and loyalty

Quiet Storm

Mobb Deep

"Quiet Storm" is Mobb Deep in pure flex mode: Prodigus and Havoc trade verses built on weapons talk, street credibility, and a…

street violence and survival hip-hop as addictive substance hardened masculinity

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

Only the Real Survive

Main Source

A boast track built around the group's own name, this song positions Main Source as unassailable veterans in a hip-hop landscape…

authenticity vs commercialism hip-hop lineage and veteranship self-mythologizing wordplay

Corpse Pose

Unwound

A short, mantra-like song that treats a yoga pose associated with total relaxation and imitation of death as a metaphor for…

nihilism dissociation distrust of perception

As the Rhyme Goes On

Eric B. & Rakim

This is Rakim's manifesto on rap as immersive craft, treating his own rhyme-writing as a hypnotic, almost physical force that…

MC skill and self-mythologizing hip-hop as mental/physical possession crowd control and live performance

Belated Promise Ring

Iron & Wine

A hazy, impressionistic sketch of a domestic relationship rendered almost entirely through small physical objects and gestures…

domestic intimacy memory and impermanence stubbornness and independence