Originally published at: Rapper performs Eminem's Rap God increasingly faster, hoping to catch Eminem's attention | Boing Boing
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I doubt he will get Eminem to comment on his videos, even if Eminem has noticed. And I think this is partly why.
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Hmm, I am going to have to watch this later.
Is it because rap is always looking forward and finding ways to set themselves a part from the rest, not looking back at the past? Would it be considered “bitin’”?
Biting is discussed in the video, yes. That’s definitely a big part of it. It’s also similar to how, for example, if someone is covering a jazz standard, which is done all the time, it’s not considered ok to just perform a note for note, beat for beat, copy of, say, a sax solo in the middle of a jazz standard. You have to come up with your own spin on it. And with rap vocals, that’s…not really possible. And so all you really see are parodies (Weird Al’s Amish Paradise being a good example), sampling, homages, and copies that make significant changes for some purpose (like Snoop Dogg’s Lodi Dodi). What you don’t see is just a straight, non-ironic cover, comparable to Luke Combs’ cover of Fast Car. It’s just not done.
I can’t even remember a rap song that I’d consider a cover. But, like, couldn’t it be done? Cadence and delivery as well as the style of beats/music have changed so much over time. Couldn’t someone come up with say a RUN DMC classic and make it modern cover?
Some of my favorite rap songs are remixes of originals by UK Big Beat mixers. Since they are using the original vocals, sometimes sped up some, these fall under remixes. But like, here is an example: Original Jungle Brothers and Fatboy Slim Remixed Jungle Brothers. Instead of speeding up the vocals to meet the new BPM, what if you had another rapper redo the lines? That would be a cover of the vocals, while adding your own delivery, and changing the music.
Anyway I will listen to the video in a bit.
Right, but they changed a lot. It’s not like the Luke Combs cover of Tracey Chapman’s Fast Car. He didn’t change anything. That’s pretty common in rock, and you just don’t see it with rap. Yeah, watch the Adam Neely video. It’s interesting.
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It’s more fun to watch someone with actual talent do this with his own lyrics.
Well that was an interesting video. I wish they had more actual black rappers talking about the subject. It’s something I’ve never thought about, but now that they bring it up…
They had two examples rap covers, one being a song, and one being just part of a verse. I am racking my brain, but other than people (mostly white people) who cover rap songs but in a different genre, there isn’t a non-ironic or non-parody rap cover I could think of. Other than the chorus of Bloodhound Gangs Fire Water Burn, but that’s just borrowing a line (and the Bloodhound Gang is borderline parody).
In fact I can think of more Rock covers by Rap artists, than Rap covers by Rap artists, like RUN DMC’s Walk this Way and Insane Clown Posse’s Let’s Go All the Way.
But if someone did do a rap cover, it doesn’t have to be so spot on like Luke Comb’s cover (which while I think is ok, it is a little too on the nose for me). There are so many pop and rock songs that are covers but there is a tonal shift, of a greatly different style than the original. They aren’t ironic, but they are different.
The one black rapper they did have on there, Busta Rhymes, echoed what I was guessing was the main issue going into it - everyone wants to set themselves apart and no one wants to be biting or copying someone. But if someone did a cover of a rap song say one their dad played for them or one they loved as a kid, and made it there own, it would be clear it wasn’t copying or ripping anyone else off, just that they loved the song and wanted to do it.
Who knows. Rap does tend to chase trends, and all it would take is one decent rapper doing a decent cover that takes off and maybe there will be a bunch more. Or maybe this unwritten rule will continue to stand.
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Most of Adam Neely’s videos are pretty interesting. He did one a couple of years ago that he originally titled something like “Is Music Theory Racist,” or something similarly provocative. He retitled the video because I guess he got too much blowback, but he didn’t change the content one bit, and it’s well worth a watch.
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It remind me of the story of the incredible Prince Solo during While My Guitar Gently Weeps for George Harrison’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony.
Apparently in the rehearsal Marc Mann, one of the guitarists, decides to take the first solo, and just plays an absolute exact note-for-note copy of Eric Clapton’s solo, and everybody just plays along, kind of rolling their eyes. And then when Prince is going to take the second solo, Mann steps forward again and plays the same solo again.
It’s the height of gauche, not least because he’s not letting Prince play, but also for copying this solo note-for-note, not once but twice.
Fortunately in the actual performance, after yet another identical copy of the solo, Prince finally gets to play his solo and the rest is history.
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There’s a series on Netflix called Hip-Hop evolution. Iirc in it they said 50 cent was shot over biting people’s rhymes and beats for his own mixtapes. I could be misremembering but there’s real life consequences to biting. There’s also the whole lucrative industry of ghostwriting which breaks new acts into the mainstream. ie. Lil Yachty writing Act Up for City Girls which may account for the reason of no covers. But biting still goes on, I remember Cardi B getting criticized for biting Kodak Blacks No Flockin flow, Drake for biting XXX. For that they get the label of “Industry Plants”
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