Originally published at: White people in the 80s rapping about karate - Boing Boing
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So everybody was kung-fu fighting? Were they fast as lightening?
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For a minute I was thinking “well this isn’t nearly as bad as most 80s ‘people rapping about weird things’ video could be”… and then the Geishas came out. 
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What is the L.I.E.? search just shows me some movie. Maps shows me What-a-Burger near McLean AFB The DDG AI app doesn’t even want to try.
I was discussing “whitest ever rap songs” with a friend and this one came up:
I mean, Edgar Winter, you can’t get much ‘whiter’ than that.
Long Island Expressway.
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Can’t have karate without ninjas.
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You’re confusing Black people singing disco songs about Kung-Fu in the 1970s with white people rapping about Karate in the 1980s. Totally different phenomenon. (Plus Carl Douglas’ song was actually fun to listen to.)
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It’s got nothing on “Ninja Rap.”
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Damn, I read that as “White people in their 80’s rapping about karate”. I’m… disappointed?
In retrospect that wouldn’t have been more or less terrible, just different terrible.
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You can’t be subtle in the 80s, you have to really pull out all of the cultural appropriation (assuming those are white people in the Geisha outfits).
I don’t know if it’s an unpopular opinion or not, but I LOVE the rap from the first movie so much more.
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I don’t think it’s that unpopular. It’s a good song! My problem with it has always been the part where it’s stated that Raphael is the leader. Nah.
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Not clicking that play button because I can already hear it bouncing around my skull.
Interestingly, that song was the fist time I understood what “stereo” meant. I was at a friend’s and he had recently gotten the soundtrack on tape. When it goes “T U R T L E Power!” it shifts back and forth between L & R channels. Totally mind-blowing.
Yeah, he’s just bossy. Everyone knows it’s Leonardo.
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Word to your okaasan!
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While I think I had noticed stereo music before this, the first song that really stood out was Bohemian Rhapsody on my friends early 90s surround sound system. It was kinda weird how some of the song drops out of the other speakers completely, its almost like a mistake.
Maybe not the leader, but he’s the best! 
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Hai Karate Chimp
Well, after PG Tips sacked them, your friends (username checks out) had to make a living somewhere.
wow. do we know if that’s his actual voice attempting to rap?
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Well, I always just assumed so. . . maybe it’s not.
Or maybe this is the whitest rap ever (I actually saw this guy perform the song live when he opened up for Pete Seeger, using the zipper on his sweater for “scratch effects.” Bravo, sir, bravo.)
Someone needs to approach some label like Numero Group about making a compilation called “Wack! The Worst Raps Ever.”
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Dangerfield is great but his rap is definitely wack
The Waitresses “Christmas Wrapping” is super white but great. then there’s Rappin’ Duke, which is somehow canon. I guess the beat is actually rap tempo rather than the disco tempo that most novelty “rap” records used, and the rhymes – while simplistic – sound like they were made by someone who actually listened to hip hop instead of the outsider lyrics heard in e.g. the OP. but it’s still a head-scratcher how it is so loved and enduring.
I know you know it but for anyone else not familiar:
NOW! THAT’S WHAT I CALL WACK!
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