{"id":7,"date":"2021-04-03T14:17:44","date_gmt":"2021-04-03T14:17:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/silverjacket.com\/blog\/uncategorized\/the-rapper-as-comedian\/"},"modified":"2025-08-30T02:48:49","modified_gmt":"2025-08-30T02:48:49","slug":"the-rapper-as-comedian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/silverjacket.com\/blog\/funny\/the-rapper-as-comedian\/","title":{"rendered":"The Rapper as Comedian"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"asset-img-link\"\n     href=\"https:\/\/silverjacket.typepad.com\/.a\/6a00d834236afb53ef02788020a824200d-popup\"><br \/>\n    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-286 size-medium aligncenter\"\n         src=\"https:\/\/silverjacket.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/snaps-296x300.jpg\"\n         alt=\"\" width=\"296\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/silverjacket.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/snaps-296x300.jpg 296w, https:\/\/silverjacket.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/snaps.jpg 494w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 296px) 100vw, 296px\" \/><br \/>\n  <\/a><\/p>\n<p>Hip hop has long been a venue for laughter. Consider songs like Eminem\u2019s \u201c<a href=\"%20https:\/\/genius.com\/Eminem-my-name-is-lyrics\">My Name Is<\/a>\u201d (\u201cDr. Dre, don\u2019t just stand there, operate\u201d) and Digital Underground\u2019s \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/genius.com\/Digital-underground-the-humpty-dance-lyrics%20\">The Humpty Dance<\/a>\u201d (\u201cI use a word that don\u2019t mean nothing, like looptid\u201d). But even songs that on the surface appear hard sparkle with puns and one-liners. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/playlist?list=PL3V5eMp50FEy563ggbJayPEw6hgogWuWf\">lyrical intermingling of menace and mirth<\/a> may derive from a tradition in Black culture known as the Dozens, a game in which contestants trade <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Snaps-African-American-Verbal-Warfare\/dp\/0688128963\/ref=sr_1_7?dchild=1&amp;keywords=snaps&amp;qid=1616248423&amp;s=books&amp;sr=1-7\">snaps<\/a>, aka <a href=\"https:\/\/silverjacket.typepad.com\/blog\/2005\/04\/a_portrait_of_y.html%20\">yo\u2019 mama jokes<\/a>, hoping to both intimidate opponents and entertain onlookers.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Some examples:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Jeru The Damaja\u2019s \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/genius.com\/Jeru-the-damaja-come-clean-lyrics%20\">Come Clean<\/a>.\u201d Here\u2019s a man who calls himself \u201cTha Damaja\u201d and insists that he\u2019s \u201creal, rough, and rugged,\u201d warning listeners not to \u201cprovoke the wrath of this rhyme inventor.\u201d Yet he also brags, cheekily, that he can \u201ccontrol the mic like Fidel Castro locked Cuba,\u201d and professes \u201cstyles more fatal than second hand smoke.\u201d Take that, Big Tobacco &amp; sucka MCs!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>GZA\u2019s \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/genius.com\/Gza-liquid-swords-lyrics%20\">Liquid Swords<\/a>.\u201d He declares himself \u201cthe body dropper\u201d and \u201chead amputator,\u201d someone who can \u201cdrop megaton bombs more faster than you blink.\u201d Meanwhile, he argues that your \u201cshit\u2019s played like zodiac signs on sweatshirts,\u201d and that your \u201clyrics are weak, like clock radio speakers.\u201d Your mom&#8217;s a clock radio speaker.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>EPMD\u2019s \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/genius.com\/Epmd-you-gots-to-chill-lyrics%20\">You Gots to Chill<\/a>.\u201d As Parrish Smith informs you that \u201cwhen it\u2019s time to roll, Uzi patrol is packin\u2019,\u201d he more benignly notes that \u201cwhen it\u2019s time, [I\u2019ll] issue dig-em-smacks.\u201d His partner in crime, Erick Sermon, similarly brandishes (metaphorical) weaponry at the opportune moment: \u201cPack a nine in my pants for when it\u2019s time to roll.\u201d Yet he also advises, helpfully, \u201cif you tired, then go take a nap!,\u201d though you might regret your decision, \u201cbecause right now, I\u2019m \u2019bout to\u00a0shake and bake.\u201d These rhymes make me scared and hungry.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I\u2019ve picked classic examples from when I listened mostly to hip hop (80s and 90s), but feel free to share more recent specimens in the comments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hip hop has long been a venue for laughter. Consider songs like Eminem\u2019s \u201cMy Name Is\u201d (\u201cDr. Dre, don\u2019t just stand there, operate\u201d) and Digital Underground\u2019s \u201cThe Humpty Dance\u201d (\u201cI use a word that don\u2019t mean nothing, like looptid\u201d). But even songs that on the surface appear hard sparkle with puns and one-liners. The lyrical [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,4],"tags":[7,11,8,10,6,9,5],"class_list":["post-7","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-funny","category-language","category-music","tag-comedy","tag-epmd","tag-funny","tag-gza","tag-hip-hop","tag-jeru","tag-rap"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/silverjacket.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/silverjacket.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/silverjacket.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/silverjacket.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/silverjacket.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/silverjacket.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":295,"href":"https:\/\/silverjacket.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7\/revisions\/295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/silverjacket.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/silverjacket.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/silverjacket.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}