I’m gonna go ahead and assume that Eric S. missed this passing in his column.
Honestly, Professor X used to scare me when I was smaller. He looked like my Unvle Butch with a gang of beads on.
He would begin and end just about any X-Clan song with these words…
“Vainglorious! This is protected by the red…the black…and the green! Sissseeeeeeeeee!”
No, he wasn’t talking about Voltron.
R.I.P.
White Folks Strike Back
When we last we spoke, I shared a query that I’ve held for quite some time…
I wanted to know what it takes to make a crossover rap song. More specifically, I wanted to know what makes white people endeared towards certain rap songs to the point that they wild the f*ck out when it comes on at a club…ten years after the song was released.
I came up with a few answers on my own: safe images, simple beats, and catchy hooks all seemed to be reliable ingredients. But not being white myself, I don’t understand why the formula works for some songs and not others. Why would for instance, “Summertime” from Will Smith take off, but not “Boom Shake The Room”. They both suck equally to me, but for some reason mainstream America embraced one and ignored the other.
Since I needed help understanding white folks, I solicited white folks’ opinions. Hell I don’t even understand the shit that my own folks do sometimes, I need some help with that, too. But I probably won’t get it here…
Some of our fairer skinned readers chimed in with some opinions about “the crossover”.
In case you’re reading this on a laptop under a boulder, these are examples of crossover rap songs:
Cypress Hill – Insane in the Membrane
Kriss Kross – Jump
House of Pain – Jump Around
Sir Mix-a-Lot – Baby Got Back
Tone Loc- Wild Thing
Disclaimer: Just in case you’re thinking this is some kind of cultural-elitist judgement of white people, be comforted by the fact that you’re partly right. But also know that I would understand if a white columnist had asked me why I like They Might Be Giants and Cake. I don’t look like the rest of their fans.
Now on to the white-male mail-bag.
The ever engaging Colin begins with an interesting question…
Are we even allowed to be called “folk”?
Anyway, speaking from my own experience, as a kid I got into “Can’t Touch This”, “Jump Jump”, “Ice Ice Baby”, “OPP”, “Bust a Move”, “Insane in the Brain” because I was told it was good. I wasn’t a big music guy as a kid, but in grade 6 at the school (un-hip) hops everyone was telling me this stuff was cool. So I followed suit and got me a Charlotte Hornets cap and kept the label dangling.
I started getting some rap tapes, and I found out I even was into reggae! Cuz Vanilla had a song called “Rasta Man”. Wow, reggae!
All this seemed normal while growing up in multicultural Toronto, until I moved out to the burbs in grade 7, and I started getting called a wigger. White people don’t listen to rap. And the skaters who had Cypress Hill t-shirts? “Cypress is not rap!!!!!!! Eww!”
So I stopped listening to it until I was about 20, and I did what a lot of white folk who want to be “down” do: I went “underground” and got with the “backpacking” sound.
But since you’ve asked the question, I’ve been thinking for an answer, and I think I have the outline of one; white girls love pop. There’s something about a 3 minute ditty with a catchy hook that makes their knees buckle. It’s safe. It’s happy. It’s fun. It’s something that they can all jump around together and scream (on a side note, when I was in university the Indian girl next door to me in res would blast her bad techno with her friend at 3 in the morning and they would scream for every song. How do you get excited and scream for a song that you’re playing from a CD? Isn’t the thrill that you don’t know what’s next in the club?).
For all that stuff you mentioned, they follow the formula for pop music, and isn’t really alien to whitey. Sure, it’s a bit different, but it’s pretty familiar. It’s not so outrageous.
As for the kids who look like the guy from the Offspring video, they just want to get their parents mad so they listen to G-g-g-g-g-Unit!!!! All their mommies and daddies grew up in the 60s so rock and roll is cool, man. Add in that rock stars are a bunch of whining politically correct babies nowadays, and the kids flock to hip pop. Never underestimate a kid’s desire to drive mom and dad nuts.
That’s how it seems from this side, but I could be off base.
peace,
Colin
To answer the “folk” question…yes its okay to call whites folks. In fact it was the nicest pronoun I could think of…
Colin’s comments do give us some perspective. He first describes being into poppy rap stuff because he was the thing to do in sixth grade. He would later delve deeper into music and become a more active listener instead of a passive one. So maybe hip-hop songs can imprint themselves onto the mainstream consciousness if the listener is in a particular developmental “phase”.
I’m not whether this is the exception or the rule, though.
While Colin might have grown into some sort of sense, I’m not sure if other pop-rap fans ever reach the point where they reflect on their musical choices and realize their folly. I’m sure that some do, but for the sake of finding our crossover formula, I’m more interested in finding out why those skater kids didn’t think that Cypress Hill was rap music.
…wait…
Before we go any further…
Is there anyone else out there that doesn’t think that Cypress Hill is rap music?
If so, I’ll deny my urge to thrash you long enough to consider your reasons why…
Colin goes on to make a good point about white girls loving pop music and crossover rap songs fitting the familiar pop format. But other than the “catchy hook” he doesn’t really go into to detail about what makes a song fit this format. Not that I blame him, I don’t really understand it either…
Asian reader Patrick gives us another piece of the puzzle…
My friend and I were just discussing along this kind of line the other day.
First off though, neither of us are white, he being of Spanish/Fillo origin and myself Asian, but we do have a number of white friends who weren’t really into hip-hop at all until around the time 50 Cent released 21 Questions…
We figured there are a number of things which can help a song cross over.
Firstly, the white person often has to have at least 2 hip-hop fan friends who will talk about it, play the music and buy CDs around the person.
These fans might like the Commons and Mos Defs or they may like the 50 Cents and Nellys, either way, these friends will help introduce, often without realising it, that person to the hip-hop world, whether it be through second-hand hearing of the music or watching the videos on MTV while visiting friends.
We discovered through our experiences with them, they could recognise a beat from a block away by the bass line or Lil Jon sound.
And when I thought about it, lot’s of the songs you mention have really catchy recognisable beats.
These days, I think it’s easier to see cross over hits. These will be the songs played over and over again at clubs and each time the first bars hit, everyone loses their mind and starts rhyming off the hook and bits of the verses that have stuck in their head.
These are often the people that scratch their head when DJ Premier or J Dilla beats come on but have no trouble identifying the keys of Scott Storch, the shit that is Lil Jon or samples of Kanye.
It’s also the fact that many fans of the Top 40 nature will have no idea where rap came from, or the sorry state that it is in today. They will talk about how strong last years releases were, citing The Massacre and…The Massacre (“It sold over 1 million in a short first week!!”).
Which unfortunatley means that when The Black Eyed Peas latest headache inducer hits the radio, they rejoice, unknowing that the Black Eyed Peas are becoming the biggest sellouts of recent years. If the BEP suddenly put out a song reminisce of their old catalog, it probably wouldn’t break the Top 100.
The combination of a catchy, recognisable beat, simple and memorable hook with non-threatening subject matter (if there even IS subject matter presented in the song) and possibly an associated dance (Lean Back…) will help a song cross over (IMO).
And because people are mainly resistant to change, we are forced to endure the same old song formula over and over again.
It’s always enjoyable reading your perspective on things like this.
Cheers
Patrick R
Patrick, while not being the pop-rap fan himself, brings us closer to understanding the phenomenon.
If I am interpreting him correctly, he seems to be saying that the casual rap fan makes his or her choices based on a cross section between what those close to him/her recommend and what is catchy. I’m sure video and radio reinforcement is a factor in there, too.
Basically, if casual-rap-fan’s buddies (who are actually into hip-hop) recommend Kweli, Common, and Nelly then casual-rap-fan will be more likely to remember Nelly since “Grillz” is on every radio station at the same time.
This is a very good basis for a theory about current crossover songs, especially since rap is now viewed by mainstream America as the “cool” genre of music. This line of thinking seems to state that the mainstream sixth graders that thought “OPP” was cool simply grew up to think that 50 Cent was cool, because somebody told them that it was cool. The only question that remains is why someone thought that it was cool in the first place.
In making his point about the Black Eyed Peas, Patrick brings attention to something that I would like to further highlight: The lack of institutional memory of the average hip-hop fan. This is a problem that cuts across all aspects of the hip-hop community (except the backpackers, we hold grudges).
Most of BEP’s current fans don’t remember that as late as 2000, the Peas were all about breakdancing and live instruments. Likewise, none of the Diplomats fans remember all the times that Cam’Ron failed with single attempts before “Oh Boy” saved his career. This lack of institutional memory is also the reason why hit R&B songs can sample hit rap songs from three years prior and no one seems to notice. I guess its easy to prey on a society full of people with ADD.
But that’s another conversation.
So far our ingredients for the crossover rap song are:
Catchy Hook
Simple Beat
Safe Image
Media Airplay
Unfortunately, this doesn’t put us too much closer to the answer than we were last time.
Not-the-average-reader Dharma had this to add…
As your Not So Average White Man, I thought I would add my 2 sheckles to the puzzle of a crossover hit, more specifically a Hip Hop crossover hit.
My brother was heavily into rap back in the 80s. More along the lines of 2 Live Crew, NWA, and even some lesser known acts that I can’t remember the name of. Through this, I also read up on all the groups I liked. Digital Underground was actually a throwback to the days of Funkadelic. I know…they sampled a lot of Clinton, but unlike De La Soul, they actually acknowledged where their influences lay. Not to knock the De La, cause they were actually the first rap tape that I ever bought. THere are common things I have noticed in crossover hits, however:
A simple beat: This can range from the Humpty Dance to Hip Hop Hooray.
A lyrical hook: Humpty Dance, Jump Around, Insane in the Membrane, Kriss Kross, all these things have one thing in common. Each chorus has a simple patter, and when you couple that to a simple beat, it helps the song.
Here’s how they lasted…Each one of these groups had talent. Before the release of Sex Packets, DU sent out a bunch of “informative” flyers about this new legal drug called Sex Packets. Inside this piece of wonderfully crafted fiction was the idea behind the concept. It was so prevalent before and during the release of said album that an actual professor with a bunch of letters behind his name came forth and announced that this drug did not in fact exist. Plus there’s the image of the band itself. Hearkening to the days of P-Funk, the MC and his alter ego ripped lyrical on just about everything that they could. Shock G said in an interview with Mondo 2000 that he likened Humpty to Sir Nose from Parlament. Bear in mind that they were the first to give Tupac some exposure before Death Row got a hold of him.
Then there’s House of Pain, which begat Everlast. The appeal is everything I said above with an addition: They’re white. The thing that gives them cred is they are Irish American. The Irish in American is a Love/Hate Story. In the early days, when many more of them came over the sea thanks to the Potato Famine (Look it up, I’m lazy), they were treated as second class citizens. It’s called a Paddy Wagon because usually Paddy (a derrogatory term for an Irishman) would get tossed into the wagon. Sure the propensity for Irishmen to get roaring drunk didn’t help things, but more often than not, Paddy just happened to wander into the wrong neighborhood sometimes.
Then there’s Cypress Hill. The pot references help them, because a lot of white kids get high. Including myself. Try not to faint. *grin* Insane in the Membrane is a simple beat, a lyrical hook, with the added bonus of a couple of good musicians and MCs at the helm to help the success of the song go. Can you honestly count how many times that song has been used in the movies since it came out? You might run out of fingers before you run out of toes to count on, but the fact that it has been used adds to its’ appeal.
Anyway, that’s the songs I know and love.
Saint Dharma
At first glance this e-mail just leaves us with more questions, like:
1. Why is this white man named Dharma?
2. Why did he sneak a history lesson into his e-mail?
3. Why is this white man named “Saint” Dharma?
In all honesty, though, brother Dharma brings us one step closer to what I believe is our answer. He states that one thing that all crossover rap successes have in common is that they all genuinely have some sort of talent. I think that we can safely say that no matter how we might feel about any of these artist’s crossover attempts, they all possess some sort of musical talent. Sometimes, as in the case of House of Pain’s Everlast and Cypress Hill’s DJ Muggs, this crossover hit is what introduces this talent to the world.
But I’ll go you one further…
I believe that there’s another element that these artists share. All crossover rap artists from Will Smith to Sir-Mix-A-Lot to Kriss Kross and even Vanilla Ice have something in common. Something that unsuccessful crossover acts like LFO and Len lacked. All of these artists had been validated by the core hip-hop audience before their crossover attempt.
They had “street cred”, the urban musician’s holy grail.
The case isn’t quite closed yet, though.
I still wanna hear from someone brave enough to say that they liked Snow…
To add your two cents, hit me here…
Open.mike.eagle@gmail.com
Out.
