folksy covers of iconic rap songs

Mostly I agree with your condescension point, though there are some great excepetions - Luka Bloom's cover of LL Cool J's 'I Need Love', for one.

Since I think the lyrics are ridiculous anyway, I enjoy ones like Dynamite Hack's cover of Boys In The Hood or Ben Folds's cover of Bitches Ain't Shit. Plus, I love cross-genre covers.
I'd do it because I think it's funny and it's a humorous way of pointing out how silly the lyrics are.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have a hankerin' to rock out to Richard Cheese doing Nirvana.

EDIT: And shouldn't this be in the Music board?

[Edited on Sep 07, 2005 by TANK_Ex_Mortis]

I quite like The Gourds' version of "Gin + Juice".

Huh. So it is.

<Insert homeschool joke here>

The only cover of a rap song i've ever heard was NOFX's cover of "Gin and Juice". I thought it was a novel idea, but I didn't like it any better than the original. I do agree that it seems a little condescending, though.

Nahhh it is just your opinion.

I am sure Les is making fun of the song. I have a few mp3s here where makes fun of great songs such as Metallica - Master of Puppets and Led Zepplin - Kashmir.

Personally I love cover songs, only when they sound nothing like the original. That being said when the hell is someone gonna do a death metal version of Bon Jovi - Bad Medicine?

*wanders off to grab guitar and find someone to drum for him*

I'd say if there's any condescension going on in these kind of covers, it's self-directed. Although that's probably an oxymoron...

This kinda cover is more often than not a contrast between the perceived coolness of the original source material and the self-conceived lameness of the cover artist. Kinda like Eugene Levy speak/singing the lyrics of "Bad Boys" in whatever cheesy movie trailer I saw him doing that in.

What about rap/hip hop people experimenting in other styles themselves - for instance NWA's country classic "Automobile?"

I sometimes do acoustic versions of many electric and/or synthetic songs as well as hip hop or rap songs in my shows, but not generally to make fun of anything, but rather to HAVE fun. I also make electric arrangements of acoustic stuff. A song's a song, to interpret as feels right at the time. I also do hip hop arrangements of folksy songs. That must be wrong, too, but it's still fun.

I love these types of covers!! Mostly it's because I am not taking them seriously, though.

There was a local band - None Other - I think that's them - anyhoo, who did a great acoustic cover of Ludacris' "what's your fantasy" - damn, it was fucking great - but I don't think they were making fun of the song. But yeah - acoustic doesn't necessarily mean folksy so maybe I should hop to...

I would say yeah, probably. Couldn't the same argument be made about any white artist covering any black artist and (though not to the same extent) vice-versa?

I generally look at covers as tributes to music that you like. If you put your own spin on it, more power to you.

(Of course, I could be taking this stance because I'm in the process of getting a goofy punk rock cover band together, so take that with a grain of salt.)

Mindless Self Indulgence's cover of "Bring the Pain" wasn't condescending at all in my opinion.

Mostly because "Bring the Pain" is way less ridiculous than most of MSI's music.

I haven't heard the Les Claypool "Gin & Juice" being referred to, but I happen to know Les Claypool is a big fan of rap music. So I kind of doubt he meant to be condescending when he made it. He sings almost everything in that odd cartoony voice of his, which is one of his trademarks. So it's easy to misinterpret it as condescension. Also, though Les comes from a blue collar background, the man's a millionaire, so you can't really say he has anything to do white middle class anything.

It's commonly billed as Phish or Rusted Root on sharing thingies like WinMX and stuff, but it's actually Les. There's sort of a country twang in the vocals and I believe it was meant sort of tongue in cheek, but I doubt Les meant anything condescending by it. It's sort of a bluegrass meets country style more than folk. But I never cared much for pigeonholing music anyway. When I do the Dead Kennedys' Too Drunk to F**k in a sort of country style in local redneck bars it's to turn the hicks on to punk, and I bet Les did something similar for Snoop & Dr. Dre.

On an unrelated note, I've done a solo version of Gin & Juice (before I ever heard Les' version) when poeple have requested rap or hip hop and I do it tongue-in-cheek and am well aware a 41 year old white guy is less than believable singing those words but it's fun and the requesters always seem amused. 'Course, that's different, I suppose, than releasing a single of it.

I'm a bit leery of trying to get into Claypool's mind to figure why he did it. Hell, I might get lost in there.


[Edited on Sep 08, 2005 by societyspliers]

The whole "ironic cover song" thing is lame in general.

I have this realy amusing image in my head of some guy listening to hip hop and saying to his buddy, "Y'Know, I'd really like this song if it were just more... white."

I think that Les Claypools cover of Gin and Juice is horrible. But I don't think it's condescending.

I also think that Les Claypool should stop playing so many goddamn notes.

For one thing, it'd depend on the artist; some might be doing it condescendingly or to show how hilarious rap lyrics are, others migh do it for a genuine love of the music/admiration of the artist. Also, is rap still seen as 'black music'? A lot of my favourite rappers (Abdominal, Buck 65, Sage Francis etc) are white...