I’m usually suspicious of joke rap, particularly clumbsy joke rap by white people. It can be done well. Party Fun Action Committee’s “Let’s Get Serious” worked because of its detail and scope. Released on Def Jux and made by actual hip hop musicians, it succeeds as ruthless satire from within even if it devolves at some points into slapdash silliness. The current Saturday Night Live viral videos such as “Lazy Sunday” are okay. Even though they have only one joke, its a pretty funny one for a few minutes. Generally, the joke is that white people far removed from gangster cliches describe their comfortable lifestyles in a style spoofing agressive, hard rap delivery. It’s funny, and only about as clever as people delivering rap lyrics in a mock Shakespearean accent or bubblegum pop songs as grizzled farmers. When the comic ideas run out, best always to do songs that have a fundamental dissonance between their source, content, and/or delivery.

Party Fun Action Committee succeeds because it is keenly observed, multi-faceted parody by artists who obviously have a good deal of knowledge and love for hip-hop. “Lazy Sunday” works because the target of the humor is clearly the rappers themselves. Joke rap, however, can easily become problematic by slipping into latently racist waters similar to joke R&B act Har Mar Superstar.

Har Mar’s defenders will say that he is parodying the commercialized caricatures that have maligned and obscured the wealth of great Soul music that is out there, and that, beneath the persona, he is sometimes a talented songwriter and performer who clearly has real affection for the format he works in. These points are correct, but I can’t help but be sickened by his “funny” stage persona, where he sings hypereroticized R&B to the accompaniment of a boombox as he dances and strips, the joke being that he is a short, fat white guy.

Just what is he making fun of? Himself? Bubblegum karaoke R&B vixens? It is all suspect when coming from an indie milieu (Har Mar is Sean Tillman, aka Sean Na Na). He opens for artists such as The Strokes and Incubus. Basically, the Har Mar persona is marketed away from actual Soul audiences, and more towards the indie demographic (and make no mistake, “indie” is now its own demographic). Yes, it is more subtle than that, and there is affection in Har Mar’s work, but what is a Har Mar show but an indie rocker playing to an indie audience singing joke R&B as a complete buffoon. Though he would deny any irony, it becomes, to much of his audience, a situation where one of “us” is making wicked fun of how damned ridiculous R&B is. Would Har Mar do his act at the Apollo, and would the audience there find it so funny?

When the organizer of Punchline Picture Show had the brainchild that we should promote it by making a rap video, I was wary. Would three white, non-skilled rappers making goofy jokes within commercial hip hop conventions come off as uncomfortable or offensive? I was told no, there is no current of racism or rockism to this hip-hop spoof by the organizer. I actually managed to get myself into an argument about racism and media with a black guy wherein I was the hypersensitive one, percieving possible racism where it was possibly not there.

Of course I did the video. Despite all these reservations I have about white people clumbsily mocking pop culture forms that are perceived as primarily black, I could not turn down the oppurtunity to record a hip-hop song and shoot a video for it. The chance to play rapper fulfills, in a fake way, a fantasy of mine.

At least, I hoped, I would be the best subpar rapper on the track. Unfortunately, Matt Cole the 12 Year Old had to come and drop a hilarious verse complete with such rapperly devices as flow and internal rhyme. In the fantasy context for this video, where we are actual rappers and Aqua Teen Hunger Force is a legitimate crew, I decided that Matt Cole is the Jay Z, the Kool Keith, or the Busta Rhymes, while the other George and I constitute his vanity crew, his Roc La Familia, his Undertakerz, his Flipmode Squad.

When I previewed the track and got positive feedback, I felt ambivilant. I resented my friends who dared to tell me I could rap because they obviously had no love for real hip-hop. That may have been insincere, however, as I did make them all listen to it (repeatedly) and, now that its on the internet, I have an overwhelming desire for the thing to get viral.

Take a look. Judge for yourself. I know its stupid. I hope its entertaining: | video |

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 6th, 2006 at 6:20 am and is filed under Hype. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.