Awesome Rap

We’re lovestruck by Patator’s animated music video for French trip-hop group Chinese Man’s poetic track Too Late. The stop-motion clip drops us into a magical world where horses breakdance and scratch records and storied lives play out on a human-sized hamster wheel.

The drum parts in rap and dance tracks are often performed using drum machines or samples. Groveman Drums has mastered the art of playing these rhythms live on his drum kit. His versions of Run D.M.C.’s Peter Piper, Salt N Pepa’s Push It, and Missy Elliot’s Work It are as stellar. There’s also compilation of some of his other performances.

(PG-13: Language) “I’ma give you my North Pole like you’re Missus Claus.” MC Spotz, Killah C, Dr. Shellz, and Xzibit bring the cheer with a special Christmas gift that deserves a place on your holiday playlist alongside Dick in a Box. We’re looking forward to carolers singing this tune outside our front door.

(PG-13: Language) If Cali Swag District and Panic! At The Disco performed with Enrique Iglesias, The Bee Gees, Men Without Hats, Whitney Houston, Luther Vandross, David Bowie, C+C Music Factory, and Walk the Moon, they might sound something like this dance track from DJ Cummerbund. So pour the champagne… all we need is a beat that’s super-bumpin’.

(PG-13: Language) When the sh*t goes down, you betta be ready. B-Real, Sen Dog, and the rest of the Cypress Hill gang stopped by the NPR Music offices to celebrate 50 years of hip hop. Their 30-minute, brass-heavy mini-concert includes razor-sharp performances of Hand on the Pump, How I Could Just Kill a Man, (Rap) Superstar, and Insane in the Brain.

DJ Cummerbund is at it again, making musical remixes that should make no sense yet work brilliantly. This time, he took Paul Simon’s Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard and replaced Julio with Coolio. Funny enough, Simon’s original music video starts with a rap by Big Daddy Kane and Biz Markie.

Rap duo Joey Valence and Brae have a sound much like the Beastie Boys. But it’s their intentionally lo-fi music video that got our attention. Their goal was simple – shoot it from the worst camera angles. It’s mostly a 360º camera view that they didn’t convert to VR. They took a similar approach for Watch Yo Step. (Thanks, Rob!)

After an attempt to sell jars of candied eggplant, a group of grandmas from the Greek isle of Crete decide it’s time to market to a broader audience. So they put their heads together and made a rap video about living the eggplant (aka aubergine) life. Watch with captions on.

Eminem achieved most of his popularity in the early 21st century. But what if he started making hits back in medieval times? Beedle The Bardcore has the answer with this hour-long, 13th-century performance of Slim Shady’s greatest hits including Lose Yourself, Without Me, Stan, Smack That, and Ass Like That.

(PG-13: Lyrics) Brooklyn meets Oslo in DJ Cummerbund’s mashup of Jay-Z’s Dirt Off Your Shoulder and A-ha’s Take on Me. Beyoncé, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Marvin Gaye, and Randy “Macho Man” Savage help round out the track.

There I Ruined It transform’s N.W.A.’s West Coast rap anthem into a West German polka anthem, trading blunts for beers, Los Angeles for lederhosen, AKs for accordions, and adding an unwanted oompah band sound to Straight Outta Compton.

“Warner’s wouldn’t send a screener… so I’ve only seen the trailer.” Sweetlegs presents a rap song about Denis Villeneuve’s much-anticipated and frequently-delayed adaptation of Dune, and reminds us that fear is the mind-killer when it comes to trying to figure out if it’s going to be good or not before it comes out.

(PG-13: Lyrics) Musicians Tom McGovern and A. Rob present a rap song about living large while watching their carbon footprints and saving gas money so they can spend it on gold chains. My Prius celebrates Toyota’s fuel-sipping hybrid, and extolls the benefits it affords its owners.

(PG-13: Language) Musician Akintoye spits an incredible sequence of rhymes about inequality and current state of affairs after years of oppression. His rapid-fire rap gets faster and faster as it reaches its apex. In case you needed any help pronouncing his name, he’s got you covered.

Videogamedunkey presents the debut single off of his fictitious album “Yo Peter, pass me the meatballs.” The prolific video game reviewer offers up a rap about his mad YouTube and gaming skillz set to the tune of The Notorious B.I.G.’s Mo Money Mo Problems, which itself is set to the tune of Diana Ross’ I’m Coming Out.

“Some of the best kills that I have ever seen… and that ain’t bad for a PG-13.” With a Rotten Tomatoes score of 47%, X-Men Apocalypse wasn’t exactly the best of the franchise. Sweetlegs’ rap about watching the movie while hungover reminds us of some of its more redeeming qualities.

MyloTheCat chopped up old Super Friends cartoons and made the Legion of Doom rap Wu-Tang Clan’s Uzi (Pinky Ring). Stars Sinestro as U-God, The Riddler as Raekwon, Scarecrow as Ghostface Killah, Lex Luthor as The RZA, Captain Cold as Method Man, Bizarro as Inspectah Deck, Black Manta as Masta Killa, and Brainiac as the GZA.

“Jumps over everything, even King Kong.” Aesop Rock’s wonderfully lighthearted hip-hop track Long Legged Larry celebrates the life and legend of a heroic bullfrog. Rob Shaw’s music video and Jeremy Fish’s character design bring Larry to life with a beard and a sweatband. Long Legged Larry for Mayor!

(PG-13: Language) Remixer William Maranci has a new trick up his sleeve – taking existing songs and swapping out the instrumentals over and over again. Here, he takes Eminem’s Rap God and backs it with 55 different tracks, from Nirvana’s In Bloom to They Might Me Giants’ Ana Ng to the theme from Curb Your Enthusiasm.

(PG-13: Lyrics) “Keanu Reeves, cyber arm under my sleeve… I blast ’em all, watch ’em fall like autumn leaves.” Hip hop masters Run the Jewels contributed a song to the soundtrack of Cyberpunk 2077 under the pseudonym “Yankee and the Brave,” which happens to be the title of one of Killer Mike and EL-P’s other recent tracks.

(PG-13: Language) Freestyle rapper Harry Mack likes to hang out on video chat platform Omegle, where he asks the people it pairs him up with to give him three words to incorporate into his rap. This clip includes a few of his sessions, but if you’re short on time, skip to 12:36.

“Suddenly, I’m not half the man I used to be.” UK rapper slowthai’s smooth and emotive ballad borrows a line from The Beatles’ Yesterday, but its accompanying one-shot music video by Oscar Hudson is anything but derivative, as it follows the story of a man experiencing one very strange fever dream.

(PG-13: Gore) The video for Siberian rapper Dmitry “Husky” Kuznetsov’s track Never Ever is a bloody journey into the world of a janitor who is tasked with cleaning up the aftermath of deadly gang battles. It’s a macabre subject handled with visual aplomb by writer/director Evgenii Bakirov and cinematographer Kirill Groshev.