Rap

Dropout proves you can make a rap song about anything, with their hilarious track about how dope it is to wear heelys, those kids’ shoes with little wheels built into them. Get ready to hear “When I wear my heelys, I give all the girls feelies” everywhere when this blows up.

(PG-13: Language) Mass Appeal Records compiled 14 tracks used throughout the four seasons of Silicon Valley, including the title track Stretch Your Face, Nas and DJ Shadow’s recently released Systematic, and Wu-Tang’s new track Don’t Stop.

“The most raw form of energy in music that we have in the UK.” Drake’s latest album More Life brought grime to the mainstream. Vox spoke with Beats 1 UK radio host Julie Adenuga to find out the origins and characteristics of this fast rising genre.

(PG-13: Language) We already know that rapper Mac Lethal has mad skills. Here, he takes on some of the many different sub-genres of rap and hip hop from the lighthearted braggadocio of the 1980s to horrorcore to Miami trap and everything in between.

(Flashing images) “JVC is nice; I’ve been around Japan; It’s electronic, calls me Viktor; High on the scales, off the Richter.” Director Kris Merc’s dope visual feast is the perfect complement to hip hop legends Kool Keith and MF Doom’s track about a rapper with super powers.

“I’m different. I know that I’m different.” An 11-year-old boy wrote a rap about his so-called friend who started bullying him. He was too nervous to perform it himself, so he sent it to Mac Lethal, who obliged. Isaac, it’s time to show Thomas the door. You deserve better, kid.

Send a 20,000 inch meat lover’s where the cheese is gooey… and a female driver dat’ll feed it to me. Mac Lethal likes pizza. After all, he’s the guy who bought his whole audience a stack of them. Here, he calls his favorite pizza place, and orders the only way he knows how.

(PG-13: Language) Isaiah Howard (@isaiahxavier10) uses the smartphone app musical.ly to create totally trippy selfie music videos, which feature fast camera movements, and rapid edits which are at once completely disorienting and hypnotic.

Impressionist Mikey Bolts takes on the 1999 Blackalicious classic Alphabet Aerobics, matching each letter of the alphabet to a cartoon character, and raps each part in their voice. We swear, the more we look at Mikey, the more we think he’s actually Peter Brady.

Kawehi is a fully self-contained marching band as she walks down the sidewalk and performs her latest song, a rallying cry she wrote when was tired of being put down for being a “silly woman.” It’s an inspiring tune that people of all genders and races can get behind.

2017 Tiny Desk Contest winner Tank and the Bangas effortlessly combine smooth jazz, spoken word, hip hop, R&B, love and humor. Watch them play one of the best Tiny Desk sets we’ve ever seen. If they don’t blow up globally, there truly is no justice in this world.

(PG-13: Language) The extraordinarily talented rapper Mac Lethal received a hateful, obnoxious, slur-filled comment from a low-life internet troll. So what did he do? He decided to respond to the message with a little critique of the dude’s grammar and spelling.

(PG-13: Language) AnimalRobot perfectly synced up Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated so Shaggy, Fred, Velma, Daphne, and Scooby are now singing Anderson .Paak’s dance jam Come Down. And we thought they were blazing, not drinking in the Mystery Machine.

(PG-13: Language) Rapper Mac Lethal’s latest challenge to himself was to create a rap which manages to work in every number between 0 and 60 in a way that makes sense. We think he gave it a solid effort – that First 48 bit was sick. Beats by Danny Grooves.

Common and The Roots’ Tariq Trotter prove why they’re professional rappers, and you’re not, as they’re challenged to take three totally random words and work them into a freestyle. “Girl reaching their climax, I’m larger than life, I’m like the IMAX.” Black Thought, you win.

(PG-13: Language) After wowing us with his lickety-split rapping skills, and minimal need for oxygen, Mac Lethal decided to lighten things up a bit, and spit some mad beats under the influence of helium. He should try it with some Sulfur Hexafluoride next time.

(PG-13: Language) We’re big fans of the mad rap skills of Mac Lethal around here. After doing some crazy breathing exercises, he attempts to rap for 90 seconds straight without pausing or inhaling. We’re out of breath just from watching him try.

(PG-13) Apparently rapper Young Thug has a tendency to blow off his commitments. For instance, he was supposed to show up to shoot a music video, but never did. Instead, his co-director and production crew improvised, and made a video regardless.

(PG-13: Language) A well executed mashup track by kmlkmljkl which combines Childish Gambino’s Bonfire with S U R V I V E’s hypnotic Stranger Things opening theme. We like the title, but think Childish Things could have worked too.

(PG-13: Language) Director Mattis Dovier’s animated music video for XXX’s dope track uses good old 1-bit images to paint a vivid picture of a flight on the world’s creepiest airline. Chicken or beef? More like bugs or snakes?

While traveling through Berlin, vocalist EllandM spotted rapper INFIDELIX performing in the subway. She decided to join in and sing along with this awesome improv jam, backed by the beats of Phantogram’s When I’m Small.

(PG-13 Language) “We wanted to make a positive, life-affirming video that captures politicians at their election-year best. We got this instead.” The music video for DJ Shadow and Run the Jewels‘ collab sums up the childish mudslinging going on in D.C. these days.

(PG-13: Lyrics) A perfectly synchronized mashup between dance meme sensation John “Double Dream Feet” Jacobson and Lil Jon & Eastside Boyz’ 2002 track Throw It Up. Who knows. Maybe John really does have this track in heavy rotation on his iPod.

“We, the People, would like you to know that wherever you go we’re right by your side.” Chance the Rapper performs an original song for Nike’s sponsored Olympians. Please support the USA men’s basketball team in their quest to win gold by a bazillion points.

Musician Dave Wave combines his jazz piano and sax stylings with the rap rhythms and pacing of Eminem’s 2002 classic, resulting in an unlikely, but somehow awesome marriage of two seemingly incompatible musical genres.