Ya, I know. That was two links.

June 1, 2007 8:26 PM

If the NYTs can publish a one-link "post" to a YouTube video, so can I.
posted by about_time (34 comments total)

WWB&JD?
posted by ericb at 8:29 PM on June 1, 2007

No, actually they shouldn't, and neither should you.
posted by wendell at 8:39 PM on June 1, 2007

Actually, both your post and that of the NYT have more than one link. Do the math.
posted by mds35 at 8:40 PM on June 1, 2007

O. I. C.
posted by mds35 at 8:41 PM on June 1, 2007

This is heinously wack, negroid.
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 8:42 PM on June 1, 2007

I was waiting for the jessamyn shoutout.

oh well.
posted by YoBananaBoy at 8:48 PM on June 1, 2007

This is just earnest enough to make me cringe. Sorry 802 but this is nothing new.
posted by nola at 8:51 PM on June 1, 2007

Two wrongs don't make a right, son.
posted by Effigy2000 at 8:52 PM on June 1, 2007

"the NYTs"?

Anyway, $5 says Katie Zezima went to high school with one of the kidrapper's parents.
posted by mediareport at 8:52 PM on June 1, 2007

might as well add "brokenlink" to the tags now, as they will be within a few weeks.
posted by edgeways at 8:54 PM on June 1, 2007

I bet there is some really good and cool hip-hop happening in Vermont right now. This ain't it. I did appreciate the dining reviews, though.
posted by Rock Steady at 8:54 PM on June 1, 2007

EIGHT OH TWO, REPRESENT! WHOOOOT!

It's moments like these that I love my home state.

Moments when I'm driving down an unpaved road during mudseason in a 1994 Jeep Cherokee with a broken stick shift, not so much.
posted by grapefruitmoon at 8:59 PM on June 1, 2007

(Can I somehow favorite this post more than once? I LIKE MY CABOT CHEDDAR EXTRA SHARP!)
posted by grapefruitmoon at 9:00 PM on June 1, 2007

which is set to the beat of a Mobb Deep rap.

i believe the beat is Up North Trip - originally referring to upstate prison, not the rolling hills of vermont. did i mention this post blows? heh.
posted by phaedon at 9:00 PM on June 1, 2007

I bet there is some really good and cool hip-hop happening in Vermont right now.

Uh, I can tell you right now, there probably isn't. Most radio stations in Vermont don't even play hip-hop. Also, Vermont is literally the whitest state in the Union. Even our rednecks are blue-blooded.

I will try to stop hogging the post now.
posted by grapefruitmoon at 9:02 PM on June 1, 2007

If the New York Times helped lie us into an unnecessary war, etc. etc.
posted by one_bean at 9:02 PM on June 1, 2007

Ahem. The correct tag is "Vermonsters." "Vermonstas?" No.
posted by grapefruitmoon at 9:06 PM on June 1, 2007

As much as I loved "Lazy Sunday", I hate what it has spawned.
posted by sharksandwich at 9:08 PM on June 1, 2007

If the NYTs can publish a one-link "post" to a YouTube video, so can I.

But that's a two-link post.
posted by rifflesby at 9:23 PM on June 1, 2007

Whoops, didn't read the title. :)
posted by rifflesby at 9:24 PM on June 1, 2007

“We’re small, we might be a little boring, but we can have fun,” Kevin said. “We have a sense of humor.”

I, too, possess perfectly average qualities! DEAR NEW YORK TIMES, SEND JENNIFER 8. LEE TO MY HOUSE IMMEDIATELY
posted by tepidmonkey at 9:52 PM on June 1, 2007 [2 favorites]

Click here to submit your eyeballs to 802's front page glory. warning: 15 minutes of fame.
posted by phaedon at 9:55 PM on June 1, 2007

ICY HOT STUNTAZ
posted by daninnj at 10:02 PM on June 1, 2007 [1 favorite]

oh yea. It's the 80's again.

Will they go on talk shows and cut up? will there be people at parties saying they like 802, they're actually really intelligent you know, that big album was tongue in cheek.

oh I just watched part of the video. No talk shows in their future, methinks.
posted by lastobelus at 10:23 PM on June 1, 2007

802 is jus trippin, G.

Now the Eight One Two, that's the place where the real OG's be hangin.

Represent.
posted by Cyclopsis Raptor at 1:27 AM on June 2, 2007

i believe the beat is Up North Trip.

No, it's "Shook Ones Pt. II" and that irks me. The album that contains "Shook Ones Pt. II" is "The Infamous", to my ears one of the most perfect rap discs out there. "The Infamous" is so freaking cold, so menacing and so precise that everytime you listen to it smoke comes out of your mouth and blood stained snowflakes start dripping from the ceiling. My god, it's just one of those CDs that I unconditionally love... even though I'm probably even more distanced from Queensbridge than 802.

By all means, feel free to lift beats from hiphop songs and write nerdy raps over them. Weird Al's "White and Nerdy" works because Chamillionaire and "Ridin' Dirty" are not all that serious to begin with. But using "Shook Ones Pt. II"? Oh no way. That's kind of using "Strange Fruit" as a basis for a nursery rhyme.
posted by soundofsuburbia at 5:06 AM on June 2, 2007 [1 favorite]

What soundofsuburbia said. The "802" video started playing, and I mean, yeah, there was some nerdy teenager gimmick rap thing going on, but I couldn't really get past the "Shook Ones" track.
posted by rxrfrx at 5:14 AM on June 2, 2007

My vermonsta tag was supposed to be a pun on gangsta.
posted by about_time at 5:42 AM on June 2, 2007

It is amusing to recognize literally all the locations in the video. I also appreciated the dining reviews. Wish it had come earlier, I'd just tried the village for the first time last week.

The only difference between these guys and me 17 years ago is that they have You-Tube to share their inanity with the world. And the Gray Lady seems determined to reinforce her fall.
posted by meinvt at 7:37 AM on June 2, 2007

People in VT are saying this self-mocking white rap thing has been done to death there. Not sure why The Times picked this up.

But then again, they produce that ultra-lame "Sunday Styles" section....
posted by wfc123 at 9:39 AM on June 2, 2007

"... cuz if you askin 'why is hip-hop dead?', there's a pretty good chance you're the reason it died. Its a pretty good chance your lame-ass, corny-ass is the reason it died, man. You dont give a fuck about it, you dont know nothin about it..."
--Nas "Hope"


I am so sick of this bullshit. "Lazy Sunday" and "White and Nerdy" both worked (hype aside) because the people doing it actually had flow and a sense of humor. They were writing light hearted lyrics but taking the form seriously. They knew what they were trying to do and how to flow. They sounded like they actually understood something about hip-hop besides hearing someone else's ringtone on their school bus.

The problem with this and the nerdcore "movement" is not that the MC's are white. Its not that the MC's rap about nerdy things, or try to have a sense of humor. Its because they suck as MC's and approach a serious artform with hubris and arrogance. These guys arent writing rap rhymes, they are writing a jokey campfire song that they are trying to shoehorn into a completely different lyrical style. Hip-hop is not just a folk song sung to a club beat.

Fundamentally they are conflating the mocking tone of their content with actually mocking the form.

Case in point: Ween and Tenacious D have both made careers out of making stupid songs about ludicrous subjects, but always managed to have reverence to the form, culture, and history of the music they are drawing on. They are exaggerating the silliness of the over-marketed images, but at the same time make some decent music.

Why is this in the New York Times?

Because they are white?
Check 3rd Bass' from the late 80's, or the Beastie Boys (though I find them really irritating nowadays). White rappers who never felt the need to discuss their race or make it part of a marketing gimmick. MC Serch had quite a bit to do with launching the careers of MF Doom, Nas, worked with Prince Paul, and is a long ribbon tying together some of the most inventive and disparate New York hip-hop in the early 80's. Not to mention producers like Rick Rubin, or later MC's like R.A. or El-P.

Because its humorous?
Check the Treacherous Three in Beat Street playing Santa Clause and the Elves. Or the Fat Boys in Krush Groove. Or Redman, J-Zone, Thirstin Howl III, or Kool Keith.

Because its advertising where they are from?
Shan did "The Bridge" in the early 80's, followed by KRS's "South Bronx". Telling personal narratives rooted in your hometown is a vein so deep in hip-hop culture it would be impossible to name every track where that happens.

Using area codes in a lighthearted way in response to the prevalence in rap music?
Check "Area" from De La Soul in 1993.

Nerdy stuff in general?
Del has a whole song about how he imports his video games so they are better than the ones you get at blockbuster in "Proto Culture" on "Both Sides of the Brain". Rza formed the Wu-Tang Clan based largely on comic-books and kung-fu movies, and aimed to make the MC's under him into merchandising super-heroes.

Because they are in high school?
So was De La Soul when they were putting together "3 feet high and rising" . Mobb Deep was not much older when they dropped "Shook Ones", which is the backdrop for this crap. And there were young'uns making cameos and trying to get on albums since the beginning of time.

So riddle me this: If 3 black kids in a new york high school made a youtube video rapping about "the 212", would it have made the times?

And, yeah...leave "Shook Ones" alone, kids. Make your own shitty beats for your own shitty music. Creation is harder than it seems, and you just come off like whack biters, if even that.

(disclaimer: Im a nerdy white IT worker)
posted by lkc at 11:29 AM on June 2, 2007 [8 favorites]

werd, lkc.
posted by about_time at 12:27 PM on June 2, 2007

I couldn't fathom why this was in the NYT either. Such a pointless article, such a shitty video.
posted by fungible at 2:28 PM on June 2, 2007

I was waiting for the jessamyn shoutout.

methefucktoo! I don't understand why this was so all over the place. I mean it's cute in a "my kid made this" sort of way and funny in a "OMG CHEEZE" way, but Vermont does actually have a real hip-hop scene [small but dedicated] and these guys are on the lower and of some of the talented nerdcore stuff out there like killdashnine.

If they're anything like me when my dorky little video blew up a little on YouTube, they'll probably be sheepish that they didn't make more of an effort because they didn't think more than the people in their town and/or high school were going to see it. It's that whole "look, that's incongruous!" effect [them: white guys rapping, me: girl being just a little techie] which doesn't have legs in the long run.

In the meantime, people will say snarky crappy things to them and they'll get fuck you email [but also maybe record contracts because life is unfair like that] and then they'll go back to being the same old local nerds they've always been and more power too them. I always appreciate a chance to laugh at some quality inside jokery around here on the internet [I swear a lot of Vermont is deep inside an Internet dead zone] but I'm scratching my head a little over this one.

802 over and out.
posted by jessamyn at 2:45 PM on June 2, 2007