White People’s inherent prudish squareness
October 10, 2007 6:43 AM   Subscribe

 
Don’t be fooled: deep down White People still think Ice is 110% gangsta.

Nigga please.
posted by three blind mice at 6:45 AM on October 10, 2007 [6 favorites]


I still have "Lodi Dodi" deep in my heart. Hell, I know it better than the Pledge of Allegiance.
posted by ColdChef at 6:48 AM on October 10, 2007 [1 favorite]


(also, lolwhitepeople? Really?)
posted by ColdChef at 6:48 AM on October 10, 2007


Also also: No Run DMC? This list be illin'.
posted by ColdChef at 6:50 AM on October 10, 2007 [2 favorites]


We (white people) likes ta party.
posted by Brittanie at 6:52 AM on October 10, 2007


I'm down with this fpp. Yeah. You know me.
posted by miss lynnster at 6:55 AM on October 10, 2007 [25 favorites]


Is there a similar list for black people?
posted by JanetLand at 6:55 AM on October 10, 2007


No surprise at number one. Although I am surprised there is no Run DMC, Beastie Boys, Salt n Pepa...
posted by piratebowling at 6:55 AM on October 10, 2007


I heard "Baby Got Back" on the iPod played by a bunch of expat soccer moms in taekwondo today, so somehow I knew it would be numero uno. I was right.

Also, I'm totes down with OPP. You know me.
posted by Brittanie at 6:58 AM on October 10, 2007


At least this isn't from cracked.com. I mean, there's that.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 6:59 AM on October 10, 2007 [1 favorite]


Any word on the differences between men and women?
posted by DU at 6:59 AM on October 10, 2007 [2 favorites]


What, no Brass Monkey? We love that one.
posted by dead_ at 6:59 AM on October 10, 2007


Naughty by Nature: Hip Hop Hooray?!?!

The obvious choice for this list is "O.P.P." not Hip Hop Hooray.

You down wit' O.P.P.?
Yeah you know me...

posted by internal at 6:59 AM on October 10, 2007


I'm personally not a fan of large asses. This is the absolute truth.
posted by bondcliff at 7:00 AM on October 10, 2007 [5 favorites]


Top 10 songs that both white and non-white people in their mid to late twenties love.
posted by ejoey at 7:00 AM on October 10, 2007


When did cracked.com get a new URL?
posted by sourwookie at 7:01 AM on October 10, 2007 [1 favorite]


rap songs, that is.
posted by ejoey at 7:01 AM on October 10, 2007


Time once again, friends, to link to that old stalwart, Black People Love Us.

But this list, this certainly doesn't represent my rap faves. But then, most of my heroes don't appear on no lame ass websites.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 7:03 AM on October 10, 2007 [1 favorite]


Poking fun of white people's a) lack of musical taste and/or b) inability to dance is sooo 1998.
posted by dead_ at 7:04 AM on October 10, 2007


Eh, somebody beat me to Black People Love Us.

About the list, no Snoop? I calls the mutherfukin BS while I sip my gin and juice.
posted by fuse theorem at 7:05 AM on October 10, 2007 [1 favorite]


Too soon? White people are the majority audience for rap, so the top ten rap songs for white people is just the top ten rap songs period. This list would be better.
posted by roofus at 7:08 AM on October 10, 2007


Notable omissions:
"The Message"
"It Was a Good Day"

Also, "The Humpty Dance" is the greatest song ever recorded and I will brook no opposition on this.
posted by shadow vector at 7:09 AM on October 10, 2007 [1 favorite]


I still have "Lodi Dodi" deep in my heart.

Snoop or Slick Rick?
posted by PeterMcDermott at 7:09 AM on October 10, 2007


Apparently white people stopped listening to rap music in 1995.
posted by delmoi at 7:11 AM on October 10, 2007 [5 favorites]


Well, at least it's not Rolling Stone.

Listfilter, still sucks.
posted by oddman at 7:12 AM on October 10, 2007


Damn! I had a $50 bet with myself that this was a link to Cracked when I saw the title in my RSS.
posted by Rock Steady at 7:15 AM on October 10, 2007


See, black people drive like this. But white people, they drive like this.
posted by Ljubljana at 7:16 AM on October 10, 2007 [4 favorites]


I've never even heard #1 before. I guess I'm not white enough. :(
posted by dobbs at 7:18 AM on October 10, 2007


Can somebody tell me what this means?

"why does your new boyfriend has a hoodrat ass baby mother and she thinks shes on your level?"

Is it asking why the boyfriend has a baby mother? Why the baby mother is a hoodrat? Why the hoodrat baby mother thinks she's on somebody's level?

Or maybe the question is 'like Jimi', in that white people just can't read it? I mean, we can read it, but we can't really 'read' it?
posted by PeterMcDermott at 7:19 AM on October 10, 2007


I think White People love Pac because he makes them feel like they’ve lost a friend to gang violence.

LOL
posted by eddydamascene at 7:22 AM on October 10, 2007


As I've confessed before, I'm white. I do, in fact, know and like most of these songs. Oddly, though, I never heard many of them until they were played for me by my wife, who is black.
posted by Faint of Butt at 7:24 AM on October 10, 2007


Although I am personally in favor of large posteriors, I supposed I could manufacture a falsehood on the subject, especially if, say, I were detained in a military prison in Cuba and strapped to a chair with Dick Cheney standing in front of me holding a red-hot poker and wearing his famous "I *HEART* WATERBOARDING" t-shirt.
posted by Afroblanco at 7:28 AM on October 10, 2007 [3 favorites]


I heard "Baby Got Back" on the iPod played by a bunch of expat soccer moms in taekwondo today, so somehow I knew it would be numero uno. I was right.

As a piece of meaningless trivia, Baby Got Back's beat is lifted from the same artist that Missy Elliott sampled for the beat to "Lose Control": Juan Atkins, Godfather of Techno.
posted by mkb at 7:29 AM on October 10, 2007 [2 favorites]


Even if it's a simple list without a lot of exposition, I dig on it. With all due respect to Mr. Mix-A-Lot, I never want to hear that damn song again. Same with the rest of the list, pretty much any Beastie Boys single, Gold Digger, et al. And I LIKE these artists.

If anything, the list wasn't specific enough. It's not so much "Rap songs white people like", it's "rap songs typical white people find the first 10 seconds and/or hook to funny to do a spastic dance or mocking hand motion to before going back to whatever flavor of the week pop garbage they poison the rest of their waking hours with." I'm not saying it's racist, I'm just saying it's lame.

Don't get me started on Eminem being played on "alternative" radio.

However, I tend to hate the "novelty/ironic" enjoyment of anything, so maybe I'm just no fun.
posted by Uther Bentrazor at 7:29 AM on October 10, 2007


Notable omissions:
"The Message"
"It Was a Good Day"


Don't forget Rapper's Delight, which was made totally nonthreatening by that old lady in "The Wedding Singer."

White people are the majority audience for rap, so the top ten rap songs for white people is just the top ten rap songs period.

I've heard/read this before. Assuming this is true, what kind of music do black people prefer instead?

Please do not LOLRACIST me. I am just a country-bred white girl living in a diversity-sparse Asian country and I wish to seek the truth.
posted by Brittanie at 7:30 AM on October 10, 2007


oh god, I know the words to ALL of these. I don't know if it's so much that I'm white as that these were all played non-stop when I was a teenager. (See my AskMe question.)
posted by desjardins at 7:31 AM on October 10, 2007


He forgot Skee-Lo "I Wish" - it has a very singable chorus and we white folks love that.
posted by jontyjago at 7:31 AM on October 10, 2007


I remember back in the day "battling" another sixth grader at the ice skating rink in who could rap the first verse of this song the fastest. The kid was Asian, so I won.

Someone is trying too hard.
posted by rxrfrx at 7:31 AM on October 10, 2007 [1 favorite]


Unlike most of his peers on this list, the Biz is a guy long deep in the hip hop scene with lots of cred, yet to White People he’ll only ever be that fat funny-looking black guy with the wig who sings bad.

Except to those of us in the Mid-Atlantic, where he's just another victim of the Eastern Motors Curse.
posted by god hates math at 7:31 AM on October 10, 2007


White people are the majority audience for rap, so the top ten rap songs for white people is just the top ten rap songs period.

I've heard/read this before. Assuming this is true, what kind of music do black people prefer instead?


Klezmer, yo.
posted by gompa at 7:34 AM on October 10, 2007 [3 favorites]


He forgot Skee-Lo "I Wish" - it has a very singable chorus and we white folks love that.

Proof.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 7:37 AM on October 10, 2007


No Dead Prez? All the white kids love Dead Prez! They did a collabo with Static X for christ's sake!

What else do you people want?
posted by SweetJesus at 7:37 AM on October 10, 2007


I once saw Sugar Hill Gang perform Rapper's Delight while Rerun from What's Happening danced onstage with them.

Just felt like saying that.
posted by miss lynnster at 7:41 AM on October 10, 2007 [2 favorites]


The other day a rather large-assed woman was walking in front of my wife and I. When she walked out of earshot (because I’m all cowardly like dat) I said to my wife “Man, baby got back.”

My wife just isn’t up on the pop culture, so I spent the next ten minutes explaining what “back” is and who Sir Mix-a-lot is. Or was.

When I was finished I felt like a big dumb idiot, and not just because it took me ten minutes to explain it.
posted by bondcliff at 7:41 AM on October 10, 2007 [2 favorites]


(I would've linked to What's Happening, but I linked to Scrubs. For the other white folk in the audience.)
posted by miss lynnster at 7:42 AM on October 10, 2007


Where the hell is Damn it Feels Good to be a Gangsta? Me and my whitebread dotcom buddies would blast that fucker while we were rolling through industrial Providence on our lunchbreaks in George's sensible motherfuckin' sedan. We liked it disproporionately much, and I know we weren't alone.
posted by cortex at 7:42 AM on October 10, 2007 [4 favorites]


Horrible list. What about Sabotage, or anything by the Beastie Boys? Isn't that rap?

In my experience, white people who like rap/hip-hop listen to Kanye West, 50 Cent, and Jay-Z ... just like asians, black people, latinos, and everyone else.

My favorite rap song is probably Rebel without a Pause (I am "white"), but I stopped listening to rap/hip-hop attentively about 10 years ago.
posted by mrgrimm at 7:46 AM on October 10, 2007


Well, shit. It looks like the author doesn't know a single white person under 30. "Catsandbeer" might be able to sharpen their reach to that all-important demographic by getting some authors who were adolescents some time in the past decade.
posted by mr_roboto at 7:47 AM on October 10, 2007


Allow me to sum up:
White people, black people.
posted by jewzilla at 7:47 AM on October 10, 2007 [13 favorites]


There are a lot of "Jock Jams" on that list.

And why no Public Enemy? I try to work the phrase "Motherfuck him and John Wayne" into every conversation I can.
posted by jrossi4r at 7:49 AM on October 10, 2007 [3 favorites]


mkb, no f*cking way! Do you know which tracks were sampled?
posted by exogenous at 7:52 AM on October 10, 2007


Jewzilla just gave me epic lulz.
posted by Brittanie at 7:53 AM on October 10, 2007


We had joy. We had fun. We had seasons in the Sun.....
posted by doctorschlock at 7:57 AM on October 10, 2007


exogenous, Baby Got Back samples 'Technicolor' by Channel One, and Lose Control samples 'Clear' by Cybotron (and 'Music Makes You Lose Control' by Les Rythmes Digitales)
posted by mkb at 7:58 AM on October 10, 2007 [3 favorites]


mmmmmmmmm, racism.
posted by signal at 8:05 AM on October 10, 2007


Is Johnny Cash's song 'Folsom Prison' considered White rap?
How bout '16 Tons'?
posted by doctorschlock at 8:10 AM on October 10, 2007


A good barometer of a rap song's white mainstream acceptance is how often it appears on the soundtracks of teen comedies and children's movies. According to IMDb Soundtrack Searcher, these are the movie soundtracks that feature "Baby Got Back".
posted by Atom Eyes at 8:10 AM on October 10, 2007 [1 favorite]


These songs all suck, except maybe "Baby Got Back," and only as a novelty song.
posted by krinklyfig at 8:13 AM on October 10, 2007


Don't forget Rapper's Delight, which was made totally nonthreatening by that old lady in "The Wedding Singer."

Made non-threatening. Teenagers at junior high schools in the Deep South and probably every place that had a substantial black population were dancing to this after marching band practice, already--I was one of them (a student who happened to be white in an integrated small-town school). When teenagers in a marching band are dancing to it, and the very white band director sits there and watches, smiles, it's non-threatening by definition. Sorry.
posted by raysmj at 8:14 AM on October 10, 2007


This was way, way, way before "The Wedding Singer." Not long after the single came out, for the record, or at least went national.
posted by raysmj at 8:15 AM on October 10, 2007


It's like the playlist to every wedding I've been to for the past five years (well, the "urban" part of the playlist)
posted by mathowie at 8:16 AM on October 10, 2007


I just had to go to youtube to see White and Nerdy again, since it didn't make the list.
posted by MtDewd at 8:17 AM on October 10, 2007


Fab Five Freddy told me everybody's high.
posted by Mocata at 8:19 AM on October 10, 2007 [2 favorites]


I'm still the sole proud user of the ignorantwhiteguy tag.

Which doesn't really refer to the content of the question, more to the character of the person posting it.
posted by slimepuppy at 8:29 AM on October 10, 2007


"Urban" now equals black, I'm guessing, due to the fact that rural African-Americans don't sing or create anything resembling music. They were singing the blues and gospel and whatnot and then just clammed up. Everyone who lives in a rural area with largish black populations can remember the day it happened, somewhere around 1992.
posted by raysmj at 8:30 AM on October 10, 2007 [1 favorite]


Hell this whole "rap" thing is just a never ending Blondie rip off.

If we're talking "black" rap the only song on that list I remotely liked was the Honorable mention of Arrested Development's People Everyday, and damn me but I don't really know all the lyrics.

Public Enemy I liked, Michal Franti I like. Rap music, like all music really, is 80% crap, 10% ok, 10% golden.
posted by edgeways at 8:30 AM on October 10, 2007


Is there a "top ten Celine Dion songs black people love" list to round this out?
posted by adamrice at 8:31 AM on October 10, 2007 [1 favorite]


It's true, we're so lame!
No Rapture? Bullshit!

Rapper's Delight, which was made totally nonthreatening by that old lady

Indeed; many people don't remember this, but the whole Cristal/Hip-hop controversy was small beer compared to the Great Kaopectate/Sugarhill Gang Beef of 1979.
And, as ashamed as I am to admit it, I still check all my locks whenever I hear them rap about ugly food that stinks. *Shudders*
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 8:32 AM on October 10, 2007


If you’ve ever seen Black People comedy, you’ll be familiar with the notion that White People have no rhythm and can’t dance.

They call it "Mr. White mans timing".
posted by Artw at 8:33 AM on October 10, 2007


No De La Soul '3 Feet High and Rising'? I cannot take this list seriously!
posted by PHINC at 8:39 AM on October 10, 2007


I still have "Lodi Dodi" deep in my heart.

Snoop or Slick Rick?


Slick Rick (the ruler) did La Di Da Di. Snoop's was Lodi Dodi. For some reason, when I can't sleep I recite La Di Da De in my head or else Paul Revere by the Beastie Boys which probably should've made this list.
posted by jdl at 8:49 AM on October 10, 2007


Most of my heroes don't appear on a stamp.
posted by rocketman at 8:49 AM on October 10, 2007


Has the Holiday Rap been so quickly written out of history!
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 8:51 AM on October 10, 2007


how did they come up with this information? I would like to see the survey? It seems odd that they have videos for every song.
posted by LarryGDVD at 8:52 AM on October 10, 2007


Nelly is the white Justin Timberlake.

Love it.
posted by breezeway at 8:52 AM on October 10, 2007


Where's Eminem?
posted by doctor_negative at 8:53 AM on October 10, 2007


I CAN HAZ BIRFDAY?

BUTZ I R NOT SHORTY!
posted by Sparx at 8:54 AM on October 10, 2007 [2 favorites]


This is more a list of songs both white and black kids loved in the early to mid '90s when they were back in high school, when fades were still popular, kids were jumping around at parties, talking about wearing their clothes backwards, and asking eachother if they knew what the last "P" in "O.P.P." stood for (and of course, humming "LA Face with an Oakland booty" as hot girls would walk by the hallway).

Somehow, this has devolved into a "white people/black people" thing, where it's like, by implication, if white people like this music, it must suck. When in fact these were jams for everybody ten to fifteen years ago. And they remind of being young. Not white.
posted by phaedon at 8:56 AM on October 10, 2007 [3 favorites]


If you're Canadian, you'd probably also include "Let Your Backbone Slide" or maybe even "You Wash Your Face In My Sink".
posted by stinkycheese at 9:12 AM on October 10, 2007


Slick Rick (the ruler) did La Di Da Di. Snoop's was Lodi Dodi. For some reason, when I can't sleep I recite La Di Da De in my head or else Paul Revere by the Beastie Boys which probably should've made this list.

I'm all about Slick Rick's version (which I've always known as "Lodi Dodi" because that what the mix tape that Vashika made for me said). Ditto on the "Paul Revere." I did it with a Whiffle Ball Bat.
posted by ColdChef at 9:19 AM on October 10, 2007


Oh, Tone Loc. I'm really glad he made the "honorable mentions," given that everyone I know can recognize his voice, but nobody knows his name.
posted by dismas at 9:26 AM on October 10, 2007


The Biz really shouldn't be on that list. "Just a friend" crosses all color lines.

And Vanilla Ice? White people have better taste than that.
posted by cazoo at 9:28 AM on October 10, 2007


Where's Public Enemy? And NWA?
posted by DieHipsterDie at 9:28 AM on October 10, 2007


No. Where's Eric B. & Rakim?
posted by JeremiahBritt at 9:31 AM on October 10, 2007


I once saw Sugar Hill Gang perform Rapper's Delight while Rerun from What's Happening danced onstage with them.

You know, miss lynnster, there have been several life experiences you have mentioned in the last few years that have left me awestruck, but that one may just take the cake.

And the list? Despite the obvious generalizations and stereotypes which I do my damndest to avoid...it definitely represents some mainstream songs (the most pop of the hip-hop) that are guaranteed to get people (of all ethnicities) out on the dancefloor. Even here in Japan.
posted by squasha at 9:31 AM on October 10, 2007


Where's "Insane in the Brain"?
posted by kindall at 9:41 AM on October 10, 2007


I like big butts and I cannot lie.
posted by punkfloyd at 9:43 AM on October 10, 2007


I have no respect left for Tone Loc after discovering via a commercial that he was Perez Hilton's rap coach on Celebrity Rap Superstar. Because I had TONS of respect for him before that. Way to kill it, TL.
posted by iconomy at 9:50 AM on October 10, 2007 [1 favorite]


Are White People the same as white people? I ask because I want to be sure I belong.
posted by tommasz at 9:56 AM on October 10, 2007


All your hip-hop belongs to us. Stop, do you hear that..?
Is that hip-hop? No, it's a trap! Trap! Don't you mean Rap!?
(drumbeat)
posted by doctorschlock at 10:06 AM on October 10, 2007


Sweet! Evidently, I'm black.
posted by vito90 at 10:11 AM on October 10, 2007


White kids love hip hop.
Whiiiiiite kids love hip hop.
White kids love hip hop and axel,
Tractors and Rambo,
Playing unreal tournament with infinite ammo.
Taggers and vandals
In black socks and sandals,
Doin’ as many drugs as they can motherfuckin’ handle.
Skippin’ school,
Breakin’ rules and flippin the bird,
Fast food, cartoons after ittin’ some erb.
Freakin dem flirts,
Making ‘em purr till it hurts,
Just a couple nerds
Clockin’ the curbs,
A couple a words about my nilla wiggas,
Packin’ peters
That are measured in milimeters.
We don’t talk in the theaters
Like we’re Siskel and Ebert.
We drink box wine and we listen to Weezer.

White kids love hip hop.
Whiiiiiite kids love hip hop.

posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 10:19 AM on October 10, 2007


What, no 2 $hort? These people don't know what they're talking about.
posted by mullingitover at 10:20 AM on October 10, 2007


No "Come on Ride the Train" or "Tootsie Roll" or "Brass Monkey" or "White Lines" or "Jam on It" or "Roxanne Roxanne" or "Informer" or "Mamma Said Knock You Out" or "Wild Wild West" or, for God's sake, "Can't Touch This"???

I call shenanigans.
posted by Ynoxas at 10:27 AM on October 10, 2007 [1 favorite]


Also needs DJ Kool - Let Me Clear My Throat.
posted by smackfu at 10:41 AM on October 10, 2007


I forwarded this list to all the white people I know in my office. They all loved it. I got IM's back like, "Oh, HELL YEAH!" and, "no WAY!" A discussion of each song's relative merits followed.

Fucking white people. Pft. Whatev.
posted by Pecinpah at 10:45 AM on October 10, 2007 [1 favorite]


Are White People the same as white people?

Absolutely not--in fact, race is not a 100% reliable predictor of Whiteness. (Bill Clinton is the canonical example of someone who is white but not White. Johnny Cash? Also not White. But Ted Knight's character in Caddyshack? Capital-W White. Same for Carlton Banks on The Fresh Prince of Bel Air--that's a White guy.)
posted by Prospero at 10:46 AM on October 10, 2007


I once was one of four other white people - the ONLY white people - at a PE and NWA show back in the day.

While, yes, we got some surprised stares (and one guy showed us a gun) we went otherwise unmolested. Though one lady did say " You either crazy or brave-ass mother fuckers."

We honestly never thought about it.

That is all.
posted by tkchrist at 10:46 AM on October 10, 2007 [4 favorites]


When I look at the list of rap songs on my iPod, I see Public Enemy, Wu-Tang, Jurassic 5, Ugly Duckling, and Run DMC. I also have Eminem, Beastie Boys and House of Pain (apparently, I am contractually obligated to have these on my iPod or I lose my White Person card).

Other than "Jump Around", I do not see any of the songs listed in the FPP list of songs I am supposed to like because I am white. A large number of the songs listed (including the honorable mentions) are actually ones I do recognize but would not choose to listen to. Mostly because they were all overplayed. Same reason I generally skip "Creep" when listening to Stone Temple Pilots. Heard it way, way too many times to really ever want to hear it again. Not by choice, mind you. Those songs were pretty much unavoidable back in the day.
posted by caution live frogs at 10:49 AM on October 10, 2007


(Oh, I have some old school white boy shit on the iPod too, don't get me wrong - guy in my lab was laughing his ass off that I had both Wu-Tang and Gordon Lightfoot in my library. I don't get it - what's wrong with Canadian singer-songwriters?)
posted by caution live frogs at 10:51 AM on October 10, 2007


Hey, the Edmund Fitzgerald ain't nothin' ta fuck with.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 11:03 AM on October 10, 2007 [1 favorite]


I was given a copy of To The Extreme by my Very White Parents when I was 16. Even as a Very White Kid I knew it was lame, and so did everyone else as it was very hard to even give away.

I do like California Love and It Was A Good Day though. So I've got that going for me.
posted by aerotive at 11:13 AM on October 10, 2007


Same for Carlton Banks on The Fresh Prince of Bel Air--that's a White guy.

"Did you know that every seven minutes a black person is born in this country without soul?"
posted by jrossi4r at 11:28 AM on October 10, 2007


Quick rundown of my iTunes here at work:

Aceyalone, Eric B & Rakim, Jeru the Damaja, KMD, LL Cool J, Ludacris, Madlib, Mobb Deep, Money Mark, Percee P, Pharaoh Monch, Snoop Dogg, Souls of Mischief, Viktor Vaughn and Whodini.

Of those, the stuff I tend to associate with White People is the backpack shit like MF Doom or Monch. I've never heard a black person listen to any of that Mouse and the Mask shit, or Funcrusher Plus, or any DefJux or anything that makes it on Adult Swim. That's the rap music for White People, especially White People who are concerned with "Keeping it real" and supporting the underground and shit like that.
posted by klangklangston at 11:44 AM on October 10, 2007


This list does not have Ice-T, Public Enemy, NWA, or Run-DMC, and Beastie Boys is an honorable mention?

This list fails.
posted by quin at 11:46 AM on October 10, 2007 [1 favorite]


The idea that white people are the majority consumers of rap music is based on the simple fact that there are a lot more white people than black people in the US of A. If anything has mainstream popularity, the numbers dictate that it has been accepted by "white america". It's simple math.

Nowadays, rap/r&b is mainstream pop music. The two are one and the same. To apply any sort of race-based dividing line is ridiculous.

This has not always been the case.There was a time when a rap song could be a huge hit in the rap world, and not have any mainstream recognition whatsoever. Back when everyone was listening to Thriller, there were plenty of "hit" rap songs that most of my friends, black or white, never heard. Back in those days rap only got 2 hours of radio play a week, usually on sunday night.

Making a "10 rap songs white people love" is a bit of cheap move. It would be much more interesting as a list of 10 songs that led to the mainstreaming of rap music. 10 songs that were key in movin rap from urban fad to dominant musical genre.

In no particular order:

1.Rappers Delight is the song that introduced rap to the world outside of New York in the late 70's. Still a staple of wedding receptions and dance parties to this day.

2.The Message by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five is the first song that made people stop and listen to the words. Before this song rap was considered little more than nursery rhymes over disco beats.

3.Parents Just don't understand by Jazzy Jeff and the fresh Prince. The first rap song your mom thought was cute.

4.Walk This Way by RUN DMC was the first rap song that was made for the sole purpose of appealing to a white audience.

5.Fight for your right to party by the Beastie Boys.

6.Rob Base and EZ rock's It Takes Two. Just on the pure power of being catchy as hell. For some reason this song was really big in the hood, but suburban white girls liked it too.

7.Sir Mixalot's Baby Got back. Mixalot is an underrated genius, and was way ahead of his time. It's too bad he's only known for that one song, because, musically speaking he was the precursor to Timbaland, Missy Elliot, the Neptunes, etc. He helped invent the modern rap/r&B sound that's so prevalent today.

8. Me So Horny by 2 live crew. Simple formula: Old White people hate it? Young White people are gonna Love it.

9. Fuck Da Police by NWA. See #8, plus add the all important thug factor.

10. Hey Ya. Outkast. The best pop song since "Beat It" was made by rappers. All labels are now useless.

If you want a good list based history of rap music, or are even slightly curious about the history of rap music, Buy this book. It's amazing.
posted by billyfleetwood at 11:48 AM on October 10, 2007 [6 favorites]


squasha, let me tell you... the festival I was at -- so sparsely-attended that the First Annual Retrofest was also the last -- was one of the most gloriously surreal trainwrecks I've ever been to in my entire life. On so many levels. Nothing I say could ever do it justice.
posted by miss lynnster at 11:49 AM on October 10, 2007


White people are the majority audience for rap, so the top ten rap songs for white people is just the top ten rap songs period.

I've heard/read this before. Assuming this is true, what kind of music do black people prefer instead?


It's not that black people don't like rap. It's that there's a lot more white people in this country, so even if you have 75% of black people listening to rap and 30% of white people listening to rap, the rap audience could still be majority white. (Actual figures may vary, but that's the principle.)
posted by straight at 12:00 PM on October 10, 2007


BTW, the other day I had my ipod on random in the office and "Jump Around" came on. Of all of the songs that had played in a three hour period, nobody paid much attention until that one. But suddenly, all of the 28-35 year old white guys in the office perked up and one asked, "Lynn, is that YOUR ipod? No way!" Then the guys all sheepishly admitted to eachother that they used to love that song, and proceeded to dance and sing with eachother on the other side of my cubicle. I'm not even slightly joking.
posted by miss lynnster at 12:03 PM on October 10, 2007 [1 favorite]


MORE MAESTRO FRESH WES, PLEASE. How can you make a list of top 10 loved-by-whitey tracks without consulting some Canadians?
posted by Reggie Digest at 12:30 PM on October 10, 2007


"The Breaks" and "Way Out West" by Kurtis Blow for us "older" white folks.

WOW has an actual composed ending -- and real people playing real instruments too!

And some LL Cool J needs to be on the list too. Some of that stuff barely passes for rap.

MC Hammer anyone?
posted by Greebie at 12:32 PM on October 10, 2007


Just flying home from a photo seminar and the last night's party included 4 of these songs. There was nary a person of color to be found in the room for the record.
posted by photoslob at 12:41 PM on October 10, 2007


Another amazing hip-hop book, to add to billyfleetwood's.

I can't believe nobody's mentioned Gang Starr yet.

That is all.
posted by blucevalo at 12:56 PM on October 10, 2007


I once was one of four other white people - the ONLY white people - at a PE and NWA show back in the day.

By contrast, there were far more white people than black people at the Public Enemy/Ice-T show I went to last year. Of course, this was at the B. B. King Blues club in NYC, where they crammed people into seats at tables cabaret-style, forced you to buy plates of overpriced ribs, and a shot of Basil Hayden's cost $12.

When Ice-T walked past our table to get to the stage, a child seated at a table near me said, "It's the guy from Law and Order!" And Ice-T stopped to say hi to him and give him his autograph. That was sweet.
posted by Prospero at 1:16 PM on October 10, 2007


If you want a good list based history of rap music, or are even slightly curious about the history of rap music, Buy this book. It's amazing.

posted by billyfleetwood at 11:48 AM on October 10 [1 favorite +] [!]


See also: Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation
posted by Artifice_Eternity at 1:16 PM on October 10, 2007


P.S. That's a clever piece of coding that jacks all Amazon referral links on MeFi.
posted by Artifice_Eternity at 1:18 PM on October 10, 2007


I saw Public Enemy open for U2 once. In Oakland. You would have thought someone accidently double booked a show and had to change out the crowd along with the stage in between.
posted by Big_B at 1:48 PM on October 10, 2007


I am a White Person, and I like #'s 1, 2, 5, 6, 7 & 9.
posted by The Card Cheat at 1:59 PM on October 10, 2007


this article should have been written by the egotrip crew, then it would've been funny.
posted by eustatic at 2:01 PM on October 10, 2007


Sheryl Keyes' (or is it Cheryl?) book Rap and Street Consciousness is also an excellent resource.
posted by klangklangston at 2:34 PM on October 10, 2007


Last week in Beijing I tried to get cab drivers to ghost ride the whip. They refused.
posted by mullingitover at 2:45 PM on October 10, 2007 [1 favorite]


I am wearing my clothes backwards, yo!
Yup yup!
posted by miss lynnster at 2:59 PM on October 10, 2007


Lists like this lead me to mourn the re-breakup of the Fugees all the harder.

There was a Wall Street Journal article on race and rap sales statistics. (synopsis: the oft-repeated 70-80% figure is a misquote; the original marketing research reported 60%, but the author suggests that no one has good data on this).
posted by Tehanu at 4:42 PM on October 10, 2007


No De La Soul? No Jurassic 5? No Public Enemy? Bah.
posted by davejay at 5:39 PM on October 10, 2007


absolutely brilliant!
posted by fe2dell at 5:42 PM on October 10, 2007


No 'Gangsta's Paradise?'

There was this biker/metal bar I used to hang out at where that song got played at least three times a night and the the clientele was about 85% white/10% Latino/5% Black. There were however a lot of drugs being sold and consumed there, som maybe it was a gangster's paradise. Just saying.
posted by jonmc at 6:08 PM on October 10, 2007


some racial difference joke we white people from europe can only take a guess and fail...

I really have no fucking Idea what this fpp is about.
posted by kolophon at 6:16 PM on October 10, 2007




Seriously? 130 comments on old rap songs that white people like? I love you all so much.
posted by KingoftheWhales at 10:24 PM on October 10, 2007


No Fresh Prince of Bel Air theme?
posted by shakespeherian at 6:59 AM on October 11, 2007


That Ice Cube 1999 bottom related thing seems to be quite popular with any audience, irrespective of skin pigment.
posted by asok at 8:15 AM on October 11, 2007


Link broken. List, please?
posted by Sweetie Darling at 8:43 AM on October 11, 2007


Huh. I'm listening to Stromkern now -- industrial hip-hop but with an oddly 80's New Romantic sort of feel to it -- by a white American guy who sounds vageuly British. I'm trying to decide whether I like it.
posted by Foosnark at 8:53 AM on October 11, 2007


Nobody really likes rap.
posted by bwg at 4:34 PM on October 11, 2007


Some white folks love TechnoViking.
posted by bwg at 5:08 PM on October 11, 2007


I'm a white person and I prefer captioned Technoviking.
posted by desjardins at 8:45 PM on October 11, 2007


Everybody to the Limit was always this white boy's favorite.
posted by Anything at 11:25 PM on October 11, 2007


oh, this old chestnut?
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 11:56 PM on October 11, 2007


I might be sexually attracted to TechnoViking.
posted by Brittanie at 12:38 AM on October 12, 2007


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