Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Metal + Hip Hop. A Marriage Made In Heaven.


When people talk about landmark moments in the blending of metal and hip hop (or "rap" if you so desire), they often bring up the classic Anthrax tune "I'm The Man". Those with more metal pedigree will talk about Downset, Biohazard or the drum machine breakdown in the Atheist song "Earth." Others will talk about when Chris Barnes started to wear JNCO jeans, or Chuck Billy getting cornrows.


Those in the know will dig deeper. Yes, these examples are from two bands that many would not qualify as "metal" per se...but watch the videos below and you will see that these are incredibly important moments in musical history.

First, Paul Stanley raps to a littler person wearing a cape and guy on stilts while wearing a red leather jacket. Listen closely to hear him say "what be this". This song alone set back race relations in America a good 30 years.




The second example is from the Rush song "Roll The Bones". In order to connect with a young audience, Geddy and the boys hired a rapping skeleton from Toronto's booming hip hop scene to come down to the studio and spit some lines. Watch the skeleton keep time with his foot. He's one cool dude. If this doesn't show you how disconnected and white Canadians are, nothing will. *





*Sorry to any Canadian readers, but you know it's true.

16 comments:

  1. the rush video makes me want to permanently nail my hand to my face. oh canada..........

    ReplyDelete
  2. That Rush video is bad, even for them. Reminds me that Tom Green started out as a stupid Canadian rapper and will end up a stupid Canadian skeleton.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I fuckin' hated that "I'm The Man" shit when it came out. Crap.

    ReplyDelete
  4. where's Aerosmith and RUN DMC?

    ReplyDelete
  5. I'm Canadian and I'm so embarrassed for Rush. My fuck what were they thinking. At least Alex Lifeson made up for it with his performance on the Trailer Park Boys. I saw Danzig with Type O years ago and the dick on the guitar had to be even more white and disconnected than RUSH. No rhythm what so ever.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Aerosmith + RUN DMC = Too Obvious

    Igor Cavalera wearing a RUN DMC shirt during interviews for Rock In Rio circa 93 = More like it

    ReplyDelete
  7. +1 for the downset reference...you truly have heart if you cop to that one. What about the judgement night soundtrack?...and how could slayer+Ice T= such lameness?

    ReplyDelete
  8. slayer + ice t + the exploited = fuck yes.

    ReplyDelete
  9. What about "The Lone Rager - Metal Rap" released in 985 on Megaforce Records?

    ReplyDelete
  10. Hmm!
    I'd say "Join the Army" by Suicidal Tendencies was pretty much the first early attempt at rap and metal.

    ReplyDelete
  11. "We care a lot" by Faith no More came out in 85' and needs to be included as well.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Check out the track on this record called "Metal Rap". Amazing lyrics:
    Bang your heads everybody
    Everybody bang your heads

    From 1984... and Germany.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Oooops. Wrong link... here's the right one: Metal Rap

    ReplyDelete
  14. One rather obscure song that is great but has a terrible rap part is: "The Return of The Living Beat", by Disharmonic Orchestra. The song is so good that I can even stand that stupid rap break. I always liked tis band, though they are weird.

    ReplyDelete
  15. ahh yes, and don't forget! If you dig deep on the hardcore/punk side of things - there were some embarassing/awesome rap moments there as well.

    7 seconds - colorblind - way to go kev!

    youth brigade - men in blue - not dated at all. no way!

    and of course, rob r rock - but yeah.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Ah,but I see no mention on here of Anthrax's first attempt at rap-metal which was a split ep with UTFO and that came way before the Im the Man mess.

    ReplyDelete