Drake And Childish Gambino: A Comparitive Study

Two Bastard Sons From TV Lore

The internets sprung twin leaks this morning, and both of those leaks are a matter of interest to different (or not) subsets of rap fans.

Due out on the same day, we have two television actors who have made somewhat successful forays into rap music. In one corner, we have Childish Gambino's Camp, which you can now stream on NPR for free. The comedian-cum-rapper's first proper effort counts 13 tracks. In the other, we have Young Money member Drake's sophomore record Take Care, boasting no less than the titanic force of guest spots from Stevie Wonder, Andre 3000 and Rihanna, as well as usual suspects Nicki Minaj, Lil Wayne, Rick Ross and The Weeknd.

Gambino Is... A Mastermind?

Let us look first at the newer rap phenom, one Childish Gambino, alias Donald Glover. He's released a few albums and EPs online, and Camp is his first foray into the retail sphere. Let us consider first his words, and then their intent.

The very name of Gambino's album (Camp) is an indicator of its lyrical content. Donald Glover is a manchild obsessed with his past, obsessed with dealing with the indignation he felt growing up, and is now still trying to process with his self-admittedly difficult transition into adulthood. He lays it all bare, explains how he never fit in at the schools he was sent to, how girls who would turn him down pre-fame now stand in line and hope to get noticed by the 'Community' star. The pain, the torture. Oh God, the ever-present torture.

Music for outcasts, as it were. 'Revenge of the Nerds' set to rhyme, however, is not a very apt comparison when you consider how Gambino approaches the situations as they are written/rapped out.

I do believe that situation is where the problem with Gambino's lyrical content arises - this music for outcasts wallows in its own lyrical pity, never trying to rise above. It's problem-orientated music. First single "Bonfire" is plenty proof of this, full of vitriol. Take, for example, the couplet of "'You're my favorite rapper now' Yeah, dude, I better be/Or you can fuckin’ kiss my ass, Human Centipede". In it we have the quintessential formula that you can apply to almost any Childish rap, that of:

(anger at outside force for past transgressions + braggadocio brought on by 'I'm famous now!' feelings) + pop culture reference + gratuitous swearing = winning combination.

Consider it for a moment. Go back to his FreEP. Pull it out and listen to 'Freaks and Geeks', what may arguably be the song that catapulted his name onto the front page of Pitchfork. Apply said formula to track. Sit back and ponder. See what I mean?

I really cannot hold this against Donald, though. Dude's got a soapbox from which to fling verbal Molotovs at every girl who ever turned him down, every bully who ever called him a faggot, for every hoodrat who ever told him he would never make it. It does grow a bit tired as one makes their way through the album's first four tracks - it's like being beaten over the head with a rubber mallet for the 15 or so minutes that it takes to make one's way through those songs. I joked that this is like listening to the rap equivalent of KoRn, though upon closer inspection Glover's lyrical content does have a certain kinship with the tortured non-genius of Jon Davis. Consider this description: "Aggressive-sounding vocals, full of lyrics that bemoan childhood trauma as well as warnings to past transgressors that meetings in the future may not go over so well." Without context, we can logically realize that that statement applies to both parties mentioned.

Childish is also a dude who yearns to be impossibly hood - he's nothing but misogynistic in his rhymes, the sheer number of boasts the dude pops out per song is also off the charts. He talks about threatening physical violence on some of those people who have wronged him, though it's quite clear that he could not carry out any of these.

Glover's stage name suits him so well when you consider that these tracks may or may not be temper tantrums set to beats, a wannabe gangster who's got his mind set on other things. He can't live the life, as he points out on Camp's opener 'Outside' - his cousin is destined for that. His cousin gives him shit for not being hard enough, so Donald gains success in other realms and then shits on the streets with tracks with enough threats in them that he would get his ass beat in any self-respecting thug milieu.

Gambino is trapped in that impossible Marshall Mathers-type situation: Now that you've gained fame through a variety of media, how do you recapture the hunger that made you what you are? Can one move beyond the still-festering feelings inside of you in order to make the same type of music fans expect from you? Glover has maintained that he has shed previous personas in order to concentrate on the 'real' him, but when does Childish just become a character, much like Eminem and Marshall Mathers are somewhat interchangeable in the public's consciousness?

I'd be more interested in seeing what happens, lyrically, to Childish's second proper outing. Will he decide to look past the problems that plague (have made?) him and try to rap about slightly different subjects? Will we expect the same? Will he grow, or will he just AC/DC out and pander to the whiny white-boy fanbase that made him? Only time will tell.

Still Got It?

Our second case study is Aubrey Graham's sophomore set. Anyone who expects rocket science out of this ladyccentric crooner will be sorely disappointed. It's all about late nights in busy locales, the regret of the morning after, the agony in Autotune. Drake is forever a minute late with Lady Luck, always down and out. Euphoria rarely enters his lexicon; his waking thoughts are definitely not dominated by emotional highs. Those glimpses rarely occur (a glaring exception to the morose nature of his rhyme could be Thank Me Later's lead-off single 'Over'), instead we get the image of Drake as that dude in the corner of the club, lamenting love with the weight of the world on his shoulders.

Aubrey, plain and simple, is a sadomasochist. He's in love with the pain, always chasing the wrong tail. He's forever yearning for the stripper with the heart of gold, the girl he can bring home to mom (as long as mom's not busy crying in the new ride). Promo single 'Marvin’s Room' finds Drake calling an ex-girlfriend up drunkenly and letting her know that she can do better, and 'The Real Her' continues this motif. 'Make Me Proud' addresses the things that Drake wishes he could find in a woman, while 'Headlines' and 'HYFR (Hell Ya Fuckin' Right)' address the pitfalls of fame, as well as fires back at some of the critics who have popped up in the wake of the massive success of his first proper studio album. He could turn it all around, if he really felt like it - but what kind of gimmick is a cheery rapper?

Graham's tired, ya'll. He's tired of getting asked the same questions ('HYFR'), he's tired of shit-talkers ('Headlines'), he's tired of chasing her (whoever she may be) around (the title track),he's tired that she won't recognize that he's become famous ('Shot For Me') he's tired of the media butting into his personal life ('Cameras'). If it were up to Drake, I think, he'd find an island to rent and would hide out on it for six months. But the real truth, if we are to consider it, is much more sinister: Drake lives for the limelight, the money attached to the projects he's undertaken, the tours he's bound to bank off of. Aubrey bemoans the very things that make him rich, he claims that his life is killing him, yet at the same time he's the first to pop bottles at the club. Peep the video for 'Headlines' - Drake looks down at the ground, his face worn out. He's tired of shooting videos, his look half-awake. His crew is reppin', alright, but is Drake's brain elsewhere? Probably. The Drake Machine moves on, however. It must. To stop it puts a stop to the dollars, a stop to the videos, a stop to the women. A stop to the adventures and the possibility for more broken hearts.

Drake is in his mid-20s and his rhymes make it sound as if he's living out multiple lives in multiple locales, a man whose heart has aged well beyond its years. Every Autotuned rhyme drips with late-night agony, as if he were sitting on the edge of a bed in every swanky hotel on the East Coast, penning stanzas about what he's just undertaken. He's burnt out on the fame and on the women who zero in on him. He gets himself into situations with the wrong elements and then uses that as lyrical fodder, kind of like any writer who's looking for experiential contexts by which to later mold into paragraphs of their choosing depicting what they want, what they know, what they've lived.

Sure, Drake hits other beats: a Dirty South homage ('Under Ground Kings'), some positive vibin' ('Make Me Proud'), but by and large this is Drake's tissue party. 'Doing It Wrong' even has him admitting that he cannot watch the woman he broke up with cry in front of him. Listening to a Drake album is also a tiring exercise, but for a different reason that it was for Gambino's - this record just spends its time emoting. By all accounts it sounds as if he's had like four hundred girlfriends by this point in his life, and he's trying to rap about every single liaison he's ever had. It's less a cohesive set of songs and moreso a Rolodex dedicated to Aubrey Graham's heartache.

His thugness is always suspect - can Wheelchair Jimmy really pack heat? Could he fire, if need be?

These are questions I often struggle with when I hear older rhymes ('Ransom', for example), though thankfully he's largely abandoned that and moved onto the personal, for better or worse.

TV Titans Face Off

Childish and Drake are both people in love with their image, cultivating a certain cachet, carving out desired audiences. Gambino wants kids who are creative yet misunderstood, people who are still struggling with their issues. Drake is hoping that women will fall in love with him, and that men will envy his rather large bank account. These are balancing acts. Two men, from a dramatic background, busy creating characters that meld life as well as whimsical fantasy.

The biggest difference in-between the two is this: Childish still can't come to terms with the events life inflicted upon him, while Drake is trying to come to terms with the events that he's brought upon himself. Oh, and Drake whispers while Glover runs around maniacally growling, his voice hoarse. Donald Glover is still angry, Aubrey Graham's moved beyond into being tired. Anger isn't something he voices on too many tracks, his boasts are mostly about how much money he's made and how he's got the best kind of hurt. There's no mean intent in the majority of Drake's musings, just broken robot raps.

These are two men who are looking back at their lives, trying to make sense of it in different ways. Childish Gambino is still picking apart the pieces that fuel hatred within him, whereas Drake is just picking apart the moments that confuse and elude him. Drake's wish is to make good on his promises of smooth sailing with whoever he ends up with, while Childish just wants to fuck bitches to fill the void of his angry past. When it comes down to it, they are both Band Aid solutions - Childish is trying to create a bridge made out of flesh to fix his broken heart, while Drake is trying to reach out to those who have wronged him in order to suture shut a continual wound.

Aubrey largely objectifies women too, though he is less crass in his word choice than Childish. Whereas Childish will rap about getting dome, trying to fuck women of different ethnicities as well as just plain trying to get freaky, Drake dresses the bedroom up as a forbidden place. It's where his secrets are, it's where his heartache lies. It's a sacred place, one from which he made his career. Is either one the right path? Presumably not, but it depends on where you fall on the rap spectrum.

'Camp' is fueled by a sense of disbelief ('how fucking dare they do this to me?') while 'Take Care' is moreso a lamentation, fueled by a sense of weariness ('gotta go 'round the relationship merry go round, yet again.') The up-tempo tracks on 'Camp' do work well – take 'Bonfire', for example. Air-raid siren sample, handclaps, chants. It works well, on a musical level. As a fan of aggressive music, it's almost good enough to get me going. Sure, Childish is bitching about something, but we can live with it if the beats bang this hard. 'Take Care' is all about downtempo late-night beats, the closest thing to something fast we have is the Nicki Minaj-assisted 'Make Me Proud'. Apart from that, the music on 'Take Care' is built upon a sense of absence - silence is used to augment feeling, to control the mood. It helps contextualize Drake's mindspace.

Drake is no fool, he understands that understatement can be a grand weapon in the game of love, especially when you write about it the way he does. He uses it to his advantage, always wanting to leave more. Childish, on the other hand, over-explicates matters to the point where there is no mystery. Childish lays bare his anger, while Drake tries to drop hints and cultivate enough mystery that he hopes will attract attention. Childish is The Incredible Hulk, and Drake is Dr. Strange.

Lyrically, 'Take Care' and 'Camp' boil down to the double-edged sword of destiny - can we control it (Drake), or is it something that's thrown at us that we're meant to deal with (Childish Gambino)? Can we rise above what we've become, or will we wallow in the sheer epicness of the problem presented, and surrender ourselves to our primal feelings? Do we growl and make our voices hoarse, or do we whisper as if we were trying not to wake sleeping giants? Two kids, different backgrounds, different outcomes. Same medium, but ain't a damn thing changed.

shark attack.

Don't Pity Me.

I've been bad. I've been ba-ad. Goddamn terrible. I'll be the first to admit I suck.

To the -1 person reading this blog, I apologize. You may notice that this thing has laid dormant for about 3 months now. I won't bore you with meticulous personal shit as to why I don't write (moving, etc.) but the fact remains that I fucked up.

My problem is as such – I go into peaks and valleys of productivity, which causes all of my creative endeavours to take a nosedive. Sometimes I feel like when I write too much on a regular basis my head just empties out and I realize no one gives a shit about what I'm writing about. I'm bad at imposed deadlines when they come from myself.

But sometimes... Sometimes you gotta be selfish. You gotta write for yourself about the things you love. Share the shit you want to share. Isn't it the very essence of the internet (apart from pornography and narcissistic social media activities)?

The good news, though, is that I'm back on-track. I'm holding a Post It here with a bunch of topics I'd like to write about in the next little while, and I think I'll follow through. Because these topics intrigue me. And by extension, hopefully, they'll intrigue you too through my mediocre word-cramming skills.

Before that, though... A breather. Summer is indeed upon us. Time for some rap anthems. Yes? Yes. I usually use some of these song when making my way to work in the morning as part of a musical ritual I use to keep shit moving. WHITE DUDE LOVES HARD RHYMES? Better believe it. Just a few tracks, though. Let's ease each other back into this relationship. No hard kisses on the mouth, just a bit of handholding.

1. Wale feat. Rick Ross and Jadakiss - 600 Benz
2. Method Man - Bring The Pain
3. Young Jeezy feat. Plies - Lose My Mind
4. Cam'ron and Vado - Speaking In Tungs
5. Wacka Flocka Flame - Hard In Da Paint
6. Wu-Tang Clan - Careful (Click Click)
7. Big KRIT - Country Shit
8. Tyler, The Creator feat. Frank Ocean - She
9. Jamie Foxx feat. Rick Ross - Living Better Now
10. Jay Z feat. Swizz Beatz - On To The Next One
11. Yelawolf - Pop The Trunk
12. Alfamega - 4 or 5 Ways (This doesn't mean we fuckin' advocate for snitches, guys. We merely like the concept of the song. SNITCHES GET STITCHES AND BASEBALL BATS TO THE GROIN.)
13. Lloyd Banks - Beamer, Benz Or Bentley

13? Perfect number.

Bowling Shoes!

I'm Going H.A.M. On A Radio Fellar

So, when I'm not busy stabbing bad guys and watching bad fillims, I host a show on CJLO on Monday nights called Countdown To Armageddon, where I basically play music and talk smack in-between sets. I sometimes am joined in the booth by my semi-retarded son Evan and whoever else is hanging around the studio.

One of my favourite recent additions to the show is my internet buddy Cody. Cods is from South Dakota and his insight into metal is one of the more enjoyable things that he brings to the table when he calls into the show, generally at 8h45 EST.

I've decided to start posting those sounds clips up here for you to download and enjoy. In time I'll also be editing some of the better clips of Evan and I back when we pretended to run a faux conspiracy theory-themed show last summer too.

RADIO FUN FOR ALL.

Countdown To Armageddon - Cody Segment 1

Countdown To Armageddon - Cody Segment 2

Staying Posi, Despite The Lyrical Content

Every time I open up this blog post edit window and begin to write, I often catch myself and am completely unsure of what exactly I should be saying. It's that great paradox of choice: the more options laid out in front of me, the harder it begins to start to construct words, which lead to eventual ideas. The simple ones grow into complex narratives that end up abandoned because they are simply too grandiose (and quickly lose any meaning I may have tried to intend). So I'm back to basics on this one, I've decided to give birth to a New Age Of Simple Ideas™.

---

And so with all of this discussion of choice, I now present you with one.

"I would die for you."

That phrase, used with frightening regularity, has come up a few times today within the cadre of the music I've been exposed to through a variety of media. Slightly amusing, slightly fatalistic, fully hilarious. In the words of Fozzy Bear, oletsdodis.

THE CONTENDERS:

Jann Arden – "I Would Die For You" (1993)
Prince - "I Would Die 4 U" (1984)
Garbage - "#1 Crush" (1996)
Bruno Mars - "Grenade" (2010)
Bryan Adams - "Everything I Do (I Do It For You)" (1991)

Which is your fav/least offensive use of the phrase?

FIGHT.

Macarons

Church.

Hastie's Random Rules

I'm a huge fan of the AV Club. I think their take on all things pop culture is an interesting and much-needed one, and it is a site that sets itself apart from the pack of celebrity-worshipping blogs that unfortunately seem to dominate the web.

One of my favourite features on the site (and one that they rarely do these days, unfortunately) is called Random Rules. Basically an AV staffer will hook up with some sort of culture producer and they talk about a number of songs on said producer's iPod. I really like that idea, and in the spirit of getting a little creative, I'm going to interview myself as I explore my iPod.

1. 50 Cent feat. Justin Timberlake - Ayo Technology
I have this on my iPod because it makes me realize that for any amount of money, Justin Timberlake will say whatever the fuck you want him to. 'I'm tired of using technology/why don't you sit down on top of me'? What the fuck does that mean? Is he a fucking Luddite who suddenly decides that he must procreate at all costs? The beat's pretty good, the entire song is whack. If memory serves correctly, the music video has 50 either pointing a sniper rifle or having a sniper rifle pointed at him.

So you've seen the music video?
Well yeah. Someone sinks enough money into a product and I need to watch it. It's like a train wreck. Television in Canada actually shows music videos too, it's pretty fucked how we're progressive like that.

2. The Beatles - I Am The Walrus
This song, for some reason, doesn't appeal to me. Kookookafuckyou, to quote Chkchkchk. It's a piece of psychedelic garbage. I appreciate the production and Lennon's crazy vocal stylings, like he's calling in from an amped-up telephone. The orchestration's nice too, but fuck. Overrated.

Does that mean you think the Beatles, as a whole, are over-rated?
To be quite honest with you, yes. There's so much hit-and-miss going on because they were too deep into the drugs to actually pull their heads back and realize what a good song entails, once in a while.

That's gonna cause some controversy.
Yeah, but then again, I have like 400 Cure songs on this thing, so who the fuck cares what I have to say. My opinion is invalidated. I do love their innovative production ideas, though.

Robert Smith vs John Lennon - Who wins?
Well it depends on the arena. Are we talking street fight? Because if so then I think Robert just because his hair has been sprayed so much with chemicals that it acts like a natural helmet. It's also its own habitat. Birds and small children roam free inside. If it's in a musical arena, I think Lennon would win, just because he meanders less and is more consistent when it counts. Smith loves the delay pedal a bit too much.

3. Faith No More - Everything's Ruined
I don't suck on the dick like many people do when it comes to Mike Patton. I like his delivery in the song, I love the fact that the bass is prominent, I also enjoy the fact that the guitars are kinda layered in back and huge. And I honestly do enjoy Patton's singing and talking, he reminds me of a hobo asking me for change and then busting out in a full-scale Broadway production. Shit's always awesome and unexpected to hear and see. I would've loved to see them live before they started sucking by all accounts, which was like mid '97.

Do you enjoy any other of Patton's projects?
I bought Mr. Bungle's Disco Volante and I use it to scare my cats out of the back of closets when needed. I enjoyed his Peeping Tom project a lot, and I think all of the Fantomas records have their own moments that I find really neat. Tomahawk's newest release is just too fucking weird for me to care about, even though I've tried a few times. I kinda want Patton to start doing radio drama, I feel like his cult of personality could really bring the concept back in a big way. Imagine Mike Patton solving crimes? It could guest star people like Henry Rollins (the voice of God), Trent Reznor (the whiny victims), Rick Rubin (the guy who discovers the body that triggers the investigation), Rick Wakeman (he'd be giving Mike Patton capes and advice), Rick Astley (he'll never give up on Mike), Rick James' voice (a cautionary tale about playing too much bass and doing too much cocaine), the guys from the Mars Volta (for "authentic exotic flavour"), Sean Penn could be made fun of on a weekly basis... It'd be the hippest thing since dropping 7"s in multiple colours.

4. Wintersleep - Caliber
I always thought of this band as the Canadian winter to The Tragically Hip's summer. Songs like "Caliber" have this heavy-handed drumming and production that's gritty and atmospheric. The lyrics to the song ('you keep your caliber loaded/no one's gonna fuck this up') are pretty harsh and straight-forward. Their two first albums are like slabs of 3 am goodness. "Sore", "Listen Listen (Listen)", "Avalanche"... All of those are songs I put on when I'm stuck on a bus overnight. They give me goosebumps in that they're haunting in a way I can barely describe with words that make sense when strung together.

Why do you think of the Hip as a "summer" band?
Songs like "Ahead By A Century" just make me think of backyards and children running through fields. It's got that nice, non-threatening acoustic guitar, whereas Wintersleep's is of a more pressing nature, as if they've got to spit venom but have never discovered the joy of dropping 8 bars on your arch-rival's ass.

5. Jay-Z - Izzo (H.O.V.A.) - MTV Unplugged
The Jay-Z Unplugged record is fantastic. It's got so much going on in so many ways that it's captivating. It's like listening to a Roots record (most of the band appears on it and ?uestlove orchestrated it, natch) with one of the best MCs ever, performed live. How many rap records can you claim to hear kick-ass windchimes? Jay's at the top of his game, and he actually does a great medley in the mid-section of the record that totally makes the record stand out, making this much more than a repackaged 'best of' that other lesser artists would have done. There's also some extended performances that stretch up to the 6 minute mark, but that's okay because it's so captivating. Jay trades in beats for beauty and it works out wonderfully. I can listen to this all the way through without hitting fast-forward once.

Do you celebrate all of Jay-Z's catalog?
Sure, to some degree. Dude has some great songs and some average ones. But therein lies the magic of Jay-Z: His average songs are actually better than certain rappers' entire discographies.

Anyone you'd like to name?
Sure. Rhymes with Ra Jule. Dude steals X's bark, sings hooks like he's seen a music sheet before and his thug life consists of Maury repeats. Real fucking tough, man. Oh yeah, whatever the fuck happened to Blackstreet? No diggity, no more place in the spotlight for you guys.

Location Portrait

Stand Up Straight

Mixtape Monday #8: '90s Dance Party Vol. 1 (Canadian Hits)

1. B4-4 – Get Down
I got mad love for this Canadian version of a boyband – it's even a tangible, viewable love.

2. Sugar Jones – Days Like That
Mrs. Remy Shand and co. were collectively known as Sugar Jones, the winners of the first season of the strange reality TV show Popstars. I mean, who really paid attention to it? Does anyone really remember Velvet Empire? No? Bueller? Bueller?

3. Bass Is Base – I Cry
I'm probably the only person I know who owns Memories of the Soul Shack Survivors. I often refer to the group as a proto Black Eyed Peas who could've been way bigger had they come along a few years later when the public was more accepting of genre-fucking such as this.

4. Kim Stockwood – You Jerk
I loved being able to sing the chorus as a kid and not get in trouble. Thank you, Mix 96... And thank you Kim Stockwood, you probably won't remember this.

5. Ashley MacIsaac – Sleepy Maggie
Who doesn't like a fiddle in their pop hits? Epic deliciousness by a crazed Maritimer... And I'm not talking about Buck 65.

Zip file with all of the songs

Vibrance

Notes.

Mixtape Monday #7: Let's Goddamn Dance

1. Love Inc. - Broken Bones
O

2. La Roux - In For The Kill (Skrillex remix)
LET'S

3. Ke$ha - Cannibal
GET

4. Duck Sauce - Barbara Streisand
THE

5. David Guetta - Sexy Bitch (feat. Akon)
PARTY

6. Bloc Party - Flux (12" version)
STARTED

Zip file with all of the tracks

Fear not...

We've been busy as bees here at the blog. I've been working on a few longer pieces that will take up a lot of my time to finish up, and so that's why we've maintained radio silence. In the interest of keeping you interested, here are a few cool tidbits I've come across to tide you over... consider it a culture catch-all.

-Ever wonder why merch prices are so fucked up? alt.press looks into it.

-Udo Kier: Best. Interview. Subject. Ever.

-Also on the same tip: Apparently Jon Lovitz knows everyone in Hollywood.

-The best tour my eyes have seen this year is coming to MTL.

-Justin Bieber's Christian knock-off tries to gain momentum. HURRAY.

-'This week in dead animals.'

I'll soon be posting up an in-depth analysis of Kanye West's newest album, as well as some musings about hardcore music.

Mixtape Monday #6: 5 Songs With The Word 'Fuck' In The Title

Sometimes I just feel angry. The infamous F-word, used as a point of exclamation or as an exclamation, is one of the strongest words one can use in the English language. So without further ado, here's a list of a few songs that typify the word's usage.

1. Superjoint Ritual - Fuck Your Enemy
This defunct Phil Anselmo project surprised many when it came out earlier on in the decade – the throat behind the ultimate groove metal delivers quick bursts of thrashy goodness that harken back to an earlier time, before bros took the fun out of thrash. The establishing shot for this single (yes, it was a single)'s video still sticks out in my mind whenever this song comes on.

2. Bring Me The Horizon - Fuck
British metalcore outfit Bring Me The Horizon hold no punches with this snappily-named track, an exercise in economy considering that the band's recently-released album is titled There Is A Hell, Believe Me I've Seen It. There Is A Heaven, Let's Keep It A Secret. Throw some horns up, get an insight into what the kids are lisening to.

3. Ice Cube - Fuck Dying (feat. KoRn)
"Fuck Dying", the infamous double-negative, is such a great posi life message that I could not resist adding it. Also, the addition of nu-metal lords KoRn cannot hurt.... Or can it? Unlike Superjoint Riual's video, though, this one actually makes the song sound worse.

4. N.W.A. - Fuck Tha Police
Oh yeah. As if you didn't see this one coming. As a bonus, though, here's Rage Against The Machine covering the track.

5. Bass Of The Union - Fuck You, Pay Me
SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION. (Airhorn sounds.) Probably the biggest hit the rap duo I was a part of (n)ever had. My mom is so proud whenever I play this. A tale about monetary woes.

Zip file with all of the tracks

Bear Skin

Sometimes Brian Remixes Things

Gucci Mane – Lemonade (Hastie Demix) by Disruptive Innovation