Hit & Miss: Ignorant Rap

Andrew Hickey runs through the best and worst of ig'nant rap. From Diddy to Gucci, leave your brain at the door.

Words Andrew Hickey

Scroll through to see the Hits & Misses of Ignorant Rap...

HIT // 2CHAINZ: Just in case you had any doubts that Tity Boi was lacking the ignorant credentials to run with the likes of Young Jeezy, he went and picked up more gaudy jewellery, sprinkled some more crack on his rhymes and became 2 Chainz. Like a student of the game, he has consolidated every cliché and ignorant compulsion into something worthy of bumping whether you’re in the suburbs or a meth lab. He has dropped one of the new school’s finest collections of ignorance with debut album Based on a TRU Story. Ultimately we are all winners of the ignorant sweepstakes with lines like “woodgrain, chestnut/titty fuck, chest nut.”

MISS // SOULJA BOY: Bordering between ignorant and just plain terrible, the youngest entrant in the ignorant rap stakes is the lovable Soulja Boy. Starting in his teens, he set a not-so sterling example for his young peers. Utilising the power of social media at a time when it was still relatively unproven in the music world he made a major impact with the Caribbean flavoured 'Crank That (Soulja Boy)'. The single was a massive success, despite its intellectual and musical deficiencies. As oddly compelling and hypnotic as his debut anthem was he obviously failed to pay attention in class and did little to build upon his initial success. The result of his ongoing exploits was unmotivated ignorance, which is no fun for anybody.

HIT // CAM'RON: Killa Cam always had ambitions of making it big, dating back to the mid-90s when he was part of Children of the Corn with (Murda) Mase and Big L. While these efforts and his first solo run were the seedlings, it wasn’t until he signed with Jay-Z that he sprouted into a truly ignorant rapper. With his ridiculous take on rap braggadocio, delivered in off-kilter densely packed rhyme schemes, Cam was certainly a pioneer. “You’d think I had a violin the way I fiddle triggers/how you older than me, and still a little nigga,” he pondered on The First by The Diplomats.

MISS // DIDDY: While his music contains many of the hallmarks of ignorant rap the Diddmeister lacks the credibility to back up his rhymes. Drug deals, shootouts and violent revenge are all there. However his only real documented act of truly ignorant behaviour involved Shyne taking the wrap for his 1999 shooting incident. Always backed by the best ghost-writers and producers in the biz, one of the problems lies with his delivery and recorded personality. His biggest handicap though is the fact that his middle class background is public knowledge. If you’re going to pull off ignorance it’s better to have a murky past, like say a Wacka Flocka, where you can get away with embellishing or plainly making shit it up.

HIT // GUCCI MANE: Gucci Mane started this ignorant shit for the new generation. When other chumps were talking about hip-hop being dead and rapping about George Bush and foreign oil, this man was taking ignorance to new levels, setting the stage for the future ignorance to come. "Popping Cris, think that I need Alcohol Anonymous/ 45 in the club, I could kill a hippopotamus," goes one of his Shakespearean worthy couplets. His power is so immense that even Talib Kweli had to work with him. The only flaw in his burrprint is that he faces the threat of being overshadowed by the concentrated ignorance that his peers are now presenting.

MISS // D4L: Responsible for one of the most hilariously ignorant rap anthems of all time, 'Laffy Taffy', these dudes were an ig’nant goldmine without even knowing it. With their oversized white t-shirts and hyper-exaggerated rhymes and delivery they represented the worst of hip-hop’s impulses. To rap fans they were like a modern day minstrel act, while to the mainstream they were yet another example of ignorant rappers presenting cartoonish fantasy. Cashing in on the popularity of fellow Atlanta rappers like T.I. and Young Jeezy they had neither the charisma nor the intriguing elements to result in anything more than a musical equivalent of a lobotomy.

HIT // OL DIRTY BASTARD: Some rappers try to exaggerate their quirks and ignorant tendencies to gain attention. Russell Jones, or Ol Dirty Bastard to the world, didn’t need to fabricate anything, he was the real deal. Whether it was his unrefined views on sexual politics, flippant use of violent threats or unpredictable conduct in public places, ODB was a publicists’ nightmare and a rap fan’s dream. He was a larger than life figure and succeeded on his own terms, which is the pinnacle of what any ignorant rapper can aspire to. “I drop science like girls be droppin babies,” he once said. ODB did that and so much more in his lifetime.

MISS // BIRDMAN: Brrrr. Do you hear that? It’s not the first day of spring, it’s Birdman. One of the main money men behind the Cash Money Records juggernaut the real life Bryan Williams always fancied himself a public figure despite his almost complete lack of tangible communication skills and personality. Some may think that his recorded sins began with his ig’nant exploits as one-half of the Big Tymers, however that’s not the case. Birdman dropped his first album in 1993, the gloriously titled I 'Need a Bag of Dope', under the name B-32. It’s been nothing but characterless show-and-tell from a delusional rich guy ever since. We’d rather hear Bill Gates rap.

HIT // KRS-ONE: You’re probably thinking to yourself “No, not Kris”. Well before he was the ‘Teacha’ and leader of the Temple of Hip-Hop he was a gun-toting, beef-inciting rebel. On his first studio album, released with brother in arms Scott La Rock, under the name Boogie Down Productions he can be heard rhyming recklessly about loose women and casual violence. 'Criminal Minded' also sparked the famous battle between KRS and MC Shan, with both claiming their borough created hip-hop. In a case of ignorant rap resulting in serious change Kris chose to move toward inspirational, and some would say preachy, hip-hop music after the tragic death of La Rock. In classic ignorant style though he continued to flame his beef with Shan and the Juice Crew for another few years.

MISS // TIM DOG: Today you’d be hard-pressed to find a rapper so ignorant they alienate themselves from both their peers and fans. In 1991 things were different, as rap was feeling its first taste of California love thanks to NWA and the like. New York was facing its first big threat to supremacy so Tim Dog went on to unleash a verbal assault on the whole West Coast with 'Fuck Compton'. It was fun for one song but then he went on to release an entire album of ranting and another one. His anti-gangsta stance continued as he grew into an older Dog, before he got nabbed last year for using an online dating site to scam a woman out of $32,000.

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Ignorance, or ig’nance, in the rap game is something frowned upon by many elitists who see it as a watering down of the culture they love. While socio-political commentary has always been one of rap music’s most valuable contributions to the world, there is nothing wrong with a little politically incorrect ignorance to balance things out. When done well ignorant rap can prove to be more authentic and honest than any other form.

Before Public Enemy and even before the rudimentary social commentary of Melle Mel and the Furious Five on The Message, hip-hop began as less a refined artform and more just about pure expression and ultimately having fun. As production quality and subject matter have grown by leaps so has the way hip-hop is viewed. It is now the subject of debates and even school curriculums.

It’s understandable that listeners, particularly when they get older, look for more substance in their music and culture. To hold everything up to the same standards however is unrealistic. Let’s not forget that a majority of fans didn’t come out of the womb listening to KRS-One preach. Most stories of hip-hop fandom begin with the likes of Snoop Dogg and Eminem, not exactly bastions of good taste and high morals. The ironic part is that ignorant lyrics from the likes of Gucci Mane are being enjoyed and dissected by scenesters/hipsters who generally scrutinise the other genres of music they listen to over their substance and quality. The voyeurism and blatantly explicit content is obviously very attractive to those unaccustomed to hearing it regularly. This demonstrates that ignorant rap can be just as artistic as ‘intelligent’ rap. The delivery and lyrics still need to be compelling. The delivery method may be too unrefined and unappealing to some eardrums but for many artists it’s their means of communicating their pain.

There’s a fine line between knowingly ignorant rappers who are doing it for entertainment purposes and those that don’t even realise they’re doing it. It’s safe to assume that Waka Flocka Flame doesn’t realise his place as a king of ignorant rap, while artists like 2 Chainz are clearly taking advantage of the hunger for drug and misogyny laden content. Here we look at those that have succeeded and failed in painting a picture of reality as they see it, no matter how politically incorrect it may be. Miss anybody? Let us know!