"rap" news and stories

It may be one of the most trippy rap videos ever: no tricked-out Escalades, no writhing fly girls and nary a bottle of Cristal in sight. Instead it's just a bird and a couple of blokes rhyming about...organic dairy farming!?

Welcome to Yeo Valley (yes, it's actually pronounced "Yo!" Valley). This bucolic landscape in southwest England may seem more Lord Byron than Lil' Kim, but it seems the folks at Yeo Valley Organic didn't think sonnets were the best way to go about selling their organic diary products.

Watch the video after the jump.

Lil' Jon, mastermind behind such eloquent, thoughtful diddies as "Crunk Juice" and whose major contributions to Usher's hit "Yeah" consisted of sporatically screaming, "Ye-eahhhh...." and then, "OH-KAY!" into the microphone, is going to be marketing his own wine.

The label? Little Jonathon Winery. "My full name is Jonathon," he told EW.com. (Gee, really? We thought it was Lloyd). "The wine is more nature: I wanted to not just have a direct connection, but make it just a little bit more upscale than regular 'Lil Jon.' ... This is not no ghetto Boone's Farm; this is some real wine." (Not sure if "nature" is a typo, and he meant mature, or if it's just part of his bizarre stream-of-consciousness speech).

Note the double-negative and the reference to Boone's Farm. Truly, this is not no ordinary wine. Fo sho.

Smirnoff is the latest company to join in the viral marketing trend, putting a video on YouTube to gain interest in their newest product. Since we all enjoyed the Folgers ad so much, it seemed only natural to put up new Smirnoff ad. The ad is a music video featuring the "New England gangsters" known as "Prep Unit" - in other words, three white guys rapping about Cape Cod, the Hamptons and Harvard while playing croquet and tennis. The ad promotes Smirnoff's new malt iced tea beverage, Smirnoff Raw Tea, which is in limited release on the East Coast at the moment (but can also be found online). It's a funny ad, but as far as raps about food go, nothing can beat the SNL Lazy Sunday cupcake rap.

Source

The other day, Sarah Gim posted about a Chicago meat market that was asking people to write meat-related raps. On a similar note, I recently came across an old Ask MetaFilter thread asking for songs about meat. Coincidence? Who knows. What I do know is that there were roughly 100 replies. I was glad to see that someone made the obvious connection to Southern Culture on the Skids (right) for their numerous meat related songs and album titles, including (but not limited to) "Too Much Pork for Just One Fork," "Chitlin Strut," and "8 Piece Box." Louis Armstrong and the Hot Five's "Struttin' With Some Barbeque" also made the list. Personally, I'm partial to the Willie Nelson version of that one. As you might imagine, Ween, Cibo Matto and Tom Waits all make appearances on the list as well. Sadly, two of my favorites, Blind Boy Fuller's "If You See My Pigmeat" and Louis Prima's "Closer to the Bone" didn't make the roster. I guess those aren't really about meat anyway.

I didn't even know that marijuana candy even existed in the first place, but apparently it does. Last week, supervisors of Alameda County in northern California banned the sale of it.

Parents in Castro Valley complained about the candy when they realized that it had become popular with high school students, especially when celebrities like Paris Hilton and rapper Snoop Dogg endorse the candy. Parents were concerned that the marijuana flavored candy will serve as a "gateway" to illegal drug usage later. The candy manufacturers say that there is no THC present in the candy, the active substance in marijuana.

The ordinance to ban passed 4-0.

Source