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Pitchfork writer Alphonse Pierre’s rap column covers songs, mixtapes, albums, Instagram freestyles, memes, weird tweets, fashion trends—and anything else that catches his attention.
A visual roundup of very specific and ridiculous moments in rap videos lately
When it comes to rap videos, there’s only so much super-macho chest-puffing, lavish jewelry-flexing, outlandish self-mythologizing, and middle-finger mean-mugging you can watch before it all becomes hilarious. Most of the time, the comedy is an unintentional byproduct of a rapper trying to look cool while also being dead serious, like in Lil Durk’s “Chiraqimony,” when he sings, “Man, I fell down to my knees when the law came” and then literally drops to his knees with the drama of Willem Dafoe’s slow-motion death scene in Platoon. Occasionally it’s intentionally absurd, usually in the videos where rappers tap into their theatrical instincts (like when Rick Ross leaps off a bridge to get out of speeding ticket in the opening of “Speedin’”). Damn man, rap videos are so fun—even when they don’t mean to be.
In order to shine a light on this sometimes-undervalued art form, here’s a visual roundup of a few particularly insane rap video moments I stumbled onto recently. Part of the fun is wondering what could have possibly been going through these rappers’ minds when the cameras turned on…
- In the “Computer Murderers” clip, when Lil Durk does elevated push-ups using very unstable stacks of money. In the next scene he should have done medicine ball drills with duffel bags full of coins.
- When Kash Doll flips through a stack of bills on a boat in the “Like Woah” video, and the cash gets caught in the wind, but she refuses to break character. Shout out to the production assistant off to the side with a bathing suit and a fishing net scooping all those ones back up.
- Houston’s Sauce Walka shot his “Drill Spill” video in New York, so he decided to do things he believes New Yorkers do: variations on the drill spin-cycle dance and hang upside-down like Peter Parker.
- Babyface Ray is the dealer of the card game in his “Motown Music” video, but it’s clearly the first time he’s ever shuffled a deck in his life.
- Duwap Kaine hanging out in a shopping cart in the middle of the night in his “Shopping Spree” clip.
- Philly newcomer Ot7Quanny pays for his luxury goods in the most inconvenient way in the “Dog Talk” video, counting out each and every bill at the counter. Somebody get him a debit card! Venmo! An envelope! Something!
- How Gunna struts through the “pushin P” video wrapped in a Louis Vuitton blanket, like a grandmother who hates air conditioning.
- Philly’s RayTrey gets real cinematic in the “Johnny” video. First he tries to score a date in the worst way: Pulling up unexpectedly on a woman with his friend and asking her to come ride the bus with them. That had a zero percent chance of working, but they are still somewhat surprised when she rejects them. So they go and steal a car, and then she’s suddenly down. And they have a really, really wild night at a Shell gas station.
- When Latto unnecessarily puts on about four empty handbags before heading out of her hotel room in “777.”
- When 42 Dugg and Lil Baby swing their braids like they’re in a L’Oréal commercial in the “Everybody Shooters Too” and “Vulture Island V2” videos.
- Speaking of Dugg, there’s also his extremely detailed Wario piece in the “Free the Shiners” video.
- And let’s not forget when EST Gee sniffs a stack of money like a freshly delivered bouquet of flowers in “Everybody Shooters Too,” too.
- TisaKorean snippets are basically very short music videos. This one might make you believe in time travel.
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The tapes have a ton in common. Both are heavy on sample flips and have themes based on pop culture moments of the past (Family Matters and Like Mike, respectively). Verde Babii makes multiple guest appearances on SSRich33’s tape, and vice versa. On Verde Matters, it’s as if Verde Babii is rapping through clenched teeth the entire time—there’s a bite to his delivery that makes you want to catch every line. The tracks on the tape with softer production, like “Beautiful Lies” and “Ella Mai,” particularly stand out, offering an exciting contrast with his menacing block stories. Like Rich is a little more upbeat, its samples giving it a pop bounce. It works slightly less as a complete mixtape, but “Hoop Dreams” might be the best song on either one, as Rich and Babii trade bleak fantasies over an instrumental with a Radio Disney feel. Stockton is pumping them out right now.
Throwback rapper movie corner: 1992’s Juice
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I’ve probably seen Juice over 10 times, but during my latest rewatch of director Ernest Dickerson’s genre-bending debut, I decided to pay special attention to Tupac’s unhinged character, Bishop. He’s on one from the jump: In the first 30 minutes, Bishop is more than just an asshole, he’s a complete loose cannon. He has this wild-ass look in his eyes and threatens sweet ol’ Steel (who just cooked for him!) by saying he can take his life at any time for absolutely no reason. Truly such a vibe killer—I don’t know why they keep inviting him around! The dumbest decision in the movie has to be when Raheem shows the crew the gun he bought and lets Bishop hold onto it. If they would just pay attention to the lunacy of their friend they would notice that he’s damn-near having an orgasm as he fingers the trigger. In this light, what comes next doesn’t seem that shocking.
BiC Fizzle: “Turnt Sh*t”
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I imagine Gucci Mane currently employs an army of scouts to forage through every Southern backroad in order to find young up-and-coming rappers for his label. Included on his retooled 1017 roster is Waco, Texas’ Hotboy Wes; Greensboro, Georgia’s Foogiano; Tutwiler, Mississippi’s BigWalkDog; and Blytheville, Arkansas’ Bic Fizzle. Of the group, BiC Fizzle has been one of the most exciting players to keep tabs on, especially through his collabs with fellow Arkansas-raised rapper Cootie, who has this mesmerizing, heavy voice. Fizzle’s “Turnt Sh*t” is his best solo track so far—the teenager’s high-pitched Southern drawl rips through a catchy instrumental full of pummeling drums and groovy guitar samples. There’s a bounce to the song that makes up for the fact that his lyrics don’t really grab me yet. Nevertheless, the only person finding more talent in the South than Gucci is Alabama coach Nick Saban.
Ot7Quanny verses steal the show
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Philly breakout Ot7Quanny only has a handful verses that are officially out so far, but each one is extremely replayable—his anecdotes are so detailed that there’s something new to catch onto every listen. On the NR Boor-assisted “Slidin,” he elevates a cliche Friday reference by conversationally dissecting the movie’s logic: “I wonder what was going through Craig mind when he put the ratchet down?/If Deebo would’ve tried to punch me, I would’ve clapped ’em down.” His verse on Crazy Bill’s “Trappin Ain’t Dead” is even better, with lyrics that create entire stories with just a few lines. “That nigga had a check, he went broke, and then he sold his watch” or “Real street nigga still sendin’ money to my celly/In the spot with three smokers, countin’ racks, watchin’ Belly.” It’s just straight-up good rapping.
YL and Zoomo: In Memory Of
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New York’s YL returns from a few months spent infusing the sample-drill trend with his observant, city-dweller raps by reuniting with producer Zoomo for their third—and best—collaborative tape, In Memory Of. YL has been on a tear since adding a breathless, ahead-of-the-beat delivery to his arsenal early last summer with It Never Entered My Mind, which was a cool departure from his usual patient descriptiveness. On In Memory Of, he breaks out both flows, sometimes skillfully switching between them mid-song. And these flows rip right through Zoomo’s warm beats, which feel like they belong in the flashback scenes of a New York mafia movie—call them Bronx Tale-type beats. As usual, the tracks are brisk, and the extremely specific pop culture references are on-point, too: former New York Yankees ace Andy Pettitte, Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, and the trashy MTV reality television time capsule Next are all on the lyrical menu.
GlockBoy BoBo: “No Rap Cap”
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Chicago drill and 2000s Atlanta rap are forever connected spiritually, so it makes sense when the two styles meet. On “No Rap Cap,” the relaxed shit-talking of emerging Chi-town rapper GlockBoy BoBo is laid over the timeless steel drum-led beat of DG Yola’s 2006 hit “Ain’t Gon Let Up.” If you’re skeptical, I feel you—the instrumental, produced by Win on the Track, is a cheat code so good that pretty much anyone sounds better on it. But BoBo does enough to make the beat his. Each line feels like its own breathlessly delivered run-on sentence, and he keeps his persona lowkey, as if rattling off threats puts him in a sweet mood. He should keep this combo going. Next time, maybe he can take on other classic Atlanta instrumentals like D4L’s trippy “Make It Rain” or a hard-hitting Crime Mob cut like “Ain’t No Joke.”
