growing up, i had a few friends whose moms were very strict christians and wouldn’t let them listen to rap music because it is dirty and corrupting. then dc talk came around in the early ’90s and offered respectable beats and rhymes that even the blessed virgin mary could get loose to. thank goodness! too bad the group’s songs sucked.
there are many cornball rap tracks in the dc talk discography, but 1991’s “i luv rap music” epitomizes why the group was never able to connect with real hip-hop audiences (despite being HUGE stars on the christian music scene). the song is a hamfisted rip-off of a variety of popular secular tracks of the era, with lyrics that are delivered in a way that recalls a junior high principal reaching out to students on their level to communicate the virtuous joys of recycling … via rap!
the group’s lead vocalist, toby mckeehan, had clearly been listening to a lot of fresh prince around the time this song was recorded (check out the part where he does a squeaky, silly impersonation of his mom – it’s a move jacked straight from the “parents just don’t understand”/”fresh prince of bel-air theme” playbook). meanwhile, the intro is clearly intended to invoke the same sort of apocalyptic superseriousness that leads off several public enemy songs. in his deepest and most earnest rap voice, mckeehan hilariously bellows “some people out there givin’ rap a bad name!”. suffice it to say, he is no professor griff, and this song is no “bring the noise.”
dc talk – “i luv rap music”
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this is one of the worst songs i’ve ever heard.
that’s so crim of you!
my co-worker “hipped” me to the robin williams rap in ferngully. it gives this a challenge for the title of worst rap song. peep it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtuKoD1Wbvg
wowch. his timing suggests that he recorded the “rap” to an entirely different backing track than the one they ended up using in the movie. it’s actually harder to rap that off beat than it is to rap rhythmically. the end result sounds like a bad mash-up of the tom hanks/dan ackroyd “dragnet” rap and a loop from “the monster mash.” in other words – i love it!
yep, i remember the video for this. at the end, they took off in a van that said “heaven or bust” on it or something. now they’re on some christian rock tip.
i knew that after they’d done a few rap albums they switched it up to an alt rock steez and had some success with it. in doing the very little bit of research about the group that i needed to do to get this post together, though, i learned something i did not know: they broke up in 2000 only to reunite in 2002 for a very special project. from wikipedia:
“In September 2002, dc Talk reunited to record and release a single about the September 11, 2001 attacks, entitled “Let’s Roll.”"
i would really like to hear that song!
you can listen to “let’s roll” here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iy2-9AkmVE8
“let’s roll. let’s fight. let’s show the world what’s right.”