The Rap Year Book: The Most Important Rap Song from Every Year Since 1979, Discussed, Debated, and Deconstructed

by Serrano, Shea

  Lindsay Lohan starred in Mean Girls. Mean Girls is secretly a very advanced, very powerful movie of the generation. A lot of people refer to Godfather II as the Mean Girls of the ’70s. I actually heard that Lohan read for Al Pacino’s part in Heat but that the director was nervous about giving it to her because she was a nine-year-old girl. Ageism is real in Hollywood.

  None of these, of course, has any tiein to Mike Jones or Kanye West or any rap from 2004 or even rap music at all, for that matter. They’re just some things that happened. But there’s no way I will ever write anything about 2004 without at least mentioning Mean Girls.

  I suppose that means I am still super-uninteresting.

  ♦

  The version of “Still Tippin’” that most know isn’t the original version. The original was recorded in 2002. Both were built up from an old Slim Thug freestyle,3 but they had different producers (Bigg Tyme produced the original; Salih Williams produced the famous one) and different lineups (Chamillionaire was on the original; Paul Wall replaced him on the famous one). The famous version ended up on a compilation tape in 2003 called The Day Hell Broke Loose 2. It was then plucked from there and used as the first single from Jones’s Who Is Mike Jones? album in 2004 after Jones improbably proved to be a commodity.

  ♦

  This is what Mike Jones did to jump-start his career, and it’s really very smart and a fun thing to think about: At the beginning of his career—this was back around 2000—nobody in rap would pay attention to Jones. And nor should they have. Mike Jones is a talented marketer, and he is an opportunistic businessman, but he is not that great of a rapper. And being not that great of a rapper is not a very good thing if you want to be a famous rapper.4 So he went to whom people in rap would pay attention to: strippers.

  He started visiting the most popular strip clubs in Houston. He introduced himself to the dancers, talked to them about music, and then he started making personalized rap songs for them to dance to onstage. He’d put a girl’s name in the song, describe her a little bit, talk her up. First it was one girl. He did it for free just to start. Then two girls. Then five girls. He started charging them for the songs. Demand grew and grew. Ten girls. Twenty girls. Eventually, all the girls in a particular club were dancing to his music. Then two clubs. Then five. He inundated the airspace with his adenoidal, unmistakable voice. What’s more, on those songs (and in the songs that came afterward) he’d repeat his name over and over again, put his phone number in them, on T-shirts, on posters, on everything.5 He seemed to exist only to promote his brand, and that’s one way a not very good rapper becomes the most visible rapper in his city, then state, then country.

  Sidebar: In The Social Network, Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake), the guy who invented Napster, sits down for a meeting with Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) and Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield). During the meeting, Parker asks Zuckerberg and Saverin about marketing strategy. Zuckerberg talks about how there was one instance where they wanted to get Facebook onto Baylor but Baylor already had its own independent social networking site. So what they did was target all the schools in a hundred-mile radius and get Facebook there. Soon enough, the kids at Baylor were transferring over to Facebook. That’s basically exactly what Jones did, except instead of colleges he used strippers. All of a sudden, every stripper in the area had his music in their hands, and next thing Jones knew, it was in front of every tastemaker around.

  In a 2014 mini-documentary that Complex.com did about the importance of “Still Tippin’,” Michael Watts, one of the cofounders of Swishahouse, the record label in Houston that housed Slim Thug, Paul Wall, Chamillionaire, and later Mike Jones, said of pre-fame Jones: “He didn’t come as just a rapper. He came with a plan. I was really impressed because I never had anybody that came to me with a plan that [hadn’t], to that day that I know of, put out an album.” That’s the best summation.

  Mike Jones eventually unraveled his own fame, setting fire to each rung of the ladder he used to climb toward stardom after each step. And so when his fall came, not too long after he’d watched Who Is Mike Jones? go double platinum, he plummeted toward the earth so fast and violently that when he struck it, he was atomized on impact. He’s virtually invisible in music today. But his ascension remains a compelling story, and essential to the rise, and eventual market dominance, of southern rap.

  ♦

  From 1992 to 2002, there were only two rappers from Houston who made albums that sold more than a million copies. Scar-face did it in 1994 with The Diary and in 1997 with The Untouchable. And Lil’ Troy, who caught magic with his single “Wanna Be a Baller,” did it in 1999 with Sittin’ Fat Down South. After “Still Tippin’” was released in November of 2004, it happened three times over eight months in 2005 (Jones, Who Is Mike Jones?; Paul Wall, The Peoples Champ; Chamillionaire, The Sound of Revenge). The exposure led to an influx of culture plumbing: the candy paint; the gold and diamond grills; the Styrofoam cups full of lean/drank, a mixture of promethazine, codeine, and soda; and, most aggressively, the sound and style of DJ Screw, who pioneered the Chopped and Screwed subgenre of music, which was cutting up songs and playing them back over themselves while slowing everything down to an earthworm’s inching pace.

  In a 2010 email interview with the Guardian, Drake wrote, “Sometimes I feel guilty for how much I love Screw and the SUC. I feel like Houston must look at me as someone who is just latching on to a movement. But I just can’t express how that shit makes me feel. That brand of music is just everything to me.” That’s the best summation.

  ♦

  The worst Houston impression: In 2008, T-Pain, a large top hat with an R&B singer underneath it, released a song with Ludacris called “Chopped ’n’ Skrewed” where he replaced the Screwed sound with his autotuned sound, then used the phrase “chopped and screwed” to mean that your advances have been disregarded by a female.

  The best Houston impression: In 2011, A$AP Rocky, a rapper from Harlem, released a song called “Purple Swag.” It was slow and sleepy but melodic and assertive. The video for the song, which went viral almost instantly, helped propel Rocky toward the $3 million record deal he ended up signing with RCA Records and Polo Grounds Music. There are two moments where a Mike Jones lift can be heard in the background: once at the 0:42 mark and once at the 2:00 mark. Each instance lasts less than a second. Still, even tucked away and hidden underneath the layered and loopy etherealness of the song, his voice is impossible to miss. Both times, it’s Jones declaring, “I said!” It’s a micro-slice of him from “Still Tippin’,” and it comes during a stanza at the end of his verse where he repeats the line “Back then, hoes didn’t want me, now I’m hot, hoes all on me” four times in a row.

  Mike Jones is eternal.

  REBUTTAL: “KNUCK IF YOU BUCK” CRIME MOB, FEATURING LIL SCRAPPY

  “Still Tippin’” isn’t the most important song of 2004. Because while Swishahouse was just about to ascend to the peak of its mainstream prominence, crunk was already blowing the fuck up! And “Knuck If You Buck,” the first single from Crime Mob’s self-titled debut album, also featuring crunk prince Lil Scrappy, was the song of the moment. And really, it smacks just as hard today as it did back then, which is to say, with the impact of a speeding train; its super-essentialized beat and evergreen “I wish a bitch would” threats never go out of season. Like Mike Jones, Crime Mob didn’t end up having a ton of longevity. But the legacy of “Knuck If You Buck” lives on in the trap music that’s defined so much popular rap since 2010, and not just down south. And not only that, it was a watershed moment for female rappers not just holding their own on a track with men, but indisputably owning it—let’s be real, when we talk about Crime Mob, we are talking about Diamond and Princess. What it really comes down to, though, is this: I went to prom in 2004, which was overall a pretty mediocre experience for me—but “Knuck If You Buck” blew the roof off that bitch.

  —MEAGHAN GARVEY

  Houston Slang

  Awwwready adv. 1 ex
press understanding. 2 to agree with something.

  Ballin’ in da mix phrase. an issuance of general well-being generally used in response to a salutation.

  Big body n. a large vehicle.

  Candy paint n. a custom paint job on a car that produces a look comparable to a piece of hard candy.

  Chopped and screwed adj. refers to a style of DJ mixing where a song is played back over itself over and over again while also being slowed down to a considerably smaller RPM rate.

  Chose adj. to be selected by a member of the opposite sex, usually for intercourse, though not exclusively so.

  Come dine phrase. to arrive at a location in particularly impressive fashion, in regard to both appearance and overall attitude.

  Dine adv. slang variation of the word “down.”

  Grippin’ grain phrase. to be holding a steering wheel made of wood.

  It’s goin’ dine phrase. to say a thing is currently happening, or will happen at a later time, most often used in a positive tone.

  Lay the pipe phrase. to have sex.

  Lean n. a mixture of soda (generally Sprite) and codeine-based prescription cough syrup.

  Mayne n. a variation of the word “man.” can be used to express any number of sentiments. can be used to express any number of sentiments.

  Nahmtahmbout adv. a portmanteau of the words “know what I’m talking about.” used as an impromptu gauge of a listener’s level of comprehension during conversation.

  Ridin’ dirty phrase. to ride in an automobile with contraband.

  Ridin’ foreign phrase. to ride in a car manufactured outside of America.

  Slab n. 1 a large vehicle replete with many expensive accessories. 2 acronym for the phrase “slow, loud, and bangin.’”

  Swangin’ and bangin’ phrase. driving one’s car in a snakelike pattern.

  Talkin’ dine phrase. saying negative things about a person, place, thing, or idea.

  1. There is a possibility this is not an accurate number.

  2. Pharrell was seventy-five years old when he produced “Drop It Like It’s Hot” for Snoop. Pharrell had come out of retirement to produce for Snoop. Pharrell Williams always lied about his age. He lied about his age all the time. When I was researching for this book I talked to Frank Sinatra. I said, “Frank, you hang out with Pharrell Williams. Just between me and you, how old is Pharrell Williams?” You know what Frank told me? He said, “Hey, Pharrell Williams is a hundred and thirty-seven years old.” A hundred and thirty-seven years old!

  3. It’s from a song called “I’m a Ho (Whodini Freestyle).” In “Still Tippin’” Slim has a line where he mentions a Nintendo GameCube. In the freestyle, which came out years before, he mentions a Nintendo 64. I always thought that was very neat. Slim Thug likes his video-game references to be timely.

  4. Though, being not that great of a rapper certainly does not exclude one from becoming a famous rapper. See: Cole, J.

  5. In 2008, Jones released a straight-to-DVD-then-straight-to-the-Dumpster movie called The American Dream that was based on his life. There’s a scene in it where his grandmother lays out what was to become his business model. She was the one who told him to do the phone number thing and the name repeat thing and the songs for strippers thing. Mike Jones’s grandma.

  WHAT THIS SONG IS ABOUT

  At first it’s about a girl who’s only interested in money, but then it’s about a girl who isn’t interested in money and gets ditched by her significant other when he gets some money.

  WHY IT’S IMPORTANT

  It’s Kanye’s proper induction into the Mainstream America canon, and it was a massive success. He only grew more powerful and more influential from there.

  “‘Gold Digger’ is straight poetry. It uses profanity, and it’s fucked-up and funny. It’s so perfect and out of the park. I’d like to state this, and fuck whoever tells me I can’t word it out loud: ‘Gold Digger’ is one of the biggest songs of our lifetime.” —Kanye West, Playboy, 2006

  “Gold Digger” is Kanye West’s single most successful song. It was nominated for two Grammys (Record of the Year; Best Rap Solo Performance) and won one (Best Rap Solo Performance). Billboard loves lists, and the list that they made for their All-Time Top 100 Songs put “Gold Digger” at number fifty-eight. Also, the list they made for their Songs of the Decade for 2000–2010, it’s number nine on that one. VH1 picked it as the twentieth-greatest rap song ever, and that seems a tad overzealous, though I suppose a great amount of zeal is needed to create a show around Flavor Flav in a hot tub with an older-aged white woman with an aggressive haircut, so that makes sense. “Gold Digger” was Kanye’s first top ten single ever,1 and it was number one on Billboard’s Hot 100 for ten weeks. Additionally, it jumped from number ninety-four up to number two on their Pop 100 chart and that was the biggest jump that’d ever occurred there. It also broke the record for most digital downloads in a week, as well as the fastest-selling digital download of all time.2 Its weight is true: Measured against other songs, it was the ninth most successful U.S. single of the 2000s.

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  Today we know Kanye to be a star. There is nothing odd about that, about his preening, about his fondness for his own self-fondness. But in the early aughts, after he’d produced four songs on Jay Z’s The Blueprint album working as a house producer for Jay’s Roc-A-Fella label, after he’d made clear his intent to ascend toward the sun, it was strange, particularly when he said he wanted to move into rapping. He was a middle-class Chicagoan with then-upper-middle-class tastes who appeared to only be concerned with the existential crisis of his own existence. How can that sell, how can that play, how can that stand where Tupac and Biggie stood, where Jay and Nas were standing, where 50 Cent was standing, how can that be rap was the thought. Then his album The College Dropout came out. And that’s what rap became. It sold more than 441,000 copies in its first week, and would go on to move four million worldwide. His second album, Late Registration, mimicked the sales and multiplied the acclaim. Its first single, “Diamonds from Sierra Leone,” was compelling,3 but it didn’t move like the label had hoped it would.4 When “Gold Digger” popped, when it spread like it did, it was the official affirmation: The Kanye West experiment was no longer an experiment, it was a business model. It helped to revitalize sampling soul music, it stitched together pop music with themes generally attributable to the easily ignorable “conscious rap” quadrant (“Gold Digger” is secretly a clever examination of the effects money has on relationships), and it created a precedent for the larger-scale gazing he’d go on to do. Rap followed along right behind him.

  ♦

  Somehow, George W. Bush, the forty-third president of the United States of America, and Taylor Swift, a woman who one time sang about dressing ironically and eating pancakes at an inappropriate time of day, are tied together in history. It’s a bizarre Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon branch, only it’s not Kevin Bacon, it’s Kanye West.

  The connection is a feat only an ego as massive as Kanye’s could orchestrate; a throbbing, pulsating ego so swollen and possessed of such gravitas that the time Kanye talked about one and the time he interrupted the other, events separated in real life by four years, are smudged together into one moment now, occupying the same pop time and pop space and pop infamy.

  When Kanye talked about Bush, it was during a telethon for hurricane relief in 2005 in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, and it was part of a larger conversation he was having with himself on live TV, which is mostly either forgotten or ignored. He indicted himself on air first, saying he was guilty of turning the channel when the aftereffects of the catastrophe were shown on television, guilty of having gone shopping before considering giving a donation. Mike Myers, who was on camera with him, was mortified, but he wasn’t entirely caught off guard—Kanye later told Playboy in an interview in 2006 that he hadn’t planned what he was going to say that day, and you can definitely see that as the clip plays and Kanye stumbles along, but he did know that he was going to say something, and
so he let Myers know before shooting5 that he’d be going off script. Finally, after a bit of rambling, and after having steadied himself while Myers spoke his part, Kanye peeled away all layers of innuendo and implication and very plainly stated his thought: “George Bush doesn’t care about black people.”

  When Kanye interrupted Taylor, it was during her award acceptance speech at MTV’s Video Music Awards in 2009. He ran up there in protest, upset that she’d won for Best Female Video, more specifically that she’d won for Best Female Video over Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It),”6 which Kanye described during his tiny tirade as “one of the best videos of all time.”7 If you strip the sting away from its application, Kanye’s logic is actually very irrefutable: Beyoncé ended up winning the award for Video of the Year later that same evening. You can’t very well have the best video of the year between all the men and women together and somehow not have the best video among only the women. Still, no matter, Kanye, a reputation for brashness and aggravation already long in place, became a pariah, became labeled a racist. Everything near him seemed to turn to ash, and even the new president, Barack Obama, was caught on camera calling him a jackass. Kanye made $25 million in 2009. In 2010, his earnings dropped to $12 million.8 The biggest ramification: Three weeks after The Interruption, West ended up canceling a tour he’d had planned with Lady Gaga, and while he never said it was because of what had happened at the VMAs, everyone understood that this was the cause.