What'd he say? 9 of the Most Shocking Rap Lyrics

I’m a big fan of hip hop, and like most fans of the music, willing to tolerate songs that may offend me. After all, why should art only make us feel good? But sometimes, there’s only so much a person can take, and it’s incumbent on us to call out artists that go too far.

On the surface, a list of just 9 offensive rap lyrics might seem a tad short. After all, we’re talking about a genre that spares almost no one, women and gays in particular. I’m well aware of the violent, misogynist, homophobic lyrics of Dr. Dre, Eminem, 50 Cent, and Tupac to name a few. But what I wanted to do here was assemble a list of songs with lyrics that really do cross the line, lyrics that do more than just call women bitches and gays fags.

Below is a list of rap lyrics that endorse gangs, rape, racism, colorism, and anti-Semitism to name a few. Context is always important, and some of these songs can’t be dismissed out of hand without considering the background, but for the most part, they’re dead wrong.

1)    Can it be all so simple – Wu-Tang Clan

“Dedicated to the winners and the losers,
Dedicated to all jeeps and land cruisers,
Dedicated to the Y's, 850-I's,
Dedicated to niggas who do drive-bys”

Raekwon and Ghostface Killah trade verses on the drug game, and dreams of getting out. The song is great at mixing the fantasy life of a drug dealer with the harsh reality of the game (“I wanna have me a phat yacht/And enough land to go and plant my own sess crops/But for now, it just a big dream/Cause I find myself in the place where I'm last seen”). Ok, no problem, I can appreciate the climate these guys grew up in meant they probably didn’t have a lot of choices. But why give kudos to guys with bad aim? I mean, I get promoting solidarity with people who are done hard by, but not callous killers.

2)    Drop it like it’s hot – Snoop Dogg

“I keep a blue flag hanging out my backside,
But only on the left side, yeah that's the Crip side”

Snoop’s never been shy about keepin’ it real, but this line takes the cake. I mean actually endorsing a notorious street gang? According to wikipedia, the Crips-Bloods feud has taken more lives than the sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland! This is who you give a shout out too, Snoop? An organization that’s responsible for decimating your own community? For shame, sir.



3)    Me and my Bitch – Notorious B.I.G.

“When I met you I admit my first thoughts was to trick,
You look so good (huh) I suck on your daddy's dick (yeah),
I never felt that way in my life”

Poor Biggie. This line wasn’t particularly offensive, just poorly timed. He wrote that almost ten years before the phrase “no homo” came along and made it acceptable for rappers to say borderline-gay lyrics (or anything resembling affinity for another male for that matter. See here). Of course Biggie probably wasn’t gay, but that line had me scratching my head. I mean, I’ve seen some pretty ridiculously fine women too, but none of them ever had me wanting to go down on their fathers. Not even Kim Kardashian. How hot could this woman really be? I guess we’ll never know.

4)    Go DJ – Lil’ Wayne

“You snakes, stop hidin in the grass,
Sooner or later I'll cut it knock the blades in yo ass,
You homo niggas getting AIDS in the ass,
While the homie here tryna get paid in advance”

My first reaction when I heard this line – “you homo niggas getting AIDS in the ass” – was to almost hurl. I mean it’s such a graphic lyric that the image it conveys can only make one feel violently ill. Was that the point? Probably not. This is just good ol’ fashion gay-bashing of the ugliest kind, and a sad reminder of the hatred that exists against gays in hip hop. Sigh.

5)    No Vaseline – Ice Cube

“So don't believe what Ren say,
Cuz he's goin' out like “Kunta" Kinte,
But I got a whip for ya Toby,
Used to be my homey, now you act like you don't know me.
It's a case of divide-and-conquer,
Cuz you let a Jew break up my crew.”

Anti-Semitism creeps up from time to time in hip hop, which is sort of odd considering the importance of Jewish producers like Rick Rubin in the industry, but nevertheless, Cube decided to hit that button in his attack on N.W.A., along with gays and white people in general. I guess this is a reference to N.W.A. manager Jerry Heller. Of course what goes around comes around, and now Cube is making tacky Hollywood movies. The lesson here: don’t mess with the chosen people!

6)    Hungry – Common

“Downtown interracial lovers hold hands,
I breathe heavy like an old man, with a cold can of Old Style”

I find the label “conscious mc” very disingenous. When you hear the lyrics of most of these so-called conscious rappers, you find a lot of hypocrisy; Common being a prime example. In the middle of this wicked rap, Common has to hate on all those interracial couples out there just trying to get by. Odd, considering Common’s skin colour would suggest a little mixing at one point in his family tree. I hope he’s mellowed his views since.

7)    Welcome to the Terrordome – Public Enemy

“Crucifixion ain't no fiction,
So called chosen frozen,
Apology made to who ever pleases,
Still they got me like Jesus”

Allegedly, this lyric is Chuck D’s response to Jewish leaders who criticized group member Professor Griff for making anti-Semitic remarks. It’s a pretty blatant attack on Jews (particularly the “got me like Jesus” part), but not surprising given the group’s public support for noted anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan. I wonder how Rick Rubin felt about that.

8)    Devil’s Son – Big L

“This kid that owed me dough, I didn't take his life,
Instead I tied him up and made him watch me rape his wife”

I’m sure if you went through and read the lyrics of every Big L song, you’d find some pretty atrocious things, but nothing as brutal as this. Bragging about raping a guy’s wife and making him watch – bragging about raping a woman period – is about as callous and nihilistic as you can get. In fairness, the song is called “Devil’ Son,” so one could technically argue that in context he’s just saying the things he’d do if he were indeed the progeny of Satan, BUT, it’s a slippery slope. Would we excuse Eminem or Paul Wall for writing a song about a Klansmen who brags about murdering blacks?

9)    Dark Skin Girls – Del the Funky Homosapien 

“(Y)a think ya all-uh-that and all-uh-this,
But you ain't really shit,
Without a makeup kit,
See, ya might be light,
But ya ugly to me,
Black is beautiful,
To me, that's beauty.”

Del ruins a good opportunity to address real concerns over colorism and giving props to dark-skinned women everywhere with this overt attack on all light-skinned women of colour. No doubt he’s fuelled by some real-life incidents in his personal life, but a blanket statement about all light-skinned women is blatant stereotyping. You don’t big up your dark-skinned sisters by dissing the light-skinned ones.