The Bloj

Lorem ipsum

Posted on May 28th, 2008 by Chris.
Categories: Chris, General/Misc..

Those who have ever done publishing will be familiar with Lorem Ipsum. For those who don’t know, it’s just a long Latin text that’s used in publishing, so designers can do layouts before anything’s actually been written.

That’s the ground for this observation:

Rich Boy’s “Throw Some D’s” is the Lorem Ipsum of rap.

At first I thought the lyrics were pointless, repetitive, and simplistic. Just as a comparison, here’s the song, side by side with Vanilla Ice’s Ice Ice Baby (clearly the pinnacle of hip hop…):

http://www.lyrics007.com/Vanilla%20Ice%20Lyrics/Ice%20Ice%20Baby%20Lyrics.html
http://www.lyrics007.com/Rich%20Boy%20Lyrics/Throw%20Some%20D’s%20Lyrics.html

But that’s the point. Commercial rap has learned that it doesn’t need good lyrics; it needs good producers. Anyone who doesn’t believe that need only look at the charts. (exceptions of course)

And what would be better for good producers to work with then an undistracting, formulaic song with an easy to remember chorus and a straightforward beat?

What you get is plenty of remixes–guest stars, newcomers, and even classical music. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7] Fact is, it’s harder to make a good beat if the lyrics are distracting you (especially if you’re just gonna make your own). That’s the point of lorem ipsum. That’s the point here. Rich Boy happens to illustrate it by having more remixes than you can possibly imagine.

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