Comments on: The Ghostface of Christmas Past, Present, and Future

By: sheely

sheely — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 02:55:21 +0000

@Darin- Thanks for the link- I think that this very nicely illustrates that all of these varieties of engagement with Christmas (and the mainstream more generally) have been present throughout the history of hip hop.

I’ve actually never seen “Beat Street”, but watching this video makes me want to put it on my Netflix queue (along with “Breakin’”, “Wild Style”, and “Krush Groove”). In other words, you may have inspired some future Overthinking™. It could be interesting to see how (and why) these classic hip hop films differ from more recent fare such as “You Got Served”, “Step Up”, and “Stomp the Yard”.

@Rob- I didn’t include “Players’ Ball” because it is kind of an oddball case; although it was released as part of the “LaFace Family Christmas” album in November 1993, it didn’t really take off as a single until well into 1994 (around the time that the debut album was dropping), and the video itself doesn’t really seem to relate to the Christmas lyrics (unless there is another version of which I am not aware).

Are there other good examples of songs written as Christmas songs that have climbed to the pop charts outside of the seasonal context?

By: Darin

Darin — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 21:34:50 +0000

Right in line with what you’re saying about hip-hop and two-way cultural exchanges would have to be my favorite and a Christmas Past special featuring the Treacherous Three and Doug E. Fresh.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fh8hB1tAip8

Lyrics like
“Ho Ho Ho Merry Christmas my foot
I’ma tell you what Santa really put
under my so-called tree but in reality
looked like nothin but a decorated pole to me”

It’s the Scrooge version of Kurtis Blow. Kurtis is on stage for TV with nice lights and pretty ladies. T3 and Doug E. are frustrated about what the pipe dream of Santa is and their reality.

Even Santa is bitching,
“Man I don’t what y’all talking about
cause when I come to your town I just get kicked out
You think I’m getting presents made for free
I gotta pay them elves and ain’t nobody paying me”

In the end, they find consolation not in the warm chestnuts or false hopes, but the fact that Doug E. is a nice to hear.

[Doug beatboxing]
“For a fascimile we must admit
Dougie Fresh was good and made a perfect fit
He’s the only reason why we weren’t totally mad
Without Dougie our Christmas would’ve been really sad”

Hip-hop, reality, celebration of the music.

By: Rob

Rob — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 15:11:33 +0000

for christmas songs, i like “player’s ball”, off outkast’s first album: featuring such lyrics as “tipsy off the nog and high as hell off the contact smoke”, and “ain’t no chimneys in the ghetto so i won’t be hangin’ my socks on no chimney.”

for simple mentions of christmas, how about the last verse of “juicy” by notorious b.i.g.:

we used to fuss when the landlord dissed us
no heat, wonder why christmas missed us
birthdays was the worst days
now we sip champagne when we thirstay