In a recent discussion of Ghostface Killah’s new Christmas song (which is imaginatively called “A Ghostface X-mas”), the hip hop blog Straight Bangin’ offers an explanation for why there are so few holiday rap songs (compared with other musical genres):

An odd element of hip-hop’s ascendancy is that despite its mainstream appeal and mass audience, the genre has injected many “urban” and non-standard themes into the discourse without experience a mutual equilibrium, absorbing more of the standard fare with which it now mingles.

While this insight is generally correct, it is also an oversimplification of the multiplicity of ways in which hip hop engages with the popular culture. In reality there is a spectrum, varying from a very simple incorporation of pop cultural tropes as the building blocks for rhymes to a more complex negotiation and two-way assimilation of mainstream practices and discourses and subcultural identities and meanings. Although this tension has played over the nearly 30 year history of the genre, it is encapsulated in the surprisingly wide variety of hip hop Christmas songs that have appeared throughout the years.

A brief tour through three common hip hop holiday tropes (and no shortage of ho, ho, hoes), after the jump.

[Today, December 24, 2008, is Christmas Music Day on OTI. Here's a holiday guest post from Trevor Siegler. Let us know what you think in the comments! —Ed.]

Christmas is in the air, and that means one thing: Christmas music is back and in full force. No other season has as many songs written about it, and it’s almost like Satan sets his iPod on shuffle every year.

Many songs simply suck the Christmas spirit out of you, especially if you’re stuck in a customer-service job where it’s piped in 24/7 between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day.

But there are some holiday tunes that rise above the pack, some golden nuggets in a field full of overdone horse manure. I’ll keep the disgusting metaphors to a minimum and simply list the six seasonal songs that always fill me with Christmas spirit no matter how often “Jingle Bells” is on repeat.

Popular musicians all belong to one of two categories: those that record Christmas songs, and those that don’t. A few examples:

Winger has a Christmas song: a fantastically bad cover of “Happy Xmas (War is Over).”
Metallica does not.

Weezer has several Christmas songs, including a great version of “O Holy Night.”
Radiohead does not.

R. Kelly has a Christmas song: “World Christmas.” It’s no “Trapped in the Closet,” but it’s totally passable.
Kanye West does not, but someone else clearly has thought that he should:

So what do Metallica, Radiohead, and Kanye West all have in common, besides their lack of Christmas music and the fact that they all take themselves too seriously? Are they all Jewish?

Obviously, some musicians would object to Christmas music on religious grounds (e.g., the Beastie Boys,  Matisyahu), but that reason aside, I suppose some “artists” see themselves as above the crass commercialism and cheesiness of Christmas music. That’s all fine and good, but I think the world deserves to hear Thom Yorke give us his rendition of “Blue Christmas.”

After all, he’s not above covering “Rhinestone Cowboy.”

[The "Musical Talmud" is our ongoing series that finds the true meaning behind pop music lyrics.]

Christmas Talmud? Oy vey. That’s our awkward way of wishing you a Happy Overthinking It Holiday Season. Let’s take a deeper look at John Lennon’s protest/ Christmas song, “Happy Xmas (War Is Over).” Since the meaning behind this song is already well known–it’s a protest against the Vietnam War–I’m going to use this as an opportunity to examine this song as an example of “earony.”