Anyone Can Write a Rap Hit In his Sleep/NY Times on Murphy Lee

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Neil Strauss in the Sunday Nov. 2 NY Times--
MURPHY LEE FEATURING JERMAINE DUPRI With the entry of the single "Wat Da Hook Gon Be" (Fo' Reel/Universal) into the top-40 charts last week, it's official: anyone can write a rap hit in his sleep. The chorus of the song simply consists of Jermaine Dupri asking what the hook to the song is going to be and Murphy Lee responding that he doesn't need one as long as the beat in the background is good. The door is now wide open for other hits like "I'm Having Writer's Block Today," "Insert Catchy Chorus Here" and "Can Anyone Think of a Word That Rhymes With Tailfeather?"

― Steve Kiviat (Steve K), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 14:01 (twenty-one years ago)

We've taken over the Voice, ILX needs to aim for the next big target.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 14:03 (twenty-one years ago)

but it was cute when D12 just incoherently mumbled the end of their chorus

― stevem (blueski), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 14:04 (twenty-one years ago)

I like that one Kool Keith song on Dr. Dooom where he starts out just like "the name of this song is we don't need no muthafuckin chorus" and proceeds to rap the whole thing through with no chorus.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 14:18 (twenty-one years ago)

lazy rap is THE thing cf Obie Trice

― stevem (blueski), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 14:24 (twenty-one years ago)

That's hilarious!

And D-12 were a horrible, horrible mistake. I think that might have been the worst hip-hop record ever to sell so well.

― Raymond Cummings (Raymond Cummings), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 15:50 (twenty-one years ago)

Purple Pills was a great single though.

― ddrake, Tuesday, 4 November 2003 16:16 (twenty-one years ago)

one month passes...

Yeah I love that Dr. DOOOOM one. Another self-aware rap song about hooks (predating all of the above) is "No Hooks" by Mood Ruff who got tons of play on Much in their prime but never really broke in the states. They had one skeletonic white guy with a scarily sandpapery voice, so they could have shared the Styles Of Beyond niche if they tried. I'm posting this cos I read that thing on Pitchfork today talking about Murphy Lee like he did it first.

― DarrensCoq, Friday, 12 December 2003 10:22 (twenty-one years ago)

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