Various Artists - West Coast Bad Boyz: High fo Xmas EP “I realize it because I make sure I tell my kids every day.” “A lot of people don’t realize I directed OutKast’s first video,” said a self-satisfied Puff while swilling Ciroc in the documentary The Art of Organized Noise. Reid’s label LaFace (bet you didn’t see that one coming), the song found a life of its own––especially after the release of its music video, which just happened to be directed by goddamn Puff Daddy. Though it originally appeared as part of A LaFace Family Christmas, a Christmas compilation put together by Babyface and L.A. Last year, the track was re-released as a festive, red seven-inch for Record Store Day, coupled with the amazingly named song “N––az My Height Don’t Fight.” OutKast - "Player’s Ball" 12”Īnother fun fact: OutKast’s first commercially released single was “Player’s Ball,” a soulful Christmas rap featuring Southern-fried sleigh bells and a bassline smoother than an eggnog oil slick. Like, that will.i.am, the one from the Black Eyed Peas. release ends with what might be the most random song of all time: “Merry Muthafuckin’ Christmas,” Eazy’s redux of “Jingle Bells” that was produced by a pair of white dudes from Denmark and featuring the first recorded raps from a 17-year-old will.i.am. Dre’s The Chronic––but that doesn’t mean they aren’t all charming, original, and funny as hell.įun fact: Eazy-E’s first post-N.W.A.
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It would be unfair to say these tracks have not aged well, because they were not meant to be good in the first place––Snoop Dogg was under no illusions that “Santa Claus Goes Straight to the Ghetto” was not up to snuff with his contributions to Dr. There were a few Christmas rap songs that I wanted to include on this list but, regrettably, have not been released on vinyl–– “ Ghostface Xmas” and The Ying and the Yang of the Holidays, I’m looking at you two––but if you want to amuse your little cousin and horrify your parents through playing vinyl this holiday season, this here list is a good primer. Part of why the “Christmas Rap Song” trope is so enduring is that it allows rappers to use holiday cheer as a weapon to deflate the overblown machismo and bluster that often serves as the backbone of the gangster rap persona while also indulging in it––what is a rapper like Jim Jones gate-crashing your Holiday party doing if not injecting danger into a holiday that in many ways defines our nation’s sanitized, capitalist impulses? Here are Billboard‘s staff picks for the 100 greatest Christmas songs of all time - songs that, try as folks might, no amount of commercial overplay or corporate co-opting can seem to ruin.If hip-hop has a Constitution, buried somewhere within its depths, there is surely a clause stipulating that if you reach a certain echelon of success, you have to make a Christmas song. It makes every Christmas season a musical family gathering where everyone shows up and co-exists peacefully - something precious few of us are lucky enough to be able to say say about our actual families’ real-life holiday celebrations. Perennials that date back the better part of a century at this point are still ubiquitous every holiday season, while new seasonal releases often take whole decades to prove their worthiness.
#CHRISTMAS RAP BEAT UPDATE#
Unlike the oldies and classic rock canons, which are forced to update their timeline parameters every so often (or at least shed some old songs to make room for the new), being a Christmas standard is a lifetime appointment. Well, maybe for ten months of the year, it goes into hibernation - but you know it’ll be back next November at the latest, and it’ll include the same songs it has for your entire life. It’s music for the most wonderful time of the year, even if it always makes you cry.Īnd it never goes away. It evokes a visceral, nearly oppressive sentimentality, one fortified and strengthened by a lifetime’s worth of associated holiday memories - personal, familial, romantic, nostalgic. The things that make Christmas songs great - whether carols, old pop standards or newer enduring hits - are most of the same things that make pop great in general: emotional connection, universal relatability, unshakeable catchiness.īut Christmas music has a wavelength entirely its own, shared by an overwhelming majority of its most recognizable classics: a sort of sublime yearning that’s at once profoundly saddening and deeply comforting.
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There’s a reason that listeners seem to get more anxious every year for the Christmas music season to start: Nothing else feels quite like it.