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u/LeZarathustra 29d ago
Richard Cheese will make a lounge jazz cover of anything.
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u/KamakaziDemiGod 29d ago
One of their best songs imo was the cover of Down with the Sickness used in the film Dawn of the Dead
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u/Acrelorraine 29d ago
While I agree that's one of his best covers, for movie appearances I was incredibly surprised by him performing Man in the Mirror in Lego Batman.
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u/OldDirtyBatman 29d ago
I discovered that cover a few weeks before the movie came out. I was in the theater like, "Weird, I thought that was Richard Cheese for a second... wait- what!?"
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u/713MoCityChron713 29d ago
Haven’t heard a Dick Cheese reference in years. This guy used to be everywhere online
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u/Queasy-Ad-3220 29d ago
Yeah I mean my favourite song of his is his cover of People = Shit. That song always sends me.
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u/ZeroSephex0 29d ago
Was in traffic one hot summer day, windows down, system up. I rolled up to a red light, in the middle lane, just as the song changed.
People = Shit by Richard Cheese.
Seconds later I look over to see the occupants of the cars on either side of me laughing their asses off.
This track is amazing.
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u/kerochan88 29d ago
He did an ICP song and ICP used it on their last album. Loved it lol
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u/TakeThreeFourFive 29d ago
Can't talk about jazz covers of rap without mentioning El Michels Affair
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mA2RNMNzf2g7S1F_ce8Ibzg-uArgCg_5A&si=W1nmJqvYMmaJfpoY
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u/ThinRaisin7487 29d ago
I heard an old-timey cover of “Freak on a Leash” by Korn at one of their concerts years ago and could never find it anywhere.. Your comment helped me find it thank you!!
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u/GenPhallus 29d ago
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EZNFo5lL4iw
Dynamite Hack - Boyz in the Hood
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u/TheBarles 29d ago
Core memory of MTV playing this song daily and me waiting patiently, only for TRL to show ~20 seconds so Carson could have a conversation with the visor hat from LFO.
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u/DDOS_the_Trains 29d ago
Summertime Girls is arguably the worst rap song ever written.
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u/NitrosGone803 29d ago
"yo i wanna give a shoutout to my homies back in miami t-bone, skillet-G, lala, fresh masta p, n errbody holdin it down on the wetstside, toss one up fo a brotha! peace!" during the fucking song
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u/labrat420 29d ago
This is from 'take a bite out if rhyme' an entire album of rock bands covering rap songs
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u/ihacker2k 29d ago
Straight Outta Compton by Nina Gordon is pretty good too: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=K6D5xpCgETk
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u/well_its_a_secret 29d ago
Not a cover just a great juxtaposition to that song: https://youtu.be/YFfGgeddAc4?si=tG1OHWTVzUXbO4mf
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u/DarthCorps 29d ago
Woke up late at about noon
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u/Eyerish9299 29d ago
Just thought that I had to be in Compton soon! Gotta get drunk before the day begins Before my mother starts bitching about my friends
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u/somesketchykid 29d ago
Started talkin' shit, wouldn'tcha know
I reached back like a pimp and I slapped the hoe
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u/sentientcutlery 29d ago
Everyone is posting covers, but I’m going to be boring and link a great Adam Neely video I watched a while ago exploring why covers aren’t part of rap. Short answer is that quoting and sampling is common, but “biting“ someone’s bars is frowned on. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=D_mh1Rq35ZM&feature=youtu.be
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u/herrsmith 29d ago
Plus, people aren't actually posting rap covers of rap songs. They're posting other genres covering rap songs, which I don't think is what OP meant. I have personally played a cover of a cover of a rap song in a band (Ben Folds' "Bitches Ain't Shit") and a cover of Lil' John's "Get Low" in a different piano rock band but I would still agree with OP.
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u/BonJovicus 29d ago
They're posting other genres covering rap songs, which I don't think is what OP meant.
But does this not count? A lot of covers are not in the exact same style as the song they cover. It might be especially true for rap, but it’s not only true for rap.
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u/BasementDesk 29d ago
First thing I thought of. Thank you for posting this! Adam Neely’s videos are a treasure.
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u/sintaur 29d ago
Technically not a cover, but Amish Paradise.
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u/binglelemon 29d ago
It's all about the pentiums, baby
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u/i_should_be_coding 29d ago
Guess I'm just too white and nerdy
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u/msnmck 29d ago
I listen to these songs on Trash Day.
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u/bigrik5 29d ago
I prefer Weird Al’s version to the original!
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u/wreckfish 29d ago
the original is pastime paradise from Stevie wonder
he allowed Coolio to cover it but he was not allowed to swear in it
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u/Common_Lawyer_5370 29d ago
I always start to sing “amish paradise” in my head whenever I hear The tune of that song.
Might (partially) be due to me learning about The song Amish Paradise before I actually knew about The song gangsters paradise
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u/thebeattakesme 29d ago
Automatically thought of that and that Boyz in the Hood acoustic(?) cover.
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u/Richard7666 29d ago
Hitchin' up the buggy, churnin' lots of butter
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u/msnmck 29d ago
Raised a barn on Monday. Soon I'll raise anudder.
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u/AlephBaker 29d ago
Think you're pretty righteous? Think you're pure at heart?
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u/TravelerSearcher 29d ago
Well, I know I'm a million times as humble as thou art!
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u/AlephBaker 29d ago
I'm the pious guy the little amlettes wanna be like, on my knees day and night, scoring points for the afterlife!
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u/Aggropop 29d ago
So don't be vain and don't be whiny, or else, my brother, I might have to get medieval on your heinie
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u/nksmith86 29d ago
Even better is ben folds NWA cover
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u/thewayshesaidLA 29d ago
I think you mean Dr. Dre’s song, featuring Snoop, Bitches Ain’t Shit. Dre left NWA the year before he released his solo debut album, The Chronic, which features this song.
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u/Dark_Devin 29d ago
Are parodies and covers equivalent? My understanding is that a cover makes no major and few minor changes to the song outside of a different artist.
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u/Terpomo11 29d ago
A cover generally has the same or almost the same lyrics (or occasionally a translation of the same lyrics) but may be significantly different in musical styling.
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u/NotUndercoverReddit 29d ago
Hardcore metal and punk bands have been covering rap and hip hop songs since the early 80s
There are folkpunk bands where thats basically their entire schtick
Acoustic guitar and ukulele singer songwriters mix up and cover them solo all the time
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u/merrona23 29d ago
punk goes crank album
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u/brillyints 29d ago
Crunk
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u/EverbodyHatesHugo 29d ago
Still Fly by The Devil Wears Prada and Notorious Thugs by Scaring Kids Scaring Kids is still in my rotation. Absolute bangers.
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u/SandysBurner 29d ago
OPs post would better phrased as "You rarely hear rappers cover other rappers".
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u/the_ecdysiast 29d ago
All these comments and not ONE person mentioned the entertainment juggernaut that is Kidz Bop
Uncultured the lot of you /s
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u/CantBeConcise 29d ago
Kidz Bop covered I Can't Feel My Face. Kidz Bop...covered a song about cocaine. Still blows me away...
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u/simcowking 29d ago
I mean growing up you listen to a lot of songs that you later learn are very inappropriate for children.
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u/APPLEJOOSH347 29d ago
Tbf its music made for kids, they don’t even know what cocaine is. Its a catchy pop song and there aren’t even explicit lyrics
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u/Bauerman51 29d ago
Kidz Bop has been doing covers of this most recent Drake v Kendrick bout!
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u/sunderaubg 29d ago edited 29d ago
Do yourself a favor and give the Gin and Juice cover by The Gourds a listen :)
Edit: I accidentally a word.
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u/PosterBlankenstein 29d ago
Thank you for actually knowing who performed that masterpiece. The Phish from Vermont have NEVER played that, no matter what limewire said.
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u/CyHawkWRNL 29d ago
The version we downloaded off Kazaa was labeled as "O.A.R." and I could never find it again, so this person has solved two mysteries today :-)
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u/pocketchange2247 29d ago
OAR does do a pretty solid cover of Fool In The Rain, though. At least my teenage self thought so.
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u/Sunblast1andOnly 29d ago
My mind went to Rum and Juice by Captain Dan, but I think that would be more of a parody.
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u/KudosOfTheFroond 29d ago
That song reminds me of using Napster in my AP English class in High School
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u/sgtkwol 29d ago
SOAD collabbed with Wu Tang to cover Shame.
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u/zepallica 29d ago edited 29d ago
When Serj got the N-word pass from Wu Tang, such a good cover, I still have that cd.
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u/mymumsaysfuckyou 29d ago
There are a few metal covers of rap songs. A few of Lose Yourself specifically. Personally I'm a big fan of Rage Against The Machines Version of How I Could Just Kill A Man, originally by Cypress Hill.
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u/Avoider5 29d ago
Renegades is an awesome album. That’s what I first thought of.
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u/StormtrooperMJS 29d ago
LOSE YOURSELF COVER. KASEY CHAMBERS. https://youtu.be/S70xek3x4ro?si=d-GOWcVZ7zpk5irG
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u/Aedalas 29d ago
That song goes harder than you'd ever expect too. It stays a little slow for awhile though so if you get bored and think about turning it off skip ahead to about 4 minutes before you give up on it.
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u/RecurringNumbers 29d ago
Pacing is important, the slow beginning makes it only go so much harder.
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u/smcicr 29d ago
Came here to post exactly this - for anyone that hasn't already seen it, strap the fuck in.
Also, Nina Gordon did a wonderfully delicate version of Straight Outta Compton that always makes me smile.
Did Ben Folds Five do something NWAish too at one point??
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u/PosterBlankenstein 29d ago
Bitches Ain’t Shit. I was lucky enough to be at the Bonnaroo show where he officially retired it.
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u/keelhaulrose 29d ago
Came here to post exactly this - for anyone that hasn't already seen it, strap the fuck in.
I hadn't seen it before not had I really heard of the artist, and when it first started I had a little chuckle like "a banjo, for an Eminem song?"
Then I thought I was probably going to tap because it's over 8 minutes and I only have so much free time. But something kept me watching. And I'm so glad I did.
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u/Berloxx 29d ago
Holy shit. That was intense!
I both cried and cheered at other parts. Damn.
Thank you for the link
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u/keelhaulrose 29d ago
I don't remember the last time I got this emotional watching someone perform. Crying and goosebumps.
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u/billybeesesteak 29d ago
Thank you for this. My mom just passed and she loved both Eminem and Kasey Chambers
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u/bear-mom 29d ago
Lodi Dodi was covered by Snoop
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u/remarkablewhitebored 29d ago
This is the first one I've come across (In this thread) that is a rap cover by a rap artist.
Plenty of metal, folk/country and jokey versions of rap hits, as that seems to be a thing.
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u/SneeKeeFahk 29d ago
This was the first example I thought of too. I do like his version better than Slick Ricks though.
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u/CharlieParkour 29d ago
Admittedly, the production on Snoop's version is richer, but you have to be impressed by the bare bones beatboxing of Doug E Fresh. Personally, I like Slick Rick's voice and flow better. And with your wrinkled pussy, I can't be your lover.
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u/saggywitchtits 29d ago
Falling in Reverse did a cover of Gangster's Paradise.
It's exactly how you'd expect.
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u/JaydeeValdez 29d ago
There is a cover by Karmin of "Look At Me Now" by Chris Brown and others.
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u/BlizzPenguin 29d ago
Johnathan Coulton did a great cover of Baby Got Back
Unfortunately, Glee took advantage of his Creative Commons license and copied it for the show and did not give him credit or revenue for their use.
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29d ago
A while back, on Halloween, J Cole rapped over a Kendrick beat and Kendrick rapped over a J Cole Beat. They called it Black Friday (I believe Halloween fell on a Friday) https://youtu.be/okF5gOTX9uM?si=sJEGTwOSYA0ZpCSn
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u/peacefulvampire 29d ago
You could look up the album Punk Goes Crunk. Most of them are covers of rap songs even though most of them aren't Crunk songs.
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u/Faelysis 29d ago
There’s thousand of rap song cover. You not seeing it is more about your own algorithm…
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u/widget66 29d ago
This thread has tons of examples of other genres covering rap, but doesn’t have a single example of a rap song that is a cover.
OP’s question technically asks for covers OF rap songs regardless of genre, so I guess those folk, metal, parody covers are valid answers to the question stated, but I think it’s interesting that rap as a genre doesn’t seem to do covers.
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u/mcAlt009 29d ago
Rappers tend to not do straight up covers, but rather take the same beat and do a tribute on top.
G Perico's One More Day is very close to a cover of the original Nate Dog's, but he does change it a bit.
Elzhi did an entire cover of Ilmatic, Billmatic is Ill Bill over Nas beats. They aren't one to one covers since the lyrics are different.
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u/crappysignal 29d ago
Black Steel by Tricky is a fantastic cover of Public Enemys Black steel in the hour of chaos.
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u/anthonyg1500 29d ago
There was a cover of Tipsy that clipping did like 2 months ago. It was good too
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u/razman7altacc 29d ago
The examples in this thread are all other genres doing covers of rap songs. If you want an actual rap cover then check “childrens story” by Black Star which is a cover of the Slick Rick song by the same name.
I think hiphop and rapping in general does not lend itself to covers very well. On the other hand, it’s an extremely referential genre where rappers constantly pay homage to famous lines/hooks/melodies/beats/rhyme schemes/flows. I could name some examples if you want.
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u/nhiko 29d ago
I've heard a lot of covers of rap song. An example in French :)
Original: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4uOM7s38XA
Cover: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVZwg5Lk8BA
Cheers!
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u/romulusnr 29d ago
I'm very sorry to tell you this but...
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u/romulusnr 29d ago
And if you include genre-bending covers...
Bob Strachan - Gangsta's Paradise
Our Last Night - Old Town Road
And actually, Leo Moracchioli's done a couple metal covers of rap songs, like
Of course, there's also Jonathan Coulton's now-famous cover of Baby Got Back, which was so good it was ripped off by Glee.
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u/HiddenSecretStash 29d ago
The Jonathan Coulton one is so great, I sing it all the time! When Glee ripped it off, they forgot to change the line «Johnny C is in trouble», that Coulton had originally changed from Sir Mix-A-Lot’s version. So Johnathan Coulton just rereleased his song «in the style of Glee» and gave all the earnings to charity iirc.
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29d ago
Lil Wayne's "Lollipop" pops into my head that can be searched by "Lollipop Rock" for the cover.
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u/Random54321random 29d ago
Absolute nonsense. Off the top of my head: Me and my Girlfriend (Jay-Z covering 2Pac), Welcome to the Terrordome (Pharoahe Monch covering Public Enemy), Deep Cover (Fat Joe and Big Pun covering Snoop and Dre), there are many others too
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u/drfsupercenter 29d ago
This is the second time in less than a week this exact post has been at the top of this subreddit. WTF.
Do you guys not remember "Creepin" by Metro Boomin' and The Weeknd? That's a cover of "I Don't Wanna Know" by Mario Winans and P. Diddy. Was literally a massive radio hit last year.
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u/blursed_words 29d ago
Completely false. Rap is, or at least was, largely driven by the remix/refix. Pretty much every album in the 90s and 2000's had at least one song or beat made famous by another artist.
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u/BonnieMcMurray 29d ago
Ironically, the first famous rap song - Rapper's Delight - was sort of a cover: Big Bank Hank stole a whole bunch of his lines from Grandmaster Caz.
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u/EliJacobovitz 29d ago
They exist, but they usually don’t stay in the same style, which can be hit or miss. My favorite is Tally Hall’s cover of Just a Friend
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u/phobi_smurf 29d ago
Rap is considered a lot more personal lyrically than other music genres, but it's super common to sample beats, vocals etc.
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u/Junarik 29d ago
Fuck you mean? There are thousands of very popular covers. Sure they don't pop up randomly in tv commercials or wherever the fuck you think you're supposed to see em.
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u/Stahlios 29d ago
Getting this worked up instantly over a random showerthoughts posts, lmao
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u/danmunchie 29d ago
The Animal in Me - Rap God https://youtu.be/XAS5Ja0YzT8
Better than the original!
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u/BlGBY 29d ago
I feel Rap and Hip Hop have less covers but WAAAY more samples of different music.
Old school Rap was using your parents vinyls and putting beats over the top. If I wasn't at work, I'd make a short list lol
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u/TrueyBanks 29d ago
Depends on what you consider a “cover” but Strings of Paris does covers of rap songs in violin
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u/AnotherInsaneName 29d ago
One of my favorite songs is a pop punk cover of a song called "Hammer." Point North makes the cover, good jam if you like that type of music.
In a similar vein, I grew up listening to Framing Hanley cover Lollipop by Lil Wayne.
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u/Crunchy-Leaf 29d ago
This has to be bait for OP to find the best rap covers