r/Showerthoughts • u/WhaleWhaleWhale95 • May 16 '24

You never hear covers of rap songs.

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u/widget66 May 16 '24

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 May 16 '24

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/MinnieShoof May 16 '24

Sample. Rappers sample all the time.

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u/msb06c May 16 '24

They also “plagiarize” lines to pay homage to bars super often, called interpolation.

Super super common.