rap music's memorable banalities

i ordered enchiladas and i ate 'em

Phife Dawg on Tribe's "Buggin' Out":

"I float like gravity / Never had a cavity"
"I sport New Balance sneakers to avoid a narrow path"
"Drink a lot of soda so they call me Dr. Pepper"

keep a couple hand torches in the jansport
i'm from pebble beach, that's a historic landmark
- mozzy, beautiful struggle
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUfuEgAp8FI

three course meal
spaghetti fettucini and veal

It's how son became a big man from a black boy
To name names, a really big fan of Dan Aykroyd

"Feelin kinda great, got change for the toll" on Run-DMC's "Ragtime." Though, the whole cut is kind of a deliberate goof, with lines like "I rhyme when I am sleeping, I rhyme when I'm awake / When I was nine I said a rhyme by putting candles on my cake."

that sounds kinda like the one Cosby episode where he was walking around talking in rhyme the whole time a la "how do you do/welcome to the zoo/i told you I could rhyme/I do it all the time"

Yeah right, my bear hugs air tight
New Yorkers know no turning on a red light

- Redman

Serengeti frequently works the "memorable banalities" vein, e.g. I skateboarded and hurt my knee / I sat right next to a willow tree.

DMC, "King of Rock" - "I walked on ice and never fell."

Wise Intelligent (Stetsasonic) "Uda Man" - "Purple is the opposite of brown."

he's talking about weed obv

"So many successful entertainers with tax problems"

-- Rick Ross, "Ghostwriter"

that is brilliant

There are at least a few lines on the record about taxes, tax shelters, accountants, etc.

"Grinding until my new accountant is fully at ease"

"No school lunch next week/I'm brown-bagging it" - Young MC, "Bust a Move"

I got a color TV so I can see the Knicks play basketball

oops - taken already

"There was a few times I needed your support
But you tried to play me like an indoor sport
Like racquetball, tennis, pool, whatever"

Not long is how long that this rhyme took me

haha yeah, good one

relistening to early Wu tracks through the poll, and there's a lot of classic memorable banalities and old school playful lyricism in there, in my mind Wu where always very different from fx De La but I guess maybe they weren't always as far apart as I thought

"Upset stomach/I had to eat" - Valee, "Shell"

Jay-z : "we dont stop at the tolls we got ez passes"

Guarantee this only saves you like 5 min on I-95 dude

Cali: great place to visit

It's cold as a bitch on the subway platform / waiting for the J

Prodigy - cold world

the battle was won by swords being swung — masta killa, glaciers of ice

D flow - “ tryna drink lighter beers”

Face is pretty, ass for days
I get chips, I ask for Lay's

Though big dog's in this biz
I never see no man chasin' Frisbees

God is good growin up in the hood
Done some things bad, done some things good

kurupt off pete rocks tru master

"This year, Halloween fell on the weekend."

Bushwick Bill, My Mind Playing Tricks on Me

I believe it’s “fell on a weekend”...

That line is basic but evocative; and part of its “work” happens when Bill’s revelation at the end of the verse gives the lie to its specificity.

I believe it’s “fell on a weekend”...

Well now I feel just like a fiend

it wasn't even close to Halloween, but it fell on a weekend...whatever it was

xp LOL

I feel the wind 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.

I did half a xan
13 hours til I land

“I like it when there’s turbulence on my airplanes”

(“What’s Up Danger”)

Nice & Smooth "Funky For You" is rich with these:

Use my mind to control all my body parts
Got an early start, plus I'm very smart
Type of man that the girls want to read about
Indeed I proceed to rock the house without a doubt

Spreadin' peace and love throughout my travels
And take time to read and unravel
Day to day problems, and then solve them,
I can see clearly now as I revolve around suckers who perpetrate heroes (?)
But I'm no sandwich, more like a Manwich
Or maybe like a meal, which is much more real
Than Clark Kent or the Man of Steel

Spring again, and I'm feelin' fine
Pass me an ice-cold glass of wine
So I can get mellow, lay back, and let my girl play the cello
Hello, I hate Jell-O

hello i hate jell-o is hilarious

yeah, Nice and Smooth run the rap banalities game:

Greg Nice, my life's like a fairy tale
Orca was a great big whale
I knew a fat girl who broke the scale
You won't tell, I won't tell
Clientele I must excel
Took a little test, I passed then failed

yeah IRL LOL @ jello, sets a whole new bar for memorable banalities

But they also have one of the greatest banalities of all time, which I think about frequently: “I left my philly at home ... do you have another? I want to get blunted my brother.” Think that track might have another one ...

"Orca was a great big whale" clearly the prototype line for "Summer Girls"

Diamond D: "Got to give a shout to the Large Professor/Thought I lost his number but I left it on my dresser"

How 'bout dinner, a Salisbury steak?"

I said, "Sorry Honey-Dip, but I already ate"

- Scoob Lover, Big Daddy Kane "Pimpin' Ain't Easy"

"heads pretend they're hard, yo their favorite movie's <i>Lucas</i>"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8V7SMa3Uj8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JygHtlGt9Kc
you used to support your fam off of this
now you can't even buy spam off of this

from the grave, delivers

RIP

At night, New York, eat a slice too hot
Use my tongue to tear the skin hanging from the roof of my mouth

e-40:
sometimes you might find me drinking tap water
up out the public park sinks