K-SCORE: 11
Rapper: Keak da Sneak
This blog seeks to have Kyle examine all kinds of rap, which is why we need to do something we have not done. Time to get hyphy! I chose Keak Da Sneak's "Super Hyphy" to represent the Bay Area genre. After all, he does assert that it's his word. Also, he makes a verb out of his name. Let's see if Kyle enjoyed it.
-Mike
Keak da Sneak – eleven.
That’s both your score and the number of times I listened to “Super Hyphy” before I completely stopped trying to understand what the hell you’re saying. Obviously, this… song… “Super Hyphy” is a detriment to the rap genre, a blight on the music industry, and borderline embarrassment to the entire human race. Keak, if aliens were to intercept a broadcast from earth that was playing nothing but “Super Hyphy” on loop, they’d say to themselves, “oh, well nothing on this planet has developed sentience, let’s move on.”
I barely know where to begin. Mr. da Sneak, are you and other rappers trying make the most shamefully ironic choices possible. The only thing I can clearly hear in this is you saying, “that’s my word,” at some point in the chorus, and this blog was created by my friend because he thought, “hey Kyle’s got good hearing; he should listen to more rap.” If I can’t understand more than random select words like “Oakland” or “husky” or “purple,” after eleven attempts, who is your audience? Who out there would spend time and/or money listening to a song that is such a garbled mess of salivation and guttural choking that it sounds like a lion ripping the throat out of a gazelle played on fast forward through a static-filled rabbit-ears television? How did someone agree to produce this? Someone put me in contact with the guy who greenlit this “Super Hyphy” project because I’ve got some important inquiries for him.
So I’ve reviewed this song on the following grounds. The form of the rap I’ve already covered for you Keak, but let me summarize. It’s a disaster. The only part of the structure of the rap that could possibly be transported into a successful piece of music is the little synthesized beeps that pop into the background occasionally. The rest needs to be scrapped. You included. Content was far trickier to review, and when form ruins content to this extent, I can’t even weight them the same. Judging by the tiny bits of information I gathered and scribbled on this sticky note next to me, you’re a rapper who claims to represent Oakland, who maybe likes Randy Moss, and invented a word. The title, which is gibberish, provides me with my only clue as to what word you invented, “Hyphy.” I can’t in good conscious give you any points for that though because you don’t tell me what it means. Or if you do, you bury the definition in the verses and then irritate me in the chorus by making the noises, “Brradadameenfashoh – know what I mean, fuhsheezy.” I don’t know what you mean. I really don’t.
Keak da Sneak –
Shitty. “That’s MY word.”
2016 Addendum: I think I was too hard on Super Hyphy. I'm starting to hear things all these years later. I don't know what a "husky brusky" is, but I'm more on board now. I just needed to push past those first twenty-five, thirty listens and really let the hyphiness (hyphens?) settle in my mind. Plus I like the little beeps in the background.