The Matt Walsh Show - July 13, 2023


Matt Walsh Ranks The BEST Rappers Of All Time


Episode Stats


Length

11 minutes

Words per minute

180.30766

Word count

2,145

Sentence count

140

Harmful content

Misogyny

5

sentences flagged

Hate speech

14

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

In this episode, I rank the 4 greatest rap songs of all time, starting with one of my favorite: Back in Blood by Mr. Pooh Shiesty. I also give my thoughts on the recent death of a young black man who died at the hands of the American justice system.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 You know, I've had a lot going on over the past couple of years.
00:00:02.500 We've covered a lot of ground, I think.
00:00:04.100 You know, I've become a best-selling children's author, as you know,
00:00:06.520 a filmmaker, a women's studies expert,
00:00:09.400 a transphobe of the year, among other accolades.
00:00:11.720 But many people don't realize where this all started for me,
00:00:15.520 where my journey began.
00:00:17.240 They don't know who I was before all of this.
00:00:20.360 They don't understand that at my roots,
00:00:22.040 I am really a music critic and specifically a rap critic.
00:00:24.880 And that's where it all began for me.
00:00:27.060 So today I'm getting back to my roots a little bit,
00:00:28.820 where it all began, and as not so much a rap critic,
00:00:31.920 but as a rap appreciator, an analyst, a scholar of the genre.
00:00:36.440 And on that note, I am now going to give, for some reason,
00:00:40.460 my definitive ranking of the,
00:00:43.120 and I had to boil it down a little bit
00:00:44.700 because I could go on forever on this subject,
00:00:46.700 but it's going to be the four greatest rap songs of all time.
00:00:50.820 There's always a debate about this, of course,
00:00:53.140 but we're going to settle that debate once and for all.
00:00:55.840 And we're just good on the list, four to one.
00:00:57.980 So let's get into it.
00:00:59.480 First on the list is a name that longtime listeners of this show
00:01:02.980 are familiar with,
00:01:04.380 and you're expecting it to be on the list,
00:01:06.060 and of course it is.
00:01:07.160 We begin at number four with my guy, Pooh Shiesty.
00:01:09.900 Mr. Pooh has been a favorite of mine
00:01:12.360 ever since he burst onto the scene in 2020
00:01:14.260 with his classic, Back in Blood.
00:01:16.900 Let's listen to a little bit of that now.
00:01:18.400 Bitch, I got my own, 1.00
00:01:20.400 if I don't need security in the club,
00:01:22.480 all they woofing on the nigga, 1.00
00:01:24.220 I thought you was a thug.
00:01:25.760 I ain't got nowhere to go,
00:01:27.180 I shot up everywhere they were.
00:01:29.060 Yeah, you know who took that s*** from you,
00:01:30.820 come get it back in blood.
00:01:32.260 Brr, brr,
00:01:33.640 come get it back in blood.
00:01:35.500 We ain't mask up,
00:01:36.520 no Dodger X,
00:01:37.400 know who it was.
00:01:38.960 It's like the 80s,
00:01:40.400 want something back,
00:01:41.080 get it in blood.
00:01:42.080 Yeah, you know who took that s*** from you,
00:01:43.860 come get it back in blood.
00:01:45.480 Wow, just tremendous.
00:01:46.680 Gets better every time I hear it.
00:01:48.440 The part that resonates with me the most,
00:01:50.520 the part that I really can feel
00:01:52.160 and that I can relate to
00:01:53.260 is where he talks about
00:01:54.420 shooting up the club.
00:01:56.120 And as it happens,
00:01:57.300 Pooh Shiesty was arrested a year later
00:01:59.680 for actually shooting up a club,
00:02:02.300 allegedly,
00:02:02.820 allegedly actually shooting up a club.
00:02:04.700 And needless to say,
00:02:05.980 Pooh Shiesty is innocent.
00:02:07.120 He's also innocent of the armed robbery charges
00:02:09.360 and the aggravated assault and battery charges
00:02:12.220 and federal conspiracy charges,
00:02:13.440 all from different alleged crimes
00:02:15.100 that were all allegedly committed,
00:02:16.900 allegedly in the two years
00:02:18.400 after this song came out.
00:02:20.480 But Pooh is innocent.
00:02:22.300 This is the system,
00:02:23.400 yet again,
00:02:23.980 trying to keep a young black man down 0.99
00:02:25.840 and now he's in prison
00:02:26.620 for the next five years.
00:02:27.560 And the world is going to be deprived
00:02:28.940 of the sweet sounds of Pooh,
00:02:31.180 which I think is the greatest tragedy
00:02:32.780 and travesty of all.
00:02:35.520 Here's all I'll say about this.
00:02:37.020 And I don't want to get off
00:02:37.760 on a whole tangent about it.
00:02:38.620 But listen,
00:02:39.120 just because a guy
00:02:40.140 says repeatedly in a song,
00:02:42.620 hey, I like to shoot and rob people,
00:02:44.560 and then you're out
00:02:45.380 and you see someone
00:02:46.280 who looks like that guy
00:02:47.500 shooting and robbing people, 0.57
00:02:48.900 correlation
00:02:49.480 is not the same as causation.
00:02:52.260 So you can't jump to any assumptions
00:02:54.360 based on that,
00:02:55.540 which is why I say,
00:02:56.680 as always,
00:02:57.800 free Pooh.
00:02:58.520 Moving on to number three
00:03:02.820 on our list
00:03:03.360 of the greatest rap songs
00:03:04.380 of all time.
00:03:05.200 This one is slightly more obscure,
00:03:06.620 I think.
00:03:06.960 It did get 20 million views
00:03:08.060 on YouTube.
00:03:08.620 This is from the artist
00:03:09.700 645AR
00:03:11.700 because rap artists
00:03:14.100 these days
00:03:14.520 are choosing rap names
00:03:16.500 that sound like
00:03:17.560 the password you use
00:03:18.660 for your Gmail account
00:03:19.560 or something.
00:03:19.940 1-7-3-4-6-7-3-2-1-4-7-6-Charlie-3-2-7-8-1.
00:03:24.320 But it's called
00:03:24.700 Ford to Trap
00:03:25.580 is the name of the song.
00:03:26.820 And I think you'll see why,
00:03:28.320 but it's easily
00:03:29.120 the third greatest rap song
00:03:31.100 of all time.
00:03:31.620 Let's check it out.
00:03:58.320 I'm sorry,
00:04:04.960 I was just,
00:04:05.680 it fills me with joy
00:04:08.200 when I hear
00:04:08.860 such beautiful music.
00:04:09.760 That is a real thing,
00:04:10.500 apparently.
00:04:10.900 That's not a joke.
00:04:12.420 And why would it be?
00:04:13.180 Why would it be a joke?
00:04:14.100 Not a joke.
00:04:15.440 That is not a joke.
00:04:16.740 That is a natural fact.
00:04:18.400 It's like if Mickey Mouse
00:04:19.680 grew up in a fatherless home.
00:04:21.380 This is what the music
00:04:22.520 would sound like.
00:04:23.300 And this is how you get credibility
00:04:24.480 in the streets,
00:04:25.040 by the way.
00:04:25.540 You know,
00:04:25.920 it's,
00:04:26.260 you just,
00:04:27.280 if you want,
00:04:27.860 if you want to go out,
00:04:28.660 go down to the streets
00:04:29.580 and be taken seriously,
00:04:31.180 take a hit from a helium balloon.
00:04:32.660 Instant respect.
00:04:36.100 But mainly,
00:04:37.160 I love this song
00:04:38.180 because it sounds like something
00:04:39.660 that an insect might sing.
00:04:41.460 It answers the question
00:04:42.300 we've all asked,
00:04:43.000 which is,
00:04:43.340 what would it sound like
00:04:44.600 if a housefly
00:04:45.980 or a mosquito
00:04:47.080 became a rapper?
00:04:48.520 What's up?
00:04:49.600 What's up?
00:04:50.660 What's up?
00:04:51.620 I be flossing.
00:04:55.200 I be flossing.
00:04:57.480 And for answering
00:04:57.960 that question alone,
00:04:58.860 I think it deserves
00:04:59.940 to be number three
00:05:01.140 on the list.
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00:05:52.880 Number two,
00:05:53.840 second greatest rap song
00:05:54.920 of all time
00:05:55.460 from an artist
00:05:56.900 who has created
00:05:57.580 so many incredible songs.
00:05:58.680 It's hard to choose,
00:05:59.560 hard to really whittle it down,
00:06:01.200 but I'm going with the classic.
00:06:03.480 Okay, so this is Lil Xan,
00:06:05.140 and I know when I say
00:06:06.460 best Lil Xan song,
00:06:07.700 you're all going to say
00:06:08.220 it with me now.
00:06:09.220 Wake Up.
00:06:09.900 This is obviously
00:06:10.620 his best song.
00:06:11.660 I know you've heard
00:06:12.260 this a million times,
00:06:12.920 but let's go ahead
00:06:13.340 and play it.
00:06:14.380 Yeah,
00:06:15.180 I wake up,
00:06:16.200 I go up,
00:06:16.920 I feel like I'm dead.
00:06:18.380 I wake up,
00:06:19.320 I go up,
00:06:20.080 I feel like I'm dead.
00:06:21.500 I wake up,
00:06:22.500 I go up,
00:06:23.260 I feel like I'm dead.
00:06:24.640 I wake up,
00:06:25.480 I mean, truly, this is the song that, for me, signals that we're living through another age
00:06:49.000 of artistic brilliance. You know, this is how the people who were alive during the Renaissance
00:06:52.460 probably felt. They had Michelangelo and Da Vinci. We have Lil Xan. Now, there are some who will look
00:06:57.680 at that comparison and say that it's evidence that the world's coming to an end, that art is dead,
00:07:01.980 that we're the dumbest generation of humans to ever walk the earth. There are some who will
00:07:05.420 listen to Lil Xan and lose their will to live. But those people just aren't able to hear and
00:07:14.740 understand the true lyrical and musical and poetic genius of Lil Xan. Because listen to these lyrics
00:07:20.520 again. Okay, just to recite the lyrics again. I wake up, I throw up, I feel like I'm dead.
00:07:26.440 A, I f*** the game up. Yeah. I drew the game up. Yeah. We do not play, bruh. Yeah. In my own lane,
00:07:34.480 bruh. Ooh. That b***h is lame, bruh. Listen to that there. That b***h is lame, bruh. You know you 1.00
00:07:40.400 as a lame hoe. My b***h from overstate. What you mean, what you mean, what you mean, yeah. Indeed. 1.00
00:07:46.540 What do you mean? What does he mean? What does anything mean? And I think that is the point
00:07:52.000 that Lil Xan is trying to make. He's trying to capture the primal essence of a man looking out
00:07:57.460 into the world and seeing chaos and randomness from his perspective everywhere, not understanding,
00:08:04.660 not comprehending. It's the fear of non-comprehension, I think, is what Lil Xan is trying to capture.
00:08:10.060 He's quite ingeniously, I think, bringing out that visceral bewilderment, that confusion that we all
00:08:15.160 sometimes experience when we look at the state of the world. What you mean, he asks. But he's not
00:08:19.540 asking. He's imploring. He's saying to you, ask the question, what does it all mean? It's not so
00:08:28.980 much a song as a desperate plea, a cry from the darkness, beseeching the listener to question,
00:08:34.560 to think, to search, and to learn. And that brings us finally to the greatest rap song of all time.
00:08:40.580 This is a song that has garnered 840 million views on YouTube, nearly a billion, okay, nearly a billion
00:08:47.700 views to this masterpiece. As you probably expect, it's a song from my favorite, personal favorite
00:08:53.720 artist of all time, Tekashi69, and it's called Gooba. Let's listen.
00:08:58.100 Now we catch him at the chicken spot, hop a couple chops, pop that nigga with a hundred 1.00
00:09:02.440 shots, da-da-da-da-da-da, they didn't make that nigga diddy bop, cha-cha-cha-cha-cha, 1.00
00:09:06.580 heat the windows going knuckle up, bitch I don't box, and these bitches always talking 1.00
00:09:10.540 shit, yaddy-yaddy-yaddy-yad, when you see me, what you talking about, what you talking 0.94
00:09:14.260 about, bitches always wanna chase clout, bitch I am clout, tell them get up on my face now, 1.00
00:09:19.080 fucker. Are you dumb? Stupid or dumb? Huh? Play me like a dummy, like, are you dumb? Are you
00:09:26.480 dumb? Stupid or dumb? Huh?
00:09:30.660 My God, it's really stunning to encounter raw, unvarnished, artistic brilliance like that.
00:09:38.620 Let's go listen to those lyrics one more time.
00:09:40.300 Now we catch him at the chicken spot, up a couple chops, put that n-word with a hundred
00:09:45.020 shots, ra-ta-ta-ta, day-day made that n-word diddy bop, cha-cha-cha-cha, he thought he was
00:09:52.220 gonna knuckle up, bitch, I don't box, and these n-words always talking shit, 1.00
00:09:56.480 shit, yadda-yadda-yad, when you see me, what you talking about, fuck you talking about, 1.00
00:10:02.320 listen to this part, n-words always wanna chase clout, bitch, I am clout. Now when you hear 1.00
00:10:07.820 that, the first thing you think is, well first you think, wait a minute, isn't Tekashi69
00:10:11.380 Mexican or something, and so why is he allowed to use the n-word so freely, what's going on
00:10:15.960 here? The second thing you think is, wow, this makes me angry, it makes me angry at Beethoven
00:10:22.840 and Mozart, that they never made music half as profound as this.
00:10:29.680 It makes me glad that they're dead, and that they are an ash in the ground, because they
00:10:34.900 don't compare to Tekashi69.
00:10:37.280 Bro, what the f***, what did you just say?
00:10:39.120 We could obviously spend all day dissecting the lyrics, but this, the part that really stuck
00:10:42.680 out at me again was when he said, and these n-words always talking sh**, yadda-yadda-yad,
00:10:46.240 when you see me, what you talking about, f*** you talking about, they always wanna chase 0.96
00:10:49.300 clout, I am clout. When I hear those lyrics, what I think Tekashi69 is trying to convey
00:10:52.980 is like the futility of words, of speech, compared with action. You know, he says, what you talking
00:10:59.500 about, n-words always talking sh**. This is a man who's not so much lashing out at his enemies,
00:11:04.420 but rather at, in many ways, the lethargy and ambivalence of the modern age. He's saying,
00:11:10.560 don't sit still, okay? Don't stand off to the side thinking you can substitute words
00:11:16.180 for action. This is very much like Roosevelt's man in the arena speech, except in every way
00:11:20.940 better and more eloquent. Tekashi69 implores us to be men of action. B***h, I am clout,
00:11:27.260 he says. This is an ode to the act of becoming, to the process of doing, of acting, in which
00:11:33.420 we are all transformed. That's what I take from the song anyway, and it is why I believe
00:11:38.820 that it is the greatest rap song of all time. Indeed, probably the greatest song, period,
00:11:43.820 of all time.
00:11:44.560 Couldn't remember the greatest song in the world now, now, now, this is a ship you love.