Das EFX and Hip-Hop Fogeyism.

Zibbidy Zabba Rabbit Unicorn Horn!

Ivory at Soulbounce looks back fondly on Das EFX’s 1992 album,Dead Serious:

Twenty years after first debuting, the duo known as Das EFX remains a unit, still performing and recording music for a small, yet loyal fan base. And while some of those fans may show up to hear music from Das’ other releases, it’s the pull of Dead Serious that keeps them coming back for more. While many releases from that time can often sound dated when dusted off and played today, Dead Serious is one of the few that has stood the test of time, sounding just as good and innovative now as it did back then.

I’ll probably get some pushback from the oldheads here, but the reverence for this gimmicky group is actually a pretty egregious example of hip-hop fogeyism, the (understandable!) tendency to wildly overrate much of the stuff we listened to when we were younger relative to whatever teenagers are listening to today. But we really need to resist that urge, y’all, because these cats were literally spitting gibberish:

I spiggedy-spark a spiff and give a twist like Chubby Checker
I take my froot loops with two scoops, make it double-decker
Oh vince, the baby come to Papa Duke
A babaloo, ooh, a babaloo boogedy boo
I went from gucci to stussy, to fliggedy-flam a groupie
To Zsa Zsa to yibbedy-yabba dabba hoochie coochie
Tally ho i-i’ll take my stove top instead of potatoes, so
Maybe I’ll shoot ’em now, nope!
maybe I’ll shoot ’em later, yep!
I used to have a dog and bingo was his name oh, so uh
B- I-N-G-O-O !
You do the hokey pokey and you turn yourself around, hon, so uh
Dun dun dun dun dun, dun dun

Motherfucker, what?

Nostalgia is one of the amino acids of the Internet, but it’s still endlessly amusing to read YouTube comments under terrible old music or TV shows from two decades ago, where people boast-lament that “YO THEY DON’T MAKE MUSIC LIKE THIS NO MORE NAHMEAN.”

Maybe that’s not such a bad thing, though. Everything wasn’t Midnight Marauders.

G.D.

G.D.

Gene "G.D." Demby is the founder and editor of PostBourgie. In his day job, he blogs and reports on race and ethnicity for NPR's Code Switch team.
G.D.
  • I think of them much the way people will hate me for this but some people talk about Lil Wayne being a great lyricist but the songs they reference aren’t great lyrics its just him saying stuff in a funny NOLA way. BFD. That a great lyricist does not one make. Did I have a Das album yes but if I am going to whine about the crap on the radio I am not using them as the measure of why the new stuff sucks. Since they sound just as nonsense. I am going to talk about the groups whose lyrics made me think like Public Enemy and BDP even X clan. Not Das EFX

    • X Clan? Really?

      Look, I think the problem with fogeyism is that it pretends that everything was “It Takes A Nation of Millions…”

      That wasn’t the baseline any more than Weezy is now. (Why Weezy, tho?)

  • GL

    Never was a fan of Das EFX, myself–but gibberish is a form of verse, after all; and maybe they were the Edward Lears/Lewis Carrolls/Dr. Seusses of hip-hop (hippety-hop)?

  • Pretty sure if that came out today by some kids in bright skinny jeans who got millions of YouTube hits, “older” folks would take to Facebook (odd but preferred venting space of choice, btw) to lament the “good ol’ days” of “real hip hop”. Pretty. Sure.

    On another note, Mr. I Offer You A Million For My Laptop But Renege (Ryan Leslie) made an entire song called Gibberish, whereby he sang a bunch of acknowledged nonsense into a mic and served it to us. Thanks Harvard!

  • R.

    There’s much cleverer nonsensical stuff coming out these days but because it’s got to do with the new ubiquity of irony, I don’t know if it’s actually any better (I do enjoy it more). At least Dray and Skoob were being earnest with their gimmick…