Searching for universal truths with Kurupt

I stopped looking for meaning in song lyrics a long time ago, as I imagine everyone does when they pass a certain stage in their lives. In high school and even into college, I wanted the songs to represent something deeper, to apply to my life, to sum up how I felt. I'd listen carefully to the lyrics, commit them to memory, try and figure out what the singer really meant by each line, which is no mean feat when you're listening to dense, wannabe-philospher bands like Tool.

Lately there's been an astonishing dearth of good new music, so I've been digging through my collection and listening to older stuff. Some of it hasn't aged well, or was crap to begin with; I can't really be sure what compelled me to spend actual money on Bloodhound Gang CDs. But some stuff I've been listening to for 15 years now, and it just never gets old. For instance, I have never gotten tired of Snoop Dogg's Doggystyle, which I maintain is the greatest hip-hop album of all time. Sure, it wasn't as revolutionary as The Chronic or as influential as Enter the Wu Tang (which we'll get to in a minute), but for my money there isn't a better rap album to listen to start-to-finish.

So anyway, I thought I was done looking for deeper meaning, until I was listening to "Doggy Dogg World" for the nine thousandth time yesterday and heard guest rapper Kurupt brag about "using hoes like tennis rackets."

Now, I'd like to think that I'm inventive and juvenile enough to imagine all kinds of uses for hoes, but I can't conceive of any that in any way resemble tennis rackets. I think you could read the entire Kama Sutra without finding a single reference to tennis rackets. Clearly, Kurupt is doing some novel stuff over there in Compton. Of course, I'm not really sure I want to know the details; I'm both intrigued and horrified.

While we're on the subject of weird rap lyrics, there's a line in Jay-Z's Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem) that goes, "I rub on your tits, and what-not" that always makes me giggle. And what-not? Of course, it doesn't help that he's sampling the song from Annie.

Now back to the group that really cured me of my need for deeper meaning, the immortal, infamous Wu Tang Clan. Freshman year of college I basically decided I was going to like gangsta rap, and Enter the Wu Tang was the first album I bought. One look at the lyrics made it clear that they weren't really going for anything beyond words that rhymed and either made them sound tough or referenced old kung-fu movies, which was fine by me.

Sophomore year of college I had a sort of cultural exchange program set up with my roommate, where he taught me to identify the different types of metal (death metal, black metal, power metal, grindcore), along with probable nation of origin (now there's a musical genre where you don't want to go poking around looking for deeper lyrical meaning) and I tried to teach him to identify each of the nine members of the Wu Tang Clan by voice alone. Because, you know, Wu Tang is for the children.

So my iPod playlist these days has been heavy on early-90s G Funk and the classic Wu Tang albums, which could seriously use some remastering (the bass level on Tical jumps around like a schizoid rabbit), but otherwise still hold up. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to rip Liquid Swords to my hard drive. Protect ya neck.