Who Doesn’t Love Ironic Covers?

Just got back from a weekend in Bologna, which is absolutely amazing. Italy has been a blast, but it has contributed to the decrease in new material here. You’ll be hearing more from Ryan and Claire in the future, and who knows what Adrian is doing. Also, be sure to check the posts we’re making over at mtvU (Zack and Adrian). Now onto the meaty part of the post.

You may remember the old punk cover of Snoop Dogg’s “Gin and Juice” or the painfully ironic Ben Folds cover of “Bitches Ain’t Shit” (honestly though, Ben Folds himself is just painfully ironic). Those two covers laid the groundwork for future acoustic artists to find it totally acceptable to cover their hip hop contemporaries. Some are good (see: Obadiah Parker’s “Hey Ya”) and some are just plain worthless (see: The Fray’s “Heartless”). Whatever your opinion may be on the topic, it is hard to deny the value of these songs, for artistic quality, pure entertainment, or just sheer laughability. It reminds me of going to Bar Mitzvahs and finding 30 nerdy 7th grade white boys with their hands in the air rapping along to 50 Cent or Snoop. As embarrassing and painfully awkward as those times were, hearing acoustic artists muster up the courage to re-interpret these songs allows me to reminisce about those experiences. Plus, putting on a cover of “Ride Wit’ Me” always gets the ladies going. Enough said.

Check out Obadiah Parker’s flawless reinterpration of Outkast’s “Hey Ya” and I Call Shotgun’s grimey acoustic cover of Nelly’s aforementioned “Ride Wit’ Me”. Embrace your inner goofy white guy. You know you want to.

MP3: Obadiah Parker – “Hey Ya (Outkast Cover)”
MP3: I Call Shotgun – “Ride Wit’ Me (Nelly Cover)”

PS: Shout-out to DCtoBC for the Nelly cover. Not only did the guys go to school five minutes from me in DC, they are consistently up on their hip-hop.

Love,
Zack