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Top 5 Folky Covers of Rap & Hip-Hop Songs (W/Videos) watch!

mentalfloss.com — It’s officially a trend: acoustic, folk, and bluegrass bands can ’t stop covering rap and hip-hop songs. Here are five of the best examples making the rounds on YouTube.

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  • jquipp, on 01/19/2008, -0/+6Great cover of 'Bust a Move'..by Jerry Chapman & His Acoustic Herbivores!
  • clarionhaze, on 01/19/2008, -1/+6The Gourds "gin and juice" cover is a long time favorite of mine but Weddle's cover of "Hey Ya" is also awesome.
  • ath1337, on 01/19/2008, -2/+28"hey ya" sounds pretty good!
    • freakydingo, on 01/19/2008, -0/+2Yeah as I clicked I thought this was going to be ridiculous but he actually performed that song in an amazing way.
    • imightbewrong, on 01/19/2008, -0/+6i never realized the lyrics were so interesting, great stuff
    • 1legend, on 01/19/2008, -0/+2Just downloaded the mp3 version! Great song.
    • theenginedriver, on 01/19/2008, -0/+5His band, Obadiah Parker, also does an awesome version of Idioteque: http://youtube.com/watch?v=El3ivyKx2oo
      Yes, they're playing outside a Quizno's. No, I don't know why.
    • Cyrus042, on 01/19/2008, -1/+1Kind of reminds me of how Jose Gonzalez could take a Kylie Minogue or a Knifes song and turn it into something much more meaningful.
      Search on Youtube for Heartbeats or Hand on Your Heart.
    • fuzzynyanko, on 01/19/2008, -0/+1"Hey ya" surpassed my expectations of the article by miles. I was blown away at how good he sounds.
  • imightbewrong, on 01/19/2008, -1/+40Ben Fold's cover of Bitches ain't *****?
    • Chirp08, on 01/19/2008, -6/+1yeah, Fish's cover of Gin and Juice, that kid on college humor who covered Usher's Yeah! was pretty damn good too.
      • thejokell, on 01/19/2008, -1/+8I don't know who Fish is, but Phish never covered Gin and Juice. The mp3 that you downloaded from Kazaa is actually by the Gourds, off their album Gogetyershinebox. And it's the 5th video down on the linked page.
    • MixMastaKooz, on 01/19/2008, -2/+3Why? why? Wa...why? Why? Be more constructive with your feed back!? Why?
  • travisMarc, on 01/19/2008, -3/+16http://youtube.com/watch?v=2_N3CK-6CHk&feature=rel ...
    best cover of rap song by far (by ben folds)
  • protogenxl, on 01/19/2008, -3/+2The Gourds FTW
  • r00tus3r, on 01/19/2008, -1/+4What, no mention of the 'Sorry Ms Jackson' cover by The Vines? !!! oh COME ON!
  • DoubleyouTeeEff, on 01/19/2008, -2/+30Dynamite Hack - Boyz in da Hood

    Best by far.
    • dizilbdog, on 01/19/2008, -0/+3That's a real good one.. Shame it wasn't on the list...
    • Icerazer, on 01/19/2008, -0/+3I expected it to be #1.

      A damn shame.
    • Butros, on 01/19/2008, -0/+3Agreed, extra points for doing it before it was cool...
    • MixMastaKooz, on 01/19/2008, -0/+1It was a good cover, and probably the most commercially successful effort, but I disagree they "did it before it was cool." There is a long tradition of playing rap covers acoustically. One of my favorite performances occurred at a local coffee shop in Kirksville, MO in 1995. This guy did a hell of a cover of Mamma Said Knock You Out by LL Cool J. Surprised the hell out of the place.....
  • T8erT0T, on 01/19/2008, -4/+7Bitches Ain't ***** by Ben Folds a must.
    And http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMlPVpXtkJY Boyz In The Hood by Dynamite Hack
  • moisture, on 01/19/2008, -1/+1folkSy
  • burstaneurysm, on 01/19/2008, -4/+4Dugg for Flight of the Conchords.
  • tehjarvis, on 01/19/2008, -16/+2This cheesy crap shouldn't even count as music and makes me want to stab people in the face.
    What a bunch of novelty crap. It's not funny, never has been and never will be.

    • domataos, on 01/19/2008, -2/+3You have completely missed the point.
    • supermanred, on 01/19/2008, -4/+3Actually, not all of it is supposed to be funny.

      Some of it DOES however show how weak the lyrics of some of these songs are. When you take a hardcore rap song and remove the hardcore beats, all you are left with sometimes is some idiot talking a lot of stupid *****.
      • iceblademan, on 01/20/2008, -0/+1I see what you did....wait, what the hell?
        You are only too right.
  • Grimace421, on 01/19/2008, -6/+4All I have to say is "Boyz In The Hood" by Dynamite Hack...
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMlPVpXtkJY
    • supermanred, on 01/19/2008, -0/+1Thanks, Ive already emailed that link to all my friends, hilarious. I love the "DJ" and the guy who rolls up in the car... lol
  • UrinalPooper, on 01/19/2008, -2/+1Dugg for the covers, buried for the craptacular live recordings of most.

    • dumpyhumpy, on 01/19/2008, -0/+2you did both?
    • DarkDx, on 01/19/2008, -0/+1TIME PARADOX!
    • steveboutin, on 01/19/2008, -0/+2i think this is kind of like eating your own head. but i'll have to wiki it to be sure.
      • supermanred, on 01/19/2008, -0/+1cross reference that on myspace. Kenny, punch up the facebook and Kyle, you check the blogosphere. We're running out of time, Damnit!!!
  • Portachking, on 01/19/2008, -3/+2Apart from the Bust A Move cover (and of course the awesome Flight of the Concords) most of this just seems like it's making fun of hip-hop, which is just shameful.
    Also does somebody need to explain Folk music to me again, because none of the above particularly struck me as "folk" musicians.
    • supermanred, on 01/19/2008, -0/+3The snoop dogg cover was fun, too. Though, some were making fun of hip hop, but the snoop cover was great.
    • rossiohead, on 01/19/2008, -0/+0It's only making fun of hip-hop insofar as hip-hop makes fun of itself.
      Perhaps most poignant are the Ben Folds cover of "Bitches Ain't *****" (linked above as: http://youtube.com/watch?v=2_N3CK-6CHk ) and the Alanis Morissette cover of "My Humps" (linked below as: http://youtube.com/watch?v=W91sqAs-_-g ). The lyrics to these songs just sound ludicrous when they aren't chanted to a rhythmic jungle/urban/electronic beat. Why the double-standard? I think that's what these cover songs make you consider, and that makes them (to me at least) really good art.
  • migbike, on 01/19/2008, -0/+4http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIYKPjalb6Q

    Hot in Herre by Jenny Owen Youngs could have easily been on there also.
  • jfg84, on 01/19/2008, -2/+4Gin N' Juice is by Phish!

    Just kidding.
    • Landeyda, on 01/19/2008, -0/+1A shame you're being dugg down by people who don't get the joke.
  • TheChunt, on 01/19/2008, -0/+2Awww where is the love!
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYeWXItf7LQ
  • ajchavar, on 01/19/2008, -0/+1jonathon coulton rocks! especially on hodgmans audiobook.
    • offwithyourtv, on 01/19/2008, -0/+1I'm surprised people on digg don't realize how much Jonathan Coulton rocks. He played that cover at Penny Arcade Expo last year, among his other (much better) self-written songs that are made of win and awesome. He made a lot of new fans when he played at PAX.
  • supermanred, on 01/19/2008, -1/+3Just bought Hey Ya by Obadiah Parker off iTunes... great cover, he deserves the 50 cents or whatever he gets from the 99 cents.

    Gonna look for a few more of the others there too.

    Also check out "Bitches Ain't *****" by Ben Fold Five, funny cover.
  • ooMARLAoo, on 01/19/2008, -0/+1wow, no wonder they are the top 5, they are ALL good. some of these even sound better acoustic! :-p
  • Woknblues, on 01/19/2008, -3/+2I must have been away from the genre for a while, the only one I knew about was Dynamite Hack's Boyz in the hood. What makes these covers funny is that they are improved tremendously by remaking them into actual forms of music, rather than "NoiZ"...
  • cab0280, on 01/19/2008, -1/+1Jason Webley does a much better version of Hey Ya.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aO6zp8E2qeU
    • Urusai, on 01/19/2008, -0/+1That's some tragic accordion action right there.
  • TheClassic, on 01/19/2008, -2/+1Rodney Carrington's Gin and Juice is the best http://dannyb123.cellfish.com/ringtone/213844/Bob- ...
  • rossiohead, on 01/19/2008, -1/+7Alanis FTW!
    http://youtube.com/watch?v=W91sqAs-_-g
  • Ghoztt, on 01/19/2008, -1/+8THIS IS ALL WRONG. These are all just rap & hip-hop covers of Bob Dylan FOLK songs.
    PROOF: http://www.spike.com/video/2842442
    When will you people learn!?!?
  • steveboutin, on 01/19/2008, -6/+1buried. for half the links being broken, and for not even mentioning ben folds' cover of "bitches ain't *****"
    http://youtube.com/watch?v=Q3C4N6p78io
  • steveboutin, on 01/19/2008, -7/+1buried. for half the links being broken, and for not even mentioning ben folds' cover of "bitches ain't *****"
    http://youtube.com/watch?v=Q3C4N6p78io
  • darkphan, on 01/19/2008, -0/+3The title of this post should not be Top 5... it should just simply be 5 Folky Covers to Rap Hip-Hop Songs (W Videos)
  • charlietuna, on 01/19/2008, -0/+1"Folky" is a word?
  • markusfarkus, on 01/19/2008, -6/+2Since when is "Hey Ya" Hip Hop?
  • Lysogen, on 01/19/2008, -0/+1Dugg for L.A. face with the Oakland booty.
  • LemonDefragger, on 01/19/2008, -0/+5GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUULLLLLLLLLLEEEEEEETTT
  • triblinator, on 01/19/2008, -0/+7I know there is always a jerk who makes some sort of technicality in the title of a story... but... I am that jerk. This is acoustic, not folk. Just because someone doesn't plug into wall doesn't make their music folk. Idk what I had to say it, but whatever. = ).
  • hfxadv, on 01/19/2008, -0/+2http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSIB7D_A9TQ
  • PoSSeSSeDCoW, on 01/19/2008, -0/+0I love Jonathan Coulton's cover of Baby Got Back.
  • mcfarnsberry, on 01/19/2008, -0/+0Not necessarily hip-hop, but Rock Plaza Central's cover of Sexy Back is great
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhO9qkB0YXQ
  • dannybito, on 01/19/2008, -4/+0An example how rappers ruin music?
  • tuxracer, on 01/19/2008, -0/+1http://youtube.com/watch?v=JtL12tiap20
  • jsjphoto, on 01/19/2008, -2/+2Yes... white guys rapping... we get it... It was funny the first time I heard it in 1990. Buried for hack comedy.
  • DatumPirate, on 01/19/2008, -0/+4http://youtube.com/watch?v=SE4yw0lgvbE

    Totally awesome cover, I was expecting someone to have posted something like this already!
  • anderaaron, on 01/19/2008, -0/+1So Dug for "Hey Ya" - wow that was f-ing cool! I didn't know how he was going to pull off the end, but he did!
  • brian1127, on 01/19/2008, -0/+1http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1FQ-4Zf7J8 -- soulja boy cover
  • matito10, on 01/19/2008, -0/+2Another pretty good list with mp3s - http://www.hearya.com/2007/05/25/top-10-indie-cove ...
  • ameelyn, on 01/19/2008, -0/+0haha nice renditions there!
  • tsp00n, on 01/19/2008, -0/+0http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=dSJxvi767kQ

    come on ! best ever
  • silence7, on 01/19/2008, -0/+1Beastie Boys (Fight for your right) Acoustic cover
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFg9zmQmyD8
  • mramg, on 01/19/2008, -0/+1awesome Outcast cover!
  • irnoobLOL, on 01/19/2008, -0/+2http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebd7ONuE-PA
    Usher - Yeah cover with a loop pedal ftw
  • rawg, on 01/19/2008, -0/+2The Nina Gordon version of "Straight Out of Compton" is much better than the one in this list. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otL6FvpALQg

    Folk the Police!
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