Some songs just get stuck in your head. It's like the torture of the Spanish Inquisition, except you're crying tears of embarrassment. Get ready to have a whole new set of jammin' tunes stuck in the old noggin—Broadway style!
Jimmy Fallon and Anne Hathaway donned oh-so-serious entertainer faces and got a lil' comfy with the piano. Then, beauty erupted and made many an eardrum explode with orgasmic intensity. Whatever did they sing? Why, the poetic verses of rappers such as Snoop Dogg, 50 Cent and Kendrick Lamar! Belting out these tunes with a swanky cabaret vibe, Anne and Jimmy create a new genre of silliness: the Broadway rap song.
Is it hilarious? Dear Aphrodite, our sides are splitting. How about offensive? Grrrrr, a little bit. See, this white duo is covering rap songs originally performed by black artists in a style typically reserved for blonde women lamenting over a former flame. Modern terms have coined this "hipster racism." Now, Anne and Jimmy probably don't mean to be racist. After all, they're both quite talented and probably thought it would be fun to take former Top 40 songs and turn them into overly dramatic siren songs. And yes, it is funny to hear crude lines like, "bitch don't kill my vibe," being sung alongside a gleaming baby grand. Then again, they're mocking the lyrics of the song in a way that showcases their (presumed) superiority.
Hate to be a buzzkill, but there's even more to it than that. Though good old 'Merica has a loooong ugly history with racism, progression has been made. In this particular instance, even though Anne and Jimmy are mocking these artists, the rappers have the last laugh. At this point, 50 Cent's net worth is more than double Anne and Jimmy's combined net worth. Dang. Same can be said for Snoop Dogg, but not Kendrick Lamar. Poor Kendrick—not. He's worth like $10 million! That's pretty amazing for a semi-new star hailing from Compton!
We live in a capitalistic society—money not only talks, but perhaps even levels the socio-economic playing field. Maybe this isn't "hipster racism." Maybe it's just a bunch of self-inflated rich people competing with each other for attention. Then again, it's hard to erase history.
So . . . uh, still want to watch it?
