The Greatest Song Ever of the Week

The Greatest Song Ever of the Week is Cunninlynguists' “Southernunderground.”  To listen to this song is to confront hip hop in its totality.  Put bluntly (pun intended), this song is a monster, in all senses of the words.

Cunninlynguists is not an act I plan on sharing with my girlfriend anytime soon, let alone my mother.  Hip hop has all different kinds of misogyny it can throw at you, but “Southernunderground” features the type that might be most least favorite: the hate that technically proficient emcees often use to assure the listener that they aren’t bougie.  In the span of two minutes, each of the three emcees manages to write off women as sexual punch lines.

The frustrating thing is that Cunninlynguists clearly don’t need to rely on tired, hateful clichés, because they are obvious master of their forms.  These dudes typify the early 2000s come up of the underground, where rappers could conjure up internal rhyme schemes so complicated it hurts to try to plot them, all without sacrificing any delivery or charisma.  Listening to “Southernunderground,” it’s no longer worth arguing that anything besides hip hop is the highest, most advanced form of oral expression that we’ve ever seen.

Non fans need not apply.  Much of it is completely indefensible.  But it is wildly creative, completely addictive, and never compromises anything.  It’s hip hop.