Many emcees are noted for their serious, aggrandized personas so it becomes easy to forget that for the most part, Hip Hop is about fun and many rappers use their verses to tell some jokes (isn't that why they call them punch lines?).
Perhaps in an era where Vevo-streamed, artistic, well-directed visuals reign supreme, we've forgotten another time when people would watch the silliest music videos on MTV, showing rappers just chilling and having fun and making us laugh until it hurts. We're all for rap getting taken seriously in the eyes of the mainstream public, but we're glad for the artists preserving the tradition of spitting some funny-ass lines to keep us going throughout the day.
Here we name ten rappers who can especially make us chuckle through goofy and clever (and sometimes just hilariously crude) lyricism. No list of this nature could be definitive, so let us know which other rappers you find hilarious!
Devin The Dude
If you haven't heard of Devin The Dude, I recommend you check him out, like so many of us who discovered this hidden gem who always seemed veiled through a cloud of ganja-induced haze. Perhaps that is the reason why Devin The Dude's lyricism could be expansive, funny, and sad all at the same time.
His music invites the sensation of messing with your friends under the sanctuary of shade provided by West Coast palm trees. He can also spit some lines that leave you giggling to yourself while also taking pause to think.
Funny Lyrics:
Went to the tre for a dime
Now, I got a dollar left
Might as well give it to someone else, I can help
Tried to hand it to a brother
He said, "Man, you need more than this mothafucka"
Kool AD
Kool AD
Kool AD of Das Racist was always the stranger of the duo (or trio, however which way you want to look at it). As he pursues his solo career, we are discovering he is even stranger than even Riff Raff and Action Bronson can occasionally be, and when Kool AD is at his funniest, we aren't sure whether he's being serious or not.
Rest assured, he's probably in on the joke more than the rest of us and his music is usually as good as it is funny. Keep a watch out for this one as he'll probably be the old vaudeville equivalent in the rap game for some time to come.
Funny Lyrics:
Jim Carrey but more hairy
Marry me
Verily, verily, merrily, merrily
Life is but a Creamsicle, a clean nickel
Will get you a mean tickle, the dream
Is to ream lickle teen chickles
And get the green, no pickle for shickle
Stack pancakes
Mike Bickle
Ludacris
Ludacris
Ludacris hasn't evolved a career over his ability to make you laugh with a turn of phrase, but it will surprise you just how funny he can be when he wants to be. Luda might not be where he once was in the game, mostly because he's pursuing other ventures as he gets up there in age, leaving music to the wayside, but he can still make us smile whenever he pops up on a track and decides to take it in a humorous direction.
Although, this shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone old enough to remember that old Luda fro.'
Funny Lyrics:
If it tickles in the middle from Mr. Pickles you try to escape
So give me the rope you gettin wrapped up
Rooty tooty so fruity and fresh, I'm fresh and fruity
Ya duty's to figure the booty's gettin slapped up
Afroman
Afroman
Afroman might not be as funny as we found him in middle school/high school but that hardly makes him any less hilarious. He's a goofy guy whose clever, offbeat herb-oriented songs are memorized by heart by an entire generation of future slackers. With his storytelling ability always reaching the ridiculous notes, his music plays kind of like the musical equivalent to a Cheech and Chong film. He is, at the very least, one of the few rappers to incorporate a good deal amount of slapstick into his lyricism. He had a serious side too, but it seemed like he could never resist his temptation to be silly, with songs boasting titles like "Fuck McDonald's and Taco Bell," and, "I Live In A Van."
Funny Lyrics:
I was gonna go to court before I got high
I was gonna pay my child support but then I got high
they took my whole paycheck and I know why (why man?) yea heayy,
- cause I got high
I wasn't gonna run from the cops but I was high
I was gonna pull right over and stop but I was high
Now I am a paraplegic and i know why (why man?) yea heayy,
- because I got high
Childish Gambino
Childish Gambino
Childish Gambino can't seem to shake Donald Glover, the comedian, TV comedy writer and actor. This is completely understandable because Gambino is Donald Glover, so even though a lot of his raps boast serious content he can't help but to include some of his trademark self-aware humor. He even puts his "30 Rock" mentor (Glover wrote for the show), Tina Fey on a track which proved very silly (Tina kept it light while Childish Gambino went all confessional).
But when he wants to, he can be fiendishly clever. There aren't that many rappers out there with the intelligence or credentials of Gambino, but his silly side keeps his style in check when it could possibly turn grating. He may not want to make his raps all about jokes, but when very often he includes punch lines so clever you can't help but to chortle to yourself like a mad man.
Funny Lyrics:
All I do is make the stuff I wanna write
Reference things I wanna watch, reference girls I wanna bite
Now I'm firefly like a burning kite
And you's a fake fuck like a fleshlight
Kanye West
Kanye West
Yes, Kanye's music has taken a much more self-serious tone now, but if you can remember the Dropout and Late Registration days, you would remember that Yeezy was once very funny and even self-deprecating. Hard to imagine, huh? (Actually, with his recent "Drunk In Love" verse, we saw glimpses of the 'Ye's hilarious side).
Well, to be fair, Kanye can still spit a funny line here and there, but you're never quite sure if he's being serious or not (I mean, the "hurry up with my damn croissants" line on "I Am A God" was a joke, right?). But if you wade through his legendary catalogue you would find a man who harbored clever little punch lines that would flip the entirety of what he was saying almost as much as Kanye harbors himself as of now. Not that we're dissing on new Kanye, we love his music more than ever.
It's true, the man who allegedly couldn't understand the fishsticks jokes (as depicted on South Park) actually once understood jokes probably a little better than you or I.
Funny Lyrics:
She got a light skinned friend look like Michael Jackson
Got a dark skinned friend look like Michael Jackson
Danny Brown
Danny Brown has an affinity for the weird, grotesque and downright bizarre. Sure, he's garnered loads of critical acclaim and rightly so, but have you ever heard someone spit bars that could be so delightfully head scratching before? He's a like-able cat and he's quite intelligent as well, but his inner goofiness is always front and center and occasionally he'll hit you with a punchline that feels like you've actually been punched.
Indeed, he might be one of the funniest guys in the game if you didn't even count his music. He always is delightfully weird and on point during his interviews. But when he decides to spray some absurdity down on a track, no one does it better than Danny Brown.
Funny Lyrics:
Caught your baby mama horny
then I stuck a carrot in her
then you made a salad with it
ate it for dinner
tyler the creator
All of the Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All members have a penchant for silliness, obviously, but the ringleader of the creative, skate brands-clad clan, Tyler The Creator, is the goofiest of them all. If you don't believe me, stay up all night watching Adult Swim after Cartoon Network has shut off and watch an episode of Loiter Squad to see Tyler The Creator gloriously mess with the general public just for the hell of it.
Of course, if his verses weren't funny as well, he wouldn't be up here. Thankfully though, Tyler is quite funny (and often quite meta) on nearly all of his tracks (even the dramatic ones), when he isn't rapping about something so horrific we won't bother summarizing it here. Tyler's music evokes the image of the kind of guy who would crack up your entire group of friends in high school and then some.
Funny Lyrics:
I'm a fuckin' walkin' paradox, no I'm not
Threesomes with a fuckin' triceratops, Reptar
Rappin' as I'm mockin' deaf rock stars
Wearin' synthetic wigs made of Anwar's dreadlocks
Bedrock, harder than a muthafuckin' Flintstone
Makin' crack rocks outta pissy nigga fishbones
Eminem
Eminem
Everyone knew he would be cropping up on this list sometime or another, simply because no one has gotten the first couple verses from, "The Real Slim Shady," out of their heads yet (speaking of which: this). Yes, Eminem could have made an entire career out of his humorous singles, which could have alone been a great act. Of course, he has a host of very serious content now, especially lately, but Eminem is still the king of enormously clever and deeply biting lyrics.
When listening to Em,' it is quite common to crack up in a full, deep belly laugh making you look foolish while you're walking around with headphones on. You may not believe that anyone would say the things old Slim does, but you'll be sure glad someone did.
Funny Lyrics:
Y'all act like you never seen a white person before
Jaws all on the floor like Pam and Tommy just burst in the door
And started whooping her ass worse than before
They first were divorced, throwing her over furniture
Cam'ron
Cam'ron
While Cam'ron can be devastatingly funny in his raps when he wants to be, he is often quite hilarious when he isn't really even trying to be. That's kind of the dogma of Cam'ron though. He is a smart man, but he can be so ignorant and insensitive to such a wide margin that the only physical response is to laugh.
However, that's part of his persona. His lyrics can be ill, insightful, or downright hilarious when not just plain gross. Some of his gaffes would have been career ending for another rapper, but for some reason his considerable likability factor keeps people forgiving him.
And when he's not mentioning someone's dead mother on a diss track, he can be quite charming which makes you almost miss a line so ridiculous and so unexpected that you choke on whatever it is you're eating.
Funny Lyrics:
In front of the corner store under the canopy
Chick wanna stand with me, she gotta drink a can of P.
That's a pineapple soda, this a pineapple Rover
Don't sit on the hood, time after time I done told ya