21stcenturylit.com has posted an mp3 of indie author and "This American Life" contributor Brent Runyon (THE BURN JOURNALS) belting out a folk cover of Public Enemy's "Bring the Noise".
If you like this, may I suggest two more MP3s of white people doing nerdy folk covers of old-school hiphop tracks: here's a previous BB post, Joan Baez-esque cover of NWA's Straight Outta Compton, and another old post, Nerd folksinger covers Baby Got Back.
Link (thanks, Scott, thanks Jon Adams)
Reader comment: David Gruenberg says,
Considering the brouhaha about Snoop Dogg I am nominating my favorite rap cover by a white artist; Gin and Juice by the Gourds.
Link to video.
Reader comment: Thomas says,
The Gourds site is pretty lame. You have to join their Yahoo group (and submit a comment to the moderator, and then wait to be approved) just to check out the video.
Jumping through all of those hoops just to check out a video is not an effective way to promote your music.
Reader comment: Anonymous sez,
Cat Power did several rap covers, including Snoop Dogg's "Gin and Juice" and a cover of "Cross Bones Style." Not sure if all the covers were for one LP or just cuz. But both are kind of haunting, not unlike the "Straight Outta Comptom" cover you folks linked to. The "Cross Bones Style" cover is on Matador's 10 Anniversary CD compilation, called "Everything is Nice".
Whether either song is on the web, freely and visibly (if ya know what I mean), I'm unsure. Matador Records used to give away some singles for all of its recording artists via its site but alas it is finicky aobut what is given away these days. Not that there is anything wrong with that from a biz standpoint.
And, in all fairness, one of the most consistantly, great indy labels does still gives freebies of audio and video; just not for the aforementioned covers Cat recorded.
Reader comment: Scott says,
Folk artist Luka Bloom did a wonderful version of LL Cool J's "I need love" in the early 90s: Link
Reader comment: Jordan (Woodpecker's banjo player) says,
Just wanted to point you to Woodpecker's cover of Public Enemy's 911 is a Joke. Link
Reader comment:
Ben says,
I don't want to perpetuate this forever, but I thought I'd point out that The Unholy Trio has a cover of Bring the Noise as well, including a (NSFW) video. The song was on a Bloodshot Records compilation from 2000.
Their myspace page has the song available for download.
