I'll admit it. I was starting to think reality TV was on the ropes. I mean, it's never really reached the high point represented by the first season of Temptation Island again, but Mini-Me peeing on the floor of the Surreal Life house was another watershed moment. (ha!)
But now VH1 has brought us The White Rapper Show. Oh, it's genius! In episode one, one drunken white rapper slaps another with a dildo! Right now I'm rooting for crosseyed John Brown, because he's taken his stage name from the white prophet/terrorist/lunatic/hero who died trying to end slavery. Or maybe that's his real name. I also love the way he refers to himself in the third person all the time as "the king of the burbs". So when a new challenge comes down or something, they'll cut to the interview with him, and he'll say "Nothin' the king of the burbs can't handle." Fantastic!
My favorite moment came in the first episode, when nerdly contestant Dasit refused to write lyrics for the final challenge. Host Serch (of 3rd Bass, about whom more later) gets furious, and yells, "you think this is a game?! This aint a game!" Well, actuallly, Serch, it's um, an event where there are many people competing for a prize, which is a pretty good definition of a game as far as I'm concerned. Anyway, it's a hugely entertaining show, and I highly recommend it.
Okay, now about Serch. It's just interesting to me the way respect in the music world works. Vanilla Ice is a joke never far from the minds of the White Rapper Show contestants--how could he be when they have to go through the cooler into the Ice Ice chamber to write lyrics for the final challenge? So, okay, Vanilla Ice, who was a one-hit wonder who sold a gazillion records, is a joke. And Serch, who was a one-hit wonder (give it up for "Brooklyn Queens"!) who sold like eighteen copies, is like some elder statesman of rap. I mean, I guess, okay, Vanilla Ice sucked and 3rd Bass didn't, though the decision to sample the "Under Pressure" bass line was genius on somebody's part. I have no big conclusion to draw here except that it's interesting that the more popular an artist is, the more contempt they get later on.
