Daniel Radcliffe Raps Alphabetically

In an American accent.

Paging One Million Moms...

One Million Moms is likely to blow a fuse over a new hip-hop heavy Toyota commercial that features a young girl who begins her rap, "Listen up, motherfathers." But OMM will have lots of company as the ad is getting blasted from all sides. According to the car blog Jalopnik, the ad for the Sienna is "proof that the ad industry has run out of ideas."

I saw the video Friday night after a few car blogs posted it. Everyone generally agreed it was ridiculous. But then Twitter caught a hold of it and all the accusations of cultural appropriation started flying. Here's my beef: I couldn't give a shit about cultural appropriation. I'm not here to talk about how pissed I am that Macklemore won a Grammy over Kendrick Lamar or why Iggy Azalea has the most popular rap song right now. White people doing rap is a debate that should have fizzled out a decade ago and really, I don't care either way. What I don't get is why Toyota and other companies keep doing this, this whole "let's put a bunch of clearly awkward white people in a hip-hop setting and laugh at them because it's a whole inside joke we shouldn't be taking seriously"-type advertising. Isn't the inside joke played out? Like using blue liquid in tampon ads? There's no other way to get the point across?

Stereogum has posted a recap of music, car, and pop culture sites that are denouncing the clip.

Seattle Symphony - Baby Got Back

Clip description:

Each year, in celebration of the past, present and future of our city's musical legacy, Ludovic Morlot and the Seattle Symphony commission world-class composers to write orchestral world premieres inspired by bands and artists that launched from, or are related to, Seattle. In addition to writing a brand new composition inspired by Seattle's own Sir Mix-A-Lot, composer Gabriel Prokofiev also orchestrated two of the legendary rapper's most famous hits for this year's concert, including "Baby Got Back," for which Sir Mix-A-Lot joined Ludovic Morlot and the Orchestra on stage at Benaroya Hall.

Watch the girl in the black dress.

Beyonce & Jay-Z - Run

Via Mashable:

Trying ever so hard to put the Met Gala elevator fight behind them, power couple Beyonce and Jay Z delivered a dramatic star-studded mini movie to fans this weekend to shift the conversation to their upcoming On the Run Tour. The all-guns-blazing video, simply titled "Run" and set to the duo's song "Part II (On the Run)," throws in cameos from Sean Penn, Don Cheadle, Guillermo Díaz, Emmy Rossum, Jake Gyllenhaal, Blake Lively, Kidada Jones and Rashida Jones.

Macklemore's Ryan Lewis Reveals That His Mother Has Been HIV+ For 30 Years

Ryan Lewis writes:

A huge part of what's made me who I am, is something I haven't talked about in interviews. If I could just take a few moments of your time, I'd love to tell you about the strongest woman that I know, my mom, Julie Lewis. In 1984, my mom gave birth to my older sister, Teresa. Due to a complicated delivery, she needed a blood transfusion and at that moment, my mom had HIV+ blood put into her body. When she was finally diagnosed, she was given only a few years to live. By that time, she had already given birth to my sister Laura and me. We each had a 25% chance of being born HIV+, but we were extremely fortunate (today, the risk of a mother passing HIV to her baby is 2% or less if she is taking medication).

Thanks to advanced medicine and healthcare available here in the U.S., my mom has lived despite her odds. To honor the thirty years my mom has been a survivor, our family is raising funds to build health centers worldwide that will stand strong for at least thirty years. We're calling it the 30/30 Project. We are partnering with Construction for Change, a Seattle-based nonprofit, to carry out construction. And we have local partners on the ground, such as Partners in Health, to run and operate the health facilities long-term. We want to give hope to women and families in other parts of the world who lack access to quality, affordable healthcare.

An IndieGoGo donation page has been launched to support the 30/30 Project. Watch the clip below. CBS News has posted an interview with Ryan Lewis.

(Tipped by JMG reader Stephen)

Le1f - Boom

Gay rapper Le1f made his national TV debut last week on Letterman. Sample verse from today's release: "Welcome to Banjee Burger / I cannot take your order / new world order / LGBT cuties all over the world / are diamonds and pearls / black sheep, black sheep / sexy ass fur." Lyrics here.

RELATED: As for this week's other gay rap video, you tell me. The clip is a viral hit already, but that's due in no small part to the haters.

His Emineminence - The Putin Rap

Straight outta Compton Dublin, crazy motherfucker named His Emineminence. Language not office safe. This is really great.

Christian Rapper Creates Response To Macklemore & Ryan Lewis' Same Love

Via the Houston Chronicle:

In light of the success of Macklemore and Ryan Lewis‘ “Same Love” song (which has become something of a gay-rights anthem and Sunday night’s Grammy performance of the track that included the televised marriage of more than 30 homosexual and heterosexual couples) Houston-based Christian rapper Bizzle offers his own response over the same instrumental. Bizzle’s lyrics attempt to refute the comparisons of the gay-rights movement to the civil rights fight of African-Americans and proposes that disagreement on the issue does not equate to hatred of homosexuals. The song is being offered as a free download at his website: GodOverMoney.com.

With a reference to the Crazy Styrofoam Cross Lady.

(Tipped by JMG reader Rob)

HomoQuotable - Dan Savage

"Damned if they do, damned if they don't—we've heard this song before. The queers complaining about Macklemore & Ryan Lewis now remind me of the queers who used to bitch and bitch and bitch about how big beer companies didn't advertise in queer publications or sponsor pride parades. ('Queer people drink a lot of beer! They want us to support them and buy their beer but they don't want to support us and our community!') But when big beer companies began advertising in queer publications and sponsoring pride parades... the exact same queers who had been complaining about how big beer companies weren't advertising in queer publications or sponsoring pride parades immediately started bitching about how the beer companies were trying to profit off our sexuality. ('The pride parade is not for sale! We are a community, not a commodity!') Blah blah bitchy blah. [SNIP] Attacking people who are on our side and having a huge impact isn't going to get us to equality any faster. And if sane queers say nothing when our 'imperfect allies' are swarmed by ingrates and idiots—and no one is perfect, ally or otherwise—then we're pretty quickly going to run out of allies." - Dan Savage, writing for the Stranger. Hit the link and watch the related video Dan posted.

Macklemore & Ryan Lewis At The VMA's

Last night at MTV's Video Music Awards rap act Macklemore & Ryan Lewis performed their hit marriage equality anthem, Same Love, with help from Mary Lambert and Jennifer Hudson. The track later won the award for Best Video With A Social Message.

F. Virtue - Anita Bryant

"This isn't a gay rap. Do gay chefs make gay food?"

Major Lazer - Bubble Butt

Stereogum has named this their video of the week and the clip already has 1.2M views in three days.   I wonder if this will get the sort of feminist backlash that Baby Got Back did or if the booty-shaking phenomenon has bored them by now. Warning: extreme butts ahead.  You probably don't want to watch this in your cube.

Tweet Of The Day - T-Pain

For those unaware, T-Pain is a two-time Grammy-winning singer/rapper and actor. Thirteen of his singles have been RIAA-certified as multi-platinum. His 2007 single Low (with Flo Rida) has sold over six million copies. T-Pain has one million Twitter followers. (Via Queerty)

The Skivvies - Hardbody Hoedown

Stacy Lambe writes at Buzzfeed:

The quirky duo is comprised of Nick Cearley and Lauren Molina, both broadway actors who came together to perform in nothing but their underwear. [T]heir covers are (often hilarious) acoustic mashups of popular hip-hop, R&B and pop songs, usually only accompanied by a cello, ukulele, glockenspiel and/or melodica. After hosting several live revues with fellow broadway stars, the band released their first single, which is available for download on BandCamp. “The mashups we’ve been doing at our live shows naturally led us to our parody single, 'Hardbody Hoedown,' where we give the filthiest rap the prettiest twang,” says Cearley.

The clip is directed by Augusten Burroughs (!) and contains language very not safe for the office. NOTE: I posted this clip last week but it vanished from YouTube.  Today it is back.

(Tipped by JMG reader Eric)

TheFour: Jay-Z For Marriage

Details.

My RNC Neck, My GOP Back

This horrible video is completely uncalled for and I strongly denou--oh my neck, my back, my sides. Audio is super very not appropriate for the office. A lot.

RELATED: I totally danced to this song with a bunch of gigantic hairy guys during Bear Week. One of the highlights of the entire visit.

Baby Got Back At The Movies

I recognize 90% of these scenes. Good thing?

Cazwell - Rice And Beans

The usual from NYC's gay rapper. Naughty bits ahead.

Beastie Boy Adam Yauch Dead At 47

Multiple Grammy Award winning Beastie Boys member and social activist Adam Yauch has died of cancer at the age of 47. Yauch, also known as MCA, had been in treatment for cancer since 2009.

The rapper was diagnosed in 2009 after discovering a tumor in his salivary gland. Yauch sat out the Beastie Boys' induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in April, and his treatments delayed the release of the group's most recent album, Hot Sauce Committee, Pt. 2. The Beastie Boys had not performed live since the summer of 2009, and Yauch's illness prevented the group from appearing in music videos for Hot Sauce Committee, Pt. 2. Yauch co-founded the Beastie Boys with Mike "Mike D" Diamond and Adam "Ad-Rock" Horowitz in 1979. The band started off as a hardcore punk group, but soon began experimenting with hip-hop. The band broke big with their first proper album, Licensed to Ill, in 1986, and further albums Paul's Boutique, Check Your Head and Ill Communication cemented the band as a true superstar act.

Nicki Minaj - Stupid Hoe

A commenter on Stereogum says: "Hip-Hop has come so far. It used to be that only men were allowed to make shitty misogynistic songs with obnoxious beats. This song is a true feminist victory." NSFW.