But I mostly refer to rap cuts as “songs” because you try to think of synonyms for “song.” There ain’t that many. And writing the word “cut” over and over gets boring.

Further, to beat this dead horse ever more dead, can someone explain to me why rap acts are finding their way into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, while not a single rock act has be welcomed into the Rap Hall Of Fame? Consider this…take any successful rap group and any successful rock group. Give them 30 days to duplicate one of the other’s single pieces of work (song or rap cut). I would be willing to bet that the rock group would be able to figure out a way to at least approximate the rap piece, while I doubt the rap group could learn how to play an array of musical instruments in 30 days time.

first up it was 2/3 of the way through a horrible gig – on their day, the vines were a decent band, but they were very inconsistent live (i don’t know if that was something to do with his medical condition). this tipped the balance.

second, ‘ironic’ covers of pop / rnb / rap hits were getting overdone by mid-level indie rock acts at the time. i’d recently seen elbow do ‘independent woman’, electric soft parade do ‘can’t get you out of my head’, magic numbers do ‘crazy in love’ … others i’ve purged from my memory … something had to give. all great songs, but given a “lick of authenticity” and buried under a hundredweight of dreary indie guitars.

it’s worth pointing out, though, that most of the covers you’ve posted here take the opposite approach, and really embrace the exciting, inventive aspects of the songs they’re covering, rather than redicing them to sludge. keep up the good work, sir!