I’ve been taking my role as GIF detective very seriously over the past few weeks, so when I received a special assignment, I knew I couldn’t turn it down,
In honor of our new partnership with Genius, we’ve compiled a short list of five great GIFs from the hip-hop world. After all, Genius is the newest incarnation of RapGenius, so it was only fitting to go back to the roots.
So enjoy this special edition of GIFstory! We’ve got some amazing rap GIFs. As always, get ready to see (and in some cases, listen to) the sources below:
Kanye’s Best Pumpkin
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Kanye West never wants you to forget that he’s the greatest — even at a local pumpkin growing contest. This scene is from a 2007 SNL sketch with West, Maya Rudolph and Kenan Thompson in a parody of BET’s erstwhile video show, ‘106 and Park.’ The concept of the sketch is riffing on West’s penchant for interrupting folks at awards shows, particularly his crashing of the stage during the 2006 MTV Europe Music Awards.
That incident — and this sketch — came out well before Kanye’s (in)famous interruption of Taylor Swift after she won at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards for “Best Female Music Video” with her song ‘You Belong With Me.’
Do you ever need a reason for more goofy Kanye?
Check out the sketch below:
Dis Gon B Gud
Time to get out your folding chairs: the action is about to start. The origin for the well-known ‘dis gon b gud’ meme comes from none other than the 2008 music video for Jim Jones & Ron Browz’ “Pop Champagne,” featuring Juelz Santana. This is Jim Jones’ second-most successful single, behind 2006’s “We Fly High.”
The GIF has maintained a popularity similar to the Michael Jackson ‘Thriller’ popcorn-eating GIF, and is used to characterize when a specific thread is heating up with controversy.
Check out the music video below:
Bar Mitzvah Drake
In case you didn’t know, Aubrey ‘Drake’ Graham is Jewish on his mother’s side, and had his very own Bar Mitzvah. The decided to re-do his celebration of becoming a man on his 25th birthday in 2011 for his music video for ‘HYFR,’ featuring Lil Wayne, off of his ‘Take Care’ album.
The intro to the video featured a young Drake at his Bar Mitzvah, complete with a cool afro and sweet multicolored vest of the ’90s. He says “Mazel tov” to the camera, and then busts out some sweet dance moves. Little Drake!
The intro clip went viral in 2011, when it came out, and the GIF was cemented in history.
Check out the music video below:
Boosie’s Crazy Eyes
Baton Rouge rapper Boosie Badazz, or Lil Boosie as he was known in early in his career, is basically the king of hip-hop reaction GIFs. The video for his 2009 song “Gin in My Cup” is practically full of him mugging for the camera, and that silly face is among them.
Boosie has been known for being a prolific mixtape generator, in addition to the five studio albums he’s released in the more than 10 years he’s been active in the rap scene. He even released music while he was incarcerated for five years related to drug charges — the event which sparked a name change once he was released in 2014.
It’s a fairly common reaction GIF in the mixtape community of DatPiff, along with a bunch of other clips from the video.
Check out the music video below:
50 Cent is Judging You
Mr. ‘In Da Club’ himself isn’t too impressed, man. The Queens rapper and member of G-Unit smirks in this quick cameo on HBO series ‘Entourage,’ in a season six episode titled ‘One Car, Two Car, Red Car, Blue Car,’ which aired in 2009. In the scene, 50 throws a little shade towards Turtle, played by Jerry Ferrara.
Pulling up in a Rolls Royce, the rapper has some smart words to say about the Ferrari that Turtle is driving, before casually speeding away down a Los Angeles street. It was practically canonized well-known reaction GIF for responding to someone condescendingly or with a degree of shade.
Check out the scene below:
Do you have a favorite GIF with mysterious origins? Feel free to email us at [email protected].
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