I've seen a lot of bizarre stuff (e.g. Jimmy Carter, Nancy Pelosi, John Kerry, John Edwards, and Cindy Sheehan) but this
Kanye West Hillbilly Hymn thing takes the cake. It's not funny, it's not country, it's not music, it is a load of horse manure:
The song is West's latest single, "Can't Tell Me Nothing," and the hillbilly in pajamas is comedian Zach Galifianakis.
How? Why? Apparently, West was taken with Galifianakis's lip-syncing in Michael Blieden's video for Fiona Apple's "Not About Love." West decided to give Blieden and Galifianakis carte blanche to create a rural rap odyssey on a North Carolina farm.
As he romps through fields, strikes a Jesus pose in a pond and says that he "ain't one of the Cosbys / I ain't go to Hillman," Galifianakis is joined by a group of gingham-wearing clog dancers and hairy-faced indie folkster Will Oldham, a.k.a. Bonnie "Prince" Billy.
If folks around here spotted these perverts prancing in the meadow, they'd be breaking out the 12 gauge and rescuing the clog dancing kids.
This is hardly a dorm-room camcorder parody of a pop song. It's an officially sanctioned Kanye West video. (So, yes, it is about getting Kanye's money right.) And while the clip's goofiness beguiles, it raises questions about racial humor: Isn't the "white guys enjoying hip-hop while spoofing its excesses" thing way past its expiration date?
Hip-hop jumped the shark a couple of years ago and we're just watching its death throes. Nice to see, but not soon enough.
