Wit is an essential ingredient of hip-hop music; every great emcee should be able to eviscerate their rival with a series of stinging, yet clever, barbs. But comedy rap? That's a whole other game. Sustaining the laughs of a particularly potent punchline across an entire song is a serious challenge—not to mention the difficulty of coming up with fresh concepts, if the steadily diminishing returns of Eminem are any indication. No wonder it remains largely the domain of Internet jokesters, and the few signed professionals are mostly Jewish nerds who would normally be laughed out of the Def Jam offices. (What up to the Lonely Island!)
All of which is to say, it's impressive what indie favorite Macklemore has done on "Thrift Shop," bringing together humor and hip-hop in such legitimate fashion. This ode to bargain hunting, now getting spins on alternative and even urban radio, is more Weird Al than Jay-Z, but there's no wink-and-a-nudge to the audience. Even when the jokes land, it feels, first and foremost, like a song, rather than an SNL sketch set to music. Credit as well, then, to producer Ryan Lewis and the two great hooks he helped craft: a wildly danceable staccato saxophone beat and the super catchy chorus ("Only got twenty dollars in my pocket"). Fucking awesome, indeed. B+
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