Let's be for real, hip-hop like all popular culture is often
ridiculous. As in, easy to make fun of. So when a guy like Kanye interrupts a teen country singer's acceptance speech or Lil' Mama photobombs an epic VMA performance, they make themselves fodder for running Internet jokes.

Hip-Hop and Internet culture have tons of stuff in common. Stuff you might not have thought about – like, both adopt technology early and easily, and both truly spread virally through word of mouth, moving from one central location and out further, around the entire globe. You know, like how there's French rappers now. Also, both groups of people love to smoke drugs, talk like idiots ( "for shizzle my nizzle" or "ROTFLMAO"anyone?) and scope an endless amount of hot chicks like it's going out of style. In that spirit we present our favorite memes on the hip hop tip.

Interrupting Kanye

Just when you thought it was safe to hold an award show without fear of Kanye rushing the stage to speak his mind, he manages to out do himself. If you were in a coma and missed the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards then you missed 'Ye running on stage while Taylor Swift accepted her first Best Female Video award, snatching the mic from the young country singer and proclaiming the greatness of Beyonce's "Single Ladies" video and truly living up to his "International A**hole" title.

As we all know photoshop is the Internet's great equalizer and people all over took their computers to turn 'Ye's moment of infamy into an on-going thread of hilarity. While his apology to Taylor on his blog and on Leno seem heartfelt and sincere, he's gotta know it's gonna take a LONG time to live this one down.

Source: Urlesque


Lil' Mama

Speaking of spectacular fails at the 2009 VMAs, Lil' Mama managed to scrawl her name on the bathroom wall of history by bumsrushing the stage during Jay-Z and Alicia Keys performance of "Empire State of Mind." Her zeal was met with Jay's apparent distaste as he tried to dodge her on stage and shoo her away. Mama's moment of glory became a moment of utter embarrassment and of course, the Internets were there to kick her when she was down. No amount of lip gloss will repair the damage to her ego.

Source: KnowYourMeme


Eli Porter



Rapping over a golden era Dip Set track, young Eli Porter "deed it" to the competition, an MC named Envy, tackling some sort of mental technical difficulty with panache and flair, then proceeding to drop two hot lines – "you like Rosie O'Donnell / at a bisexual bridal shower" and "look at this dude, he need to stay in the shade / no wonder he came out, he already in the gay parade." PWNED!!!!.

Source: KnowYourMeme


Autotune

Likely hitting it's heights with Autotune The News, YouTube slowly become flooded with a variety pack of abuses of Autotune over 2008; from an Autotuned crying baby to T-Pain "sounding way too much like a robot" and then dealing with the blow back from the machine. And then there's this. And this. Oh yeah,and even the T-Pain iPhone app. Even though Jay-Z has officially declared Autotune "D.O.A." we have a feeling that this is something that Jay-Hova himself can't even kill.

Source: Urlesque



Dat Ass

Rich Boy will go down in the books for more than his club banger (singular) "Throw Some D's" – he found new life as an Internet meme dubbed "Dat Ass". Now you can throw some JPEGS on it instead. We could explain further, but it's really not that deep. Don't over think it.

Source: KnowYourMeme


Thomas the Tank Engine Rap Remixes

Just 'cause you have kids it doesn't mean you have to trade in your Notorious B.I.G. CDs for Backyardigans DVDs. The Thomas the Tank Engine theme music + hardcore rap a capella mash-up craze that's taken YouTube by storm has proven that. Poor misguided, Thomas, it seems that money, hoes, and clothes is all an engine knows.

Source: Urlesque

Will Smith

Meme status is clearly not tied to artistic aptitude. In fact it may be inversely proportional. Therefore, Will Smith, in a few different permutations, has achieved an almost unparalleled place in the world of dumb online jokes. From recitations of the Fresh Prince theme song, to the mutant faced Woll Smoth, we salute a talented star of message boards nationwide. Also, I believe he is in films.

Source: KnowYourMeme / KnowYourMeme

Yo Dawg

Much like the Highlander, there can only be one greatest* hip-hop Internet meme. "YO DOG, I HEARD YOU LIKE MOVIE REFERENCES, SO I PUT A MOVIE REFERENCE IN YOUR SENTENCE SO YOU CAN REFERENCE WHILE YOU READ." Like I was saying, our hats off to you, X to the Z, for... well you didn't really do anything except for show up for "Pimp My Ride" and follow the script provided, but your charm and charisma provides a lovely canvas for Internet dorks to get busy with.


Crank Dat

We've gotta thank our buddies over at Urlesque for pointing out that we had missed one the hugest rap-elated memes ever. The once ubiquitous "Crank Dat" craze led to thousands of copycat dance videos being uploaded to YouTube. Thank you Soulja Boy Tell 'Em for originating this trend and making the web a more interesting place.

Source: Urlesque

*Editor's Note: Though we love Yo Dawg more than life we have to admit that Kanye Interrupts is creepin' on a come up. Do you know of anymore awesome rap-related memes? Leave a comment and put us on.