I don't get Riff Raff.

I've followed Ryan Davis on many a strange and disturbing music journey, from his love of Kreayshawn to Chippy non-stop and beyond. But on the most recent bombcast he pledged his honest appreciation for the works of one "Riff-Raff". Being a boring white college student from the northeast, I had no idea who that was so I looked him up and discovered who he was.

I've listened to plenty of white rappers before but listening to this guy made me realize he was truly something, Unique? I honestly don't find myself bothered by his music, I wasn't offended like Ryan was with Brokencyde (Although, everyone should be offended by brokencyde, its just terrible.) I just couldn't understand the purpose of it. His lyrics were sound kind of like the babbling of the insane, he dresses in a way I don't understand and his fellow rappers are equally strange.Maybe he is having fun like Ryan says, maybe he's just out of his god damn mind.

I can't believe Ryan when he says he un-ironically enjoys listening to his guy, MTV tattoos and all. Is there something i'm missing, is it a big joke? Why does he have 40,000 likes on facebook? Is anyone else as confused as I am about this guy?

I assume some people are attracted to the ridiculous persona and stay for the music. There were plenty of times when I ended up liking songs a lot because I enjoyed the music videos for them - have I heard just the songs I probably wouldn't have given them a second listen. I guess it's the same thing with Riff Raff. IF no one saw any of the videos and heard just the songs then it's a lot of incoherent babbling set to mediocre beats.

Why do people like Lil' B and Lil' Wayne? There is no accounting for taste

The videos are pretty entertaining. But if you pay attention to the actual song behind the video, it turns into, what I imagine, a stroke sounds like.

RAP GAME WHITE GRIMACE SON.

@mikemcn: Like I said, people like the persona and almost incidentally stay for the music.

As a side note I doubt Ryan does anything unironically ever, so no worries.

RAP GAME KING TUT

I'm not sure Riff Raff gets Riff Raff. Either that or he gets it too much.

Can I please show you something awesome?

So I had completely forgotten about Ryan mentioning Brokencyde until you brought it up here. I just listened to three seconds of their song Freaxxx and literally am feeling somewhat nauseous.

CANADIAN LUNCH MONEY.

One, Ryan said he was close to enjoying Riff Raff unironically.

Two, there's no such thing as "enjoying something ironically," there's just not having the confidence to like what you like.

Three, he's not a TERRIBLE rapper, he's got lots of recognizable friends, and his beats don't sound like everyone else's. His lyrics are nonsensical, but he sounds like he's having fun, which helps a lot. It's the same reason I can kind of get into 2 Chainz and Big Sean, too; they don't have GREAT lyrics or anything, but they're being them and having fun doing it, and I can get behind that.

Four, the James Franco character in Spring Breakers is basically Riff Raff, and he's incredible.

EDIT: FIVE. HE HAS AN ALBUM NAMED RIFF RAFF LIVE: TRIBUTE TO AC/DC AND IT INCLUDES COVERS OF THUNDERSTRUCK, SHOT DOWN IN FLAMES, AND LET THERE BE ROCK. THIS ALBUM IS ON SPOTIFY.

you've probably already heard orion's belt, but i genuinely think that's a really good song. kitty pryde does a lot for it but riff raff's verse is solid. sure his persona helps and he's clearly a funny guy but i don't think his rapping is bad by any means. he reminds me of a white danny brown flow-wise, probably a bit faster. do you listen to much hip-hop generally? there isn't really any hip-hop i don't like unless it's just boring. i think lil b has really well produced material and actively enjoy a lot of lil wayne's music, but mostly i listen to beastie boys, frank ocean, el-p, M.I.A., mf doom and ghostface killah as far as hip-hop and rap goes.

It's not about his music. It's about the persona. I don't actively listen to his music but his personality and ridiculous antics are endlessly entertaining.

@posh: "Your girlfriend's vagina smells like bumblebee tuna" is one of the single funniest lines an any rap don't ever. Orion's Belt is so amazing. I like Michelle Obama too.

DIAMONDS ON MY BINDER, FOURTH GRADE I WAS IMMACULATE

It's the persona. Vocal delivering and writing aren't great, but he's enjoying himself and doesn't take himself overly seriously at all. I've seen people dislike the music of Andrew WK but give him a pass because he obviously loves what he's doing. This isn't so different.

I was about to say "right on, OP", but as soon as I saw the guy pop up in here I immediately understood Ryan's reasoning.

Maybe Ryan just has shitty taste.

Right on, Polly, right on.

@laserbolts said:

The shittiest of taste.

Riff Raff is amazing.

I think should rather talk about this Riff Raff instead. He's astounding

@markm: Well i'm sold on his persona at least, the "fragile like a panda egg" part had me laughing pretty hard. Ryan said something about him wearing a throwback Denver Nuggets jersey, is he a fan of them or NBA as a whole?

This Riff Raff individual is just a good troll, right?

It's just like Lil' B, it's ignant stupid music that shouldn't be taken seriously. Riff Raff is in a rap group with Andy Milonakis for fucks' sake, the man is a joke and he's made a damn good living off of being so.

From my understanding, yes.

Lemme tell you something. Ain't nothing wrong with Andrew W.K.

I actually found out about riff raff first from the music and then stayed for the persona. This was the first song i heard about because i follow the producer Harry Fraud.

I remember listening to an interview of his saying he doesn't like being in the studio. But somehow he has been associated with some big acts. He is signed under Diplo's label, Mad Decent. Regardless of the persona which is fun, he does put out good music from time to time.

Certainly not from my point of view, but when he broke onto the scene in 2001 he was utterly polarising.

I'd never heard of the dude until Ryan and Jeff began talking about him. To be honest, he scares the ever-living shit out of me.

One time he did a song with Action Bronson and it worked. That's the only time I've understood or appreciated anything he's done.

Ryan un-ironically adores black velvet paintings. Love the guy to death, but his taste seems to be the polar opposite of mine on just about every topic.

I haven't heard him, but from what I can tell, it's a similar deal to Die Antwoord: Weird, mediocre rap that's elevated to legend status just by being completely batshit insane and hilariously entertaining.

Definitely. His most recent work is very mature, though. Basically everything off of 55 Cadillac and Mother of Mankind are my favorite of his songs. Oh, and Never Let Down, from The Wolf is so damn good. He really is amazing on piano.

Wow, I went to check out brokencyde and good fucking lord is that music a pile of garbage. China even cares how shitty that music is.

As for Riff Raff, I don't really listen to rap but I can definitely see the reasoning of he's just having fun and I say hey go for it pal

@sackmanjones: Brokencyde is really the only "band" and I use that term loosely that I would every really scratch my head why anyone liked. Even if I don't like something I'm usually pretty open to understanding why or how someone could like something but that music is just straight up trash.

He's not that bad. Not hard to get.

It's hilarious. It's a guy taking his personality and exaggerating it to the extreme.

For shit's sake, one of his hit videos is him laying on the ground while a girl puts Pringles on him:

You don't get Riff Raff, he gets you.

I've never listened to any of his music, but his Twitter feed is pretty entertaining.

Okay, so he's basically taking the piss out of hip-hop culture while cross-dressing?

When I saw in the description of the last bombcast that "Jeff loves Riff Raff" I was super excited because I thought they were going to be talking about the Rocky Horror Picture Show. I had never heard of the rapper. I was super disappointed when I listened to it. But it was still a good episode.

he's self aware and that's what makes it enjoyable. riff raff knows how ridiculous he is, while most rappers don't realize how ridiculous they are or can be.

@demoskinos: definitely know what you're saying, everyone has different tastes and that's cool. I'm not a big fan of country or rap but I can respect those artists and see why people enjoy their music However, I can't think of a single person I know that would be remotely interested in what Brokencyde are doing. The bombast was the first place I've heard of them and I hope it's the last place I do

Yeah I think it was this video that did it for me. I remember watching Dirt Nasty and Andy Milonakis hang out with this guy in some random youtube videos from last year and he just seemed like a total joker, never really taking himself or anything else seriously. I think Ryan and Jeff mentioned that is one of the reason they really like Riff Raff. There are rappers today who are overly serious about their persona and they're obsessed with ensuring everyone knows how 'real' they are. Much like Odd Future, Riff is part of a new wave of hip hop that rejects that whole self-serious attitude. It's really refreshing to see dudes genuinely enjoying themselves and having fun with their music instead or feeling like someone is getting in your face about how hard they are. Sure he's a weird dude with poor impulse control and a serious undiagnosed case of ADHD but he's fascinating and rap needs more weird outlandish characters.

I must be getting old. I don't know who any of these chucklefucks are and I really don't want to.

This is incredible. I had not seen this before. Thank you.