Chopps Derby – You Don’t Know What Broccoli Is?
Given my near-total ignorance of hip hop, I was never likely to get the joke without a little bit of help. When I first listened to this EP I got myself in a right state because I really enjoyed it but the lyrics are quite amazingly offensive in so many places I was squirming. It took Mrs. Toad’s common sense and Google-fu to point out to me that it was actually supposed to be tongue in cheek, but to a neophyte like myself it was hardly obvious. Even the press release described it as ‘the wrongest thing you’ll ever have the pleasure of listening to’.
So I am really not quite the audience for this, and I doubt many of you are either, but I bloody love it anyway. The work of Mofo Snot on the samplified backing tracks is outstanding, to my ears. And between the glitch-hop musical atmosphere and Chopps’ lazy, indifferent delivery they’ve created something I find oddly brilliant.
Don’t ask me why I like this. It’s awful, even when you know it’s supposed to be tongue in cheek, but I just can’t stop myself listening to it. For some reason, despite being put together from almost no elements which I ever like, I love this EP.
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Weren’t Goldie Lookin’ Chain doing this (and funnier) five years ago?
No. Goldie Lookin’ Wotsit were shit. Childishly shit. This isn’t.
sounds like a reet treat.
It is – genuinely good, and I’m glad I was able to drop my hip hop blinkers and enjoy it.
i agree wholeheartedly! Cheesy Wotsits and Cheetos are of incomparable values, particularly the scampi/prawn flavor…wheeee!
I had peanut flavour cheetos once which I found quite odd, especially considering nuts are already quite an accessable snack.
Peanut flavour Cheetos? Has the world gone mad?
It was in turkey
That sounds like some sort of abominable Christmas recipe to me.
You have to give GLC their due, Toad, regardless of what you may think about their (often dubious quality) ‘music’. It was never supposed to be a going concern, or a serious ‘rap’ / ‘hip hop’ endeavour – just an internet lark/over-extended piss take perpetrated by a bunch of bored, heavily stoned indie kids from Newport.
They were an on-line cult gag for a very long time before they started bothering the charts with their debut album proper. They only went ‘mainstream’ when the fanbase started clogging eBay with bootlegs of the free homemade ‘albums’ GLC had posted for short periods on their website.
It was an altogether strange thing, their sudden omnipresence, because their fanbase, essentially students & career hop heads, seemed to exert an inert pressure on ‘someone’ to release GLCs more popular tracks as a CD proper. Atlantic seemingly felt that pressure & presumably saw a cashcow, duly releasing a hastily re-recorded selection of fan favourites, + a handful of newbies (notably ‘Guns Don’t Kill People Rappers Do’).
GLC milked an extremely lucrative tit until the white stuff turned to blood, got dropped by Atlantic for ‘not selling enough records’, & became TV nostalgia list show pundits & ‘celebrity’ reality show fodder. The ‘brains’ behind the whole venture has turned his hand to becoming one of the most sought after producers in UK for R’n'B & Hiop Hop artistes (oh, the irony) & the original cult fanbase are still in residence, only a bitmolder & little less stoned. All of which has made the various GLC members very well off indeed.
Not bad for a bunch of wind-up merchants who never really had that much respect for the very scene/music they became famous for parodying.
I suppose it’s easy to blame people for ascending to heights to which they never aspired in the first place. They could quite rightly respond with ‘Hey, we were just taking the piss – we didn’t do this, you did’.
But in terms of the comparison, it just doesn’t hold even a little bit of water. This is just my opinion, of course, and based on zero knowledge of rap or hip hop so, suitably caveated etc etc… But basically, I really enjoy this as music. It may be a piss take, but then so are Half Man Half Biscuit, but it doesn’t change the fact that their tunes are often superb. I enjoy the jokes, but basically if clever lyrics was all they could manage then I wouldn’t be listening to it. It’s the tunes that embed things in your head most of the time, and this is a really good bit of music, as far as I’m concerned.
Not that you made the comparison, of course.
To be fair to GLC, & I’m not a fan – they became tedious before they were ever interesting, with only, maybe, 3 songs out of their entire back catalogue even registering on my radar – they weren’t creating sophisticated beats or lyrics. There’s no subtlety or finesse (other than pasted on production values) because that’s not what they were interested in. Their’s was/is about a comedy value on a very basic level that generally doesn’t operate outside of a bong hit. It was a show & tell for mates that got out of hand because of the strength of the interweb.
No comparison was offered because there’s no comparsion – I’m defending GLC purely for the sake of correcting a common misunderstanding, certainly not for any artistic merit.
Which misunderstanding?
I think I just said they were shit.
The misunderstanding that they were a professional outfit & should be held up against other bands of a similar output.
Right. But still shit though?
I think Matthew was referring to my original comparison; which I stand by.
But, hey, I’ve only heard one Chopps Derby song. Matthew’s the expert.
90% shit, yes.
“90% shit, yes.”
Good. What do you think of this stuff then, DC? Not quite your normal stuff either, but does it tickle a rib?
I’m not able to listen rigt now – so can’t comment. Will give it a bash tonight. But you’d be surprised as to what I do have in my collection, Mr. T, so who knows, it might be well up my alley.
Well I remember you saying that when I played a few hip hop songs on my Toad bit a while ago, which is why I was interested.
Have given it a squizz &, hmmm… It’s a little light for me. I’m not sure ho to categorize it at all. It seems a little, um, borrowed in the arched eyebrow dept. Nice underlaying tune wobble, though.
apparently it’s a ‘homage’ to an old hiphop song ‘shit is real’ by Fat Joe. i thought the dogs song on the toadcast was funny.
That is rather good, I liked that one too.
Very relaxing, and funny stuff.
Solid production, nice and clingy.
Time to rock the bells
Time to rock the… clingy…? I have no idea what you just said, but I take it that it’s a compliment. Splendid.
where did the rebellion in music go? government funded rock n roll,cleared samples,radio edits,capitalist merchandising schemes……so whats left????…..chopps derby kid!!!…it all funnelled into ‘you dont know what brocolli is?’……bravo…encore…..PUNK IS BACK with a hip hop glaze….outstanding effort!!!!!! lovin this……thanks toady,would never have stumbled across this on me jones……i’m like a pig in 5h1t…just day to day mind,nothing to do with these joints
Ok, I know this is really late, but it’s been bugging me for days now and I’ve finally tracked it down… Matthew, it’s got the same effect on me as Chopps Derby has on you, ugh…help
“Fiend Out” by Dislocated Boner from Beyond Belief