Rap the Lake

My brother Micah and I drove to Idaho today for our traditional family Bear Lake day. We've been going there every year for...well as long as I can remember. Probably since I was three or four and that's a long time.

Micah and I had a lot of time in the car together (three hours there and three hours back) and he has a new iPod, so I got a crash course on rap. I got the history, the current state of the genre, the genealogy of rap artists and who is connected to whom. This was a sociological lesson I clearly needed desperately.

Here is how the six-hour conversation went:

Loud, base-dominated song full of expletives starts.

Micah: You know who this is, right?

Me: No. Should I?

Micah: OF COURSE. He's only the best rapper of all time.

Me: Oh, who is it?

Micah: (Insert rapper's name here.)

Me: Oh. Got it.

Next loud, base-dominated song full of expletives starts.

Micah: You have to know who this is, right?

Me: Umm. Nope. Who is it?

Micah: Only the greatest rapper in the world.

Me: Oh really? Who?

Micah: Dr. Dre/2Pac/Eminem/Jay-z/Snoop Dogg/Notorious/Ludacris/Insert Rapper's Name Here.

Me: Oh

Next loud, base-dominated song full of expletives starts.

Micah: Well, you HAVE to know who this is, right?

Me: (Thinking really hard.) Well...no. Not really.

Micah: You are kidding me. Only the most famous rapper of all time.

Me: Oh. Duh.

You get the picture. Obviously there are a LOT of greatest rappers of all time and I should be able to recognize all of them. In fact, after a six-hour cram session, now I can.