THE TEN FUNNIEST HIP-HOP ALBUM SKITS

“Every comic wants to be a musician. Every musician thinks they're funny. It's a very strange relationship that we have. Some musicians are funny. Some comedians can play.”  - Dave Chappelle, Dave Chappelle’s Block Party

Not every hip-hop skit is created equal.

In fact, most of them aren’t even remotely good.

Plenty of them, dare I say it, are WHACK.

It might be easier to formulate a list of Ten Not Funny AT ALL Hip-Hop Album Skits. Looking across the Spotify search algorithm I see dozens of playlists offering versions of your favorite albums (without hip hop skits at all) like they’re not the essential glue that holds some of these classics together. De La Soul, Kanye West, Wu-Tang Clan all have these hip hop interludes that are essential to the flow of their albums.

Some artists incorporate skits right into the song itself like Wu-Tang’s classic “Yo Meth, where my Killer Tape At?” that you can’t skip past or you’ll miss the entirety of “Wu Tang: 7th Chamber,” and nobody wants that. Others let them be as their own singular track so you can hit next on your Discman if you hate jokes, have no joy for life and most definitely despise laughter. 

I’ve listened to a LOT of hip-hop skits as research for this list and I’ve come up with a list of the FUNNIEST.  By funny I don’t mean Dr. Dre saying “deez nuts” on The Chronic, which might have been funny in 2001, but definitely isn’t quite so hilarious anymore. By funny I mean that the following sketch could straight up play as part of a sketch comedy tv series: Chappelle’s Show, Key & Peele, Mr. Show, Saturday Night Live, In Living Color.

Plenty of the hip-hop skits out there are simply explicit! Or there are hundreds full of bravado! Many are just voicemails left by friends! But funny? Those are few and far between! I’ve collected ten that actually had me chuckling along through the entire track. 

If your favorite is missing from this list, just remember that humor is subjective and I’m just one guy. Chime in on the socials and let us know where we went wrong.  Here’s to the best hip hop skits.

 

1. DR. OCTAGON - GENERAL HOSPITAL

Weirdness abounds on this classic skit from Kool Keith’s alter-ego and Dan the Automator.

Dr. Octagon is an alien gynecologist in “General Hospital” with some serious drama going down on the hospital floor.

“Fuck it, he’s dead,” has us laughing out loud before spinning off into “Oh shit, there’s a horse in the hospital.” This one is as weird as it is hilarious, and though it might not be as traditional as hip-hop sketch comedy tends to lean, it’s just the kind of freaky that we’re going to back heavily.

 

2. HANDSOME BOY MODELING SCHOOL - DATING GAME

Just like on Saturday Night Live, the game show is a staple of the hip-hop album skit. But also like with Saturday Night Live, most of them miss the mark completely. And then once in a blue moon, you get a Celebrity Jeopardy style diamond in the rough like Handsome Boy Modeling School’s “Dating Game.”

Here Tim Meadows hosts with Dan the Automator and Prince Paul whipping out impressions of Jay Z and RZA before Meadows’ finishes off with his SNL staple Leon Phelps, the Ladies Man.

 

3. REDMAN - WHO TOOK THE SATELLITE CAN? / WE GOT DA SATELLITE VAN

The shift between “Who Took the Satellite Van?” and “We Got Da Satellite Van!” off of Redman’s Doc’s Da Name is what makes this one work for us.

Both of these sketches combined feel like it could have belonged right in the mix on In Living Color, even though the show had been off the air for four years by the time this album came out.

When the second track drops and we switch over to Nasty Naj, reporting to you “live from the Fuck All Y’all helicam,” this sketch takes a turn toward hilarious. Gov-mattic reporting from a stolen news van is pure comedy gold and I’m sure the Wayans Family were jealous when they heard this one.  This is really one of the best hip-hop skits out there.

 

4. KANYE WEST - I LOVE KANYE

Kanye isn’t as funny as he thinks he is. Most of this skits on College Dropout and Late Registration serve better as pauses between tracks than something actually worth listening to.  More of an interlude man than skit guy

Kanye is Kanye though and nothing is going to stop him from trying, so when Life of Pablo rolled around and we got to hear “I Love Kanye,” a meta-self-referential, seemingly freestyle rhyme about the rapper and the song we were listening to, we had to give it up to him.

We DO miss the old Kanye, and this felt like him for a second (or 44 of them).

 

5. EMINEM - LOUNGE

A lounge singer version of “My Fault” coming right before the actual version really highlights the absurdity of what’s about to come on The Slim Shady LP and make this one of the best hip-hop skits of all time.

Marshall Mathers has always been funnier on the track than between them, but this one is in a league of its own. “Lounge” lets the listener in on the absurdity of the track they are about to hear, making “My Fault” all the more memorable in the process.

 

6. THE FUGEES - CHINESE RESTAURANT

The Fugees’ Chinese Restaurant skit from The Score might just be the perfect companion piece to Seinfeld’s 1991 “The Chinese Restaurant” episode. Why there isn’t a YouTube edit of these two together is beyond me. Maybe I’ll get on it.

While George, Jerry, Elaine, and Kramer are impatiently waiting for a table, Pras and Wyclef are putting in a very complicated order with the chef. This is likely racially insensitive nowadays, but in 1996 it was funny as hell so I’m still including it for not what it is, but what it was.

 

7. NOTORIOUS B.I.G. - FUCK ME FT LIL’ KIM

I mentioned explicit before, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t include Biggie’s “Fuck Me” Interlude from Ready to Die just because it was *explicit.*

The track is basically Biggie and Kim having sex on a bed with a Jodeci track playing in the background. It’s Kim’s that shines especially bright here when she starts calling Biggie an “Oreo cookie eatin', pickle juice drinkin', Chicken gristle eatin', biscuit suckin' MUTHAfucka.”

Toward the end of the song, they fall off the bed and Biggie apologizes, but I like to imagine him popping off too early and apologizing for that instead, cause THAT’S comedy.

 

8. WUTANG CLAN - M.E.T.H.O.D. MAN (TORTURE INTRO)

Everyone and their brother is gonna say that “Yo Meth, where my Killer Tape At?” is the quintessential Wu Tang skit, but I’m gonna have to go to the Torture Intro to Method Man’s titular song instead.  Here we have Method and Raekwon listing off ways they are gonna torture someone with the other members of the clan laughing in the background. 

This is the equivalent to Jimmy Fallon and Horatio Sanz breaking during their SNL days. It’s endearing to see what actually makes people laugh and Wu Tang torture style seems to be what does it. 

 

9. OPEN MIKE EAGLE - WTF IS ART RAP?

Open Mike Eagle is a bit of a conundrum. Is he a rapper? Is he a comedian? Is he both?  His hip-hop/comedy series on Comedy Central with Baron Vaughn, The New Negroes, seems to answer the question that he is most certainly both.  So is it cheating when I bring his “WTF is Art Rap?” to the table? Nah.

Hannibal Burress asks the hard-hitting questions in this hip-hop skit about douchey rap fans, putting a burn on every pretentious mfer in the scene and offering up Whole Foods gift cards to make them feel better about themselves.

We’re looking forward to many more years of content from Open Mike Eagle and his pitch-perfect blending of sketch comedy and hip-hop. Watch The New Negroes on Comedy Central.

 

10. LUDACRIS - GREATIST HITS (SUNG BY WHITE PEOPLE VERSION)

I ain’t even gonna fake it on this one. Ludacris’ “Greatest Hits (Sung by White People Version)” is the single funniest sketch track I’ve ever heard on an album (trumping Adam Sandler’s At a Medium Pace).

If this were a Funny or Die sketch circa 2012 (or whenever that site was relevant) it would’ve gone viral faster than Sonic the Hedgehog breaking a sweat on the treadmill.  I’m actually astonished that Ludacris didn’t step up and turn this track into a video. Or was he just too serious of an actor by then after getting cast in the Fast and the Furious franchise? We’ll never know.

What we do know is that white people singing Ludacris lyrics is very very very funny.

[Images labeled for reuse with modification from Vandenberg Air Force Base and Wikimedia]

From deep within the murky depths of the Los Angeles River emerged a creature: 50% raver, 50% comedian, 10% Robotcop. Kurt Kroeber doesn’t own a dog, operates Soundbleed (the world’s only dance party comedy talk show rave), and is down to party with you. Come up some time and say “Hey dude!” But definitely make sure to casually drop the secret Illuminati password.