25 Rap Skits You Never Want to Skip

Album: Speakerboxxx/The Love Below

Year: 2003

Unlike 90% of the skits presented here, Outkast's "Where Are My Panties?" is, strangely enough, fairly romantic. Articulating all those things that often go unspoken, the thoughts that go through the minds of a pair of strangers who spent the night together, it's a humorous but real reflection of love and lust. Both parties want to play it cool while also trying to fight off tender thoughts about the other person, but it's the thoughts of Ice Cold that may hit closer to home: "What if she's the one?"

Album: Enter the 36 Chambers
Year: 1993

Ah, "Method Man." The intro to this song is a classic, but probably for the reason that it is most likely the inspiration behind The Human Centipede. Or, okay, so... maybe not that far. But Meth and Raekwon seem fairly adept when it comes to torture, really sounding like they know what the hell they're doing. From tying someone to a bedpost with his/her "ass cheeks spread out and shit," then shoving a burning hot hanger up the person's ass, to sewing someone's asshole closed and consequently feeding them until they die, the gross-out factor makes this skit hardly bearable. Then again, that's why everyone loves it, right?

Album: My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
Year: 2010

Though Kanye West isn't often noted for his sense of humor, the second half of "Blame Game"–one of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy's more poignant moments–hands the reigns over to legendary comedian Chris Rock to make light of the tabloid-worthy lifestyle in which the outspoken rapper/producer found himself embroiled. Producing a number of memorable quotes, Rock's (mostly) monologue lent a bit of brevity to the epically constructed therapy session that surrounded it.

Album: Liquid Swords
Year: 1995

In the Wu Tang Clan's early heyday, producer and project mastermind the RZA exhibited a knack for finding the perfect samples of movie dialogue to set the tone for songs and whole albums. The first minute and twenty seconds of the eponymous opening track from GZA's classic Liquid Swords sets the tone perfectly, painting the impression of a shadowy assassin surrounded by violence–fitting allegory for an album full of grim street tales, drug deals gone wrong, and gunfights galore.

Album: Purple Haze
Year: 2004

Lord have mercy on a woman scorned. In Cam'ron's Purple Haze skit, "I'm A Chicken Head," we hear a convo between Cam and a woman who is clearly pissed about "bus passes," but in female lingo that means basically anything BUT bus passes. Cam's indifference towards the whole situation only infuriates her more, leading her to finally and hilariously yell "I’m a chicken so I’m gonna act like a chicken. Quack! Quack! Quack! Quack! Quack! Or whatever the fuck sound they make." To which Cam coolly replies “That’s a duck! Get your sounds right." Damn. It's a perfect response to one of the more ridiculous situations Cam has (probably) found himself in with the opposite sex.

Album: Supreme Clientele
Year: 2000

In essence, "Clyde Smith" is two minutes and forty seconds of shit talk from the titular character, a hustler delivering threats (vocals provided by a pitched down, thinly disguised Raekwon). Why is it especially notable? At 1:45 seconds, "Clyde" calls out then little known rapper 50 Cent who had begun to garner a buzz because of his controversial street single "How to Rob," wherein he rapped about stealing from some of hip-hop's biggest celebrities–including Raekwon and Ghostface. "Clyde Smith" put fuel on the rumor that members of the Wu Tang Clan, never known to be fans of on-record posturing, confronted 50 Cent at a party and snatched his chain in response.

Album: Six Feet Deep
Year: 1994

When two of rap's most idiosyncratic super-producer masterminds, Prince Paul and RZA, collide with free creative reign, the end result is a loose concept album (originally titled N*ggamortis, a detail not missed by U.S. censors) that practically pioneered the oft-maligned hip-hop subgenre "horrorcore." One of the album's finest moments isn't even musical: Brief skit "360 Questions" highlights the group's dark, often absurdist sense of humor, a fine example of how to enrich the characters and atmosphere of a project without distracting from the music for too long.

Album: good kid, M.A.A.D city
Year: 2012

While Kendrick Lamar's excellent good kid, M.A.A.D city need not be listened to as a complete unit to be enjoyed, it is constructed as a proper album, a body of work to be enjoyed from beginning to end. The skit at the end of "Sherane a.k.a. Master Splinter’s Daughter" sets the tone for the subsequent songs and loose narrative, a proper scene-setting for the travails of a young man figuring out life in a difficult, exhilarating, unexpectedly humorous, and often unforgiving world.

Album: Operation Doomsday
Year: 1999

While it doesn't highlight his rapping, few songs encapsulate the essence of MF Doom like Operation Doomsday skit "The Hands of Doom." Over a funky, angular Doom beat, one sample of dialogue introduces the character as a malevolent, comic book super villain; a subsequent piece of dialogue features a male grafitti writer and a female friend discussing a piece that depicts "the hands of doom" and the identity of character in the mural. Grafitti, cartoons, stitched together dialogue, dusty, hard-hitting production–"The Hands of Doom" is as succinct a crystallization of the Doom sound and worldview as you're likely to find on any of his projects.

Album: My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
Year: 2010

Though it might be a bit much to read into apocalyptic closing interlude "Who Will Surive In America?" as a predictor of what was to come from Kanye West's solo work, it is a fascinatingly global peak into Kanye's simultaneously grim and selectively optimistic outlook on the world–a perfect close to his personal manifesto.

Album: Dr. Octagonecologyst
Year: 1997

One of the strangest moments on one of the strangest rap albums ever made, the absurd humor of Dr. Octagon's "General Hospital" (and perhaps Dr. OCtagonecologyst on the whole) can be summed up in one sentence: "Oh shit, there's a horse in the hospital." A blissfully bizarre 30 seconds.

Album: Finally Rich

Year: 2012

Few moments in Chief Keef's still nascent career address his meteoric rise and the ensuing maelstrom of controversy as brazenly as the beginning of his personal anthem, "Love Sosa." The opening monologue is a middle finger to doubters and critics of Keef's crass, violent behavior, a direct reminder of the grim world that birthed his music and spurred his career. Whether or not his music endures, the opening moments of one of Keef's signature moments stands as a snapchat of a moment in time, when a young rapper from Chicago captured minds, inspired rants, and raided the radio with his brand of irreverent, nihilistic street music.

Album: The Chronic
Year: 1992

A timeless joke to start a classic song. Is it crass and juvenile? Absolutely. The sort of thing you'd want to play around your parents? Absolutely not. Do we fast forward past the phone conversation at the beginning of Dr. Dre's "Deez Nuts?" Never.

Album: Supreme Clientele
Year: 2000

Brutal, humorous, and likely to turn off some listeners with its depiction of the drug dealer-drug addict relationship, Ghostface Killah's "Woodrow the Basehead" is a tragicomic representation of a very real dynamic in New York and many other major metropolitan areas. It inspires laughs and makes us feel guilty for that amusement in the same moment, an excellent addition to Wu Tang's stash of entertaining, morally ambiguous interludes.

Album: Enter the 36 Chambers
Year: 1993

One of the earliest examples of the Wu Tang Clan's flair for the dramatic, the iconic "Killer tape" skit at the beginning of "Wu Tang: 7th Chamber" showed how the group could weave their love of kung fu films into the fabric of their uncertain lives, injecting real violence into the mundaneness of an argument about a missing (albeit at the time likely rare) VHS. It's an excellent example of the tragicomic narrative elements the seminal New York crew used to spike their early recordings with uncommon cinematic spark.

Album: Bastard
Year: 2010

There are not many better introductions to a rapper's essence then when Tyler, The Creator—only 18 years old when "Bastard" came out—defiantly proclaimed on the song's intro "Yo, fuck 2DopeBoyz and fuck Nah Right and any other fuck-nigga-ass blog." In doing so, Tyler defied the normal thirst new rappers have for exposure and instead set the tone of his rebellious, "fuck-authority" nature that has come to define him and his Odd Future group. Where other rap skits may boarder on the funny or even grotesque, Tyler's instead added depth to what would become one of rap's most engrossing personalities.

Album: Life After Death
Year: 1997

The "Mad Rapper" skit that leads in to "Kick In The Door" is a funny send up of anyone (and especially other rappers) who were jealous of Biggie's succes, with producer Deric Angelettie's giving a ridiculously over the top performance as the Mad Rapper himself.

"Yo! Yo! Imma tell you why I'm mad!"

Album: Liquid Swords
Year: 1995

While many of the Wu Tang Clan's most cinematic moments came as a result of movie samples, "Hell's Wind Staff/Killah Hills 10304" put GZA, RZA, and the slimy Mr. Greico at the center of the action. It's a rare moment, rappers playing dramatic parts in audio form, adding to the drama of an already excellent, descriptive song.

Album: Death Certificate
Year: 1991

The further we get from the heyday of gangsta rap, the stranger it is to think of Ice Cube as a socially-minded fire starter, a rap titan combining Public Enemy's righteous rage with the danger of the group that gave him his reputation as one of hip-hop's outlaws, N.W.A. "Robin Lench," a skit from 1991's inflammatory Death Certificate, flashes Cube's surprisingly sharp satirical sense and irreverence, flipping the then popular television show Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous into Lifestyles of the Poor and Unfortunate, a tour featuring "40 ounce drinks and watered down wishes."

Album: E.L.E. (Extinction Level Event): The Final World Front
Year: 1998

It's difficult to say precisely why Busta Rhymes was so fixated on the Y2K apocalypse over the course of his first three solo albums (particularly considering that very little of his music had anything to do with the end of the world), but his obsession with armageddon led to the diabolically humorous introduction to his third album, E.L.E. (Extinction Level Event): The Final World Front. Featuring a father telling his daughter about all the atrocities awaiting mankind on the otherside of the year 2000. Like famous comedy routine "the Aristocrats," this one's all about the long set up and the little pay off at the end.

Album: De La Soul is Dead

Year: 1991

How do you creatively anticipate, disarm, and, ultimately, make light of an artistic change that you know will confuse fans? If you're De La Soul and you're at the peak of your creative powers (and working with one of the most inventive, mischievous producers of all time, Prince Paul), you use a series of six skits—taking the form of a children's storybook—on your ambitious, left-field sophomore album to artfully confront concerns and lampoon the limited perspectives that would have the talented trio stay the their lane.

Album: Only Built For Cuban Linx
Year: 1995

Shoe company Clarks' Wallabees have become so synonymous with Ghostface Killah for some hip-hop fans, its difficult to remember that they came from the rapper's love of customizing his favorite shoe rather than some sort of contrived brand partnership. Organic and iconic, the opening moments of "Glaciers of Ice" made the Wallabees the unofficial shoe of Ghostface and the Clan, referenced throughout their catalog and, of course, worn by many of the crew's members. A landmark moment in hip-hop fashion immortalized in skit form.

Album: The Chronic
Year: 1992

Dr. Dre sprinkled a lot of hilarious skits into The Chronic and 2001, but the Snoop Dogg helmed "The Chronic (Intro)," which lies halfway between a song and a skit, is definitely not something that needs skipping. Just Snoop Dogg bigging up Death Row records and talking shit on Eazy-E and Ruthless Records would be great on its own, but over those raw G-funk synths? Priceless.

Album: Muddy Waters
Year: 1996

With a title like "Chicken Head Convention," you can't possibly expect something conscious or thoughtful from this skit off Redman's third album, Muddy Waters. It's straightahead humor: A hoodrat convention complete with an assortment of lovely ladies and, of course, clucking chickens. It's not precisely edgy or politically correct, but it's as amusingly crass as anything in Redman's catalog, a great reminder that skits are often best served as brief outlets for humor.

Album: The College Dropout
Year: 2004

Okay, so after you've listened to this skit/come-up story enough time, you might start skipping it, just because of its length. Over about 8-minutes Kanye describes the events surrounding his signing to Rocafella, and it's endlessly interesting, both as an insight into the mind of a younger Kanye and for all the little details and anecdotes that he fits in. From the fact that he made his own bed from Ikea to "biting" the drums from Dre's "Xxplosive" to find his signature style, "Last Call" is a classic album-ending skit.