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2. His secret Kanye West diss track
Year: 2010
One of Hannibal's first professional attempts at rap has never been heard in full. It was 2010, and Kanye West's "Power" was all over the radio. The song contains a blatant jab at Saturday Night Live: "Fuck SNL and the whole cast / Tell 'em Yeezy said they can kiss my whole ass."
Kanye was likely miffed at the show's frequent roasts of The Interruption of Taylor Swift. Hannibal was writing for SNL at the time.
Hannibal's take:
I wrote for SNL in 2009-10. In 2010, Kanye put out "Power" and it had the line, "Fuck SNL and the whole cast." I’ve been a huge fan of Kanye since pre-College Dropout. I saw a show of his in Chicago where you could get in free if you brought canned goods. When he said that line about SNL, I wasn't really mad, but I felt like it was perfect opportunity to clap back.
I worked on a diss track with a friend of mine. It was pretty scathing. I sent it to Seth Meyers and he liked it, but he said I shouldn't put it out because it would seem like it's coming from the whole show. At the time I was a bit disappointed, but looking back, I'm glad I never put it out. It would've definitely popped off but I don't think I would've been able to handle that type of attention at that point of my career.
Here's Hannibal discussing the song with Nardwuar, starting at about 4:43 into the video:
3. His time on stage with Gucci Mane
Year: 2012
It's 2012. Gucci Mane is performing at a launch party in Los Angeles. Everybody from Soulja Boy to Odd Future mobs the stage, Hannibal Buress included.
Hannibal's take:
I snuck onstage with Gucci Mane a few years ago. No one made me leave. Tyler, The Creator got tossed off stage at this show.
4. His hit single "Gibberish Rap"
Year: 2012
"Gibberish Rap" might be the moment when the public at large became aware that Hannibal was becoming a rap god. The track boasts a Clams Casino beat and some of history's finest gibberish.
The song has an odd charm, and led to some legitimate success: "Gibberish Rap" received the official "Chopped Not Slopped" treatment, was a No. 1 rap single in Norway, and is a highlight of Buress' live show.
Hannibal's take:
It started as just a goofy freestyle on my homie Tony Trimm's mixtape, Charcuteries and Champagne. He just wanted me to host it and talk shit, freestyle here and there. I was a little buzzed. I couldn't catch the beat but I was having fun, so I did what I had to do. I freestyled on a bunch of other beats that night but something about that one stuck. As dumb as it sounds, it was kinda catchy.
I wanted to perform the song live but I didn't want to do it without some sort of production. I didn't think it would hold up on its own. I thought it would be funny to have a bunch of video chicks twerking. A goofy amount. Maybe about 10 but in a very small space. Then I saw this video:
A lot of people think I bit the ballerinas idea from Kanye’s "Runaway," but it’s from this. It was so dope seeing ballerinas dance to [Juicy J’s] "Bandz A Make Her Dance." I really enjoyed the juxtaposition. I hit up the guy who put the video up, Jabari, and asked him to link me with the dancers. He did it. The first woman in the video has done several performances with me in New York.
It was always fun seeing people trying to figure out what the fuck was going on. The performances were rough at times. This is the first time I ever performed it on the road:
It took me more than a year to stop rapping over my own vocals. (There's some huge rappers that still rap over their own vocals and it's pretty baffling to me.)
We did it wayyyyy too many times on my 30th birthday at Knitting Factory:
There's this crazy time in Cleveland. Ballerinas, The Incredible Hulk and one guy making balloon animals:
Over time, I learned to take my time with the performance and let the laughs and moments play out a little better:
I could break down "Gibberish Rap" performances all day. It was really fun doing it on the Oddball Tour because the venues were huge outdoor amphitheaters. It was crazy doing this goofy song for 15,000 people that didn't really know me at all.
We filmed a performance for my second special, Live From Chicago, but we had clearance issues, even though we remade the beat. Overall, it's goofy and fun for me to perform. Also, when I performed on The Tonight Show, The Roots played me on to it. I didn't realize it 'til later.
5. A verse on Frederick Scott's "Versace Breakfast"
Year: 2012
Frederick Scott released "Versace Breakfast," featuring Hannibal Buress, as a single in 2012. Hannibal is absolutely ruthless on this one.
He annotated the lyrics on Genius: "I like my eggs scrambled. I don’t really like fried eggs. I’ve tried poached eggs and that’s ok but the preparation is weird. This wasn’t my song, this was a guest verse so I felt the need to touch on the subject immediately but as you’ll soon see, I quickly deviated into my own world for the rest of the song."
Hannibal's take:
After the hot "success" of "Gibberish Rap," I caught the rapping bug. I sent out a tweet telling people that I was doing features. Freddy Scott hit me up and set up the studio time in Williamsburg (he was in L.A.). I knocked this out on the 4th or 5th take. It's an underrated part of my discography.
6. Roofeeo's Call It What You Want mixtapes
Year: 2012, 2013, 2015
Over the last four years, Panama-based DJ Roofeeo has released a series of mixtapes, Call It What You Want. Hannibal has hosted the second, third, and fourth installments.
Roofeeo describes the tapes as featuring "hardcore witticisms and legendary rap bars by Hannibal Buress."
Hannibal's take:
Roofeeo is an old friend. I met him when he was in this band called The Death Set. We were on this awful tour called the Fuck Yeah Tour. It was in 2008. Anyways, he was the house DJ at my Knitting Factory shows and he was my main touring DJ for a while also. He asked me to host this mixtape and another one. I don't remember much except that I talked some crazy shit and spit some bars on here.
7. His freestyle from High Maintenance
Year: 2013
High Maintenance is coming up in 2016 as a show on HBO, but before that, husband and wife team Ben Sinclair and Katja Blichfeld created the show as a web series. Hannibal guest starred in an episode, and he does a freestyle rap for a couple stoners in a minivan about rapping and being stoners in a minivan.
Hannibal's take:
Q: Was that really a freestyle, and did that actually happen?
That was a freestyle but that really didn't happen.
8. That time he directed and co-starred in the video for Chance The Rapper's "NaNa"
Year: 2013
Chance The Rapper dropped Acid Rap, the mixtape that launched him into super-stardom, in 2013. Beforehand, the album's, producer and former rapper Jensen Karp asked Hannibal to direct a video for one of the songs on the release. He ended up co-starring in the video too, and pulled Childish Gambino into a shot along the way.
Hannibal's take:
My buddy Will Miles put me on to Chance The Rapper. At first I thought he was talking about Chance from VH1.
I checked out his mixtape 10 Day. It had a bunch of songs that I really liked on it. Jensen Karp was working with Jash at the time and he asked if I wanted to direct a video for Chance. It was going to be for either "Favorite Song" or "Nana." I liked "Favorite Song" better at the time. I wanted to direct the video for that.
I had a clear concept in my head of what that video would be. Chance insisted on "Nana." We didn't really have a plan. We were just shooting stuff on the fly. "Ummm let's go to Hollywood Boulevard and shoot with the costume characters. Ummmmm. OK, let's hope on this double decker bus and shoot on there." It was fun, though.
9. His feature on Open Mike Eagle's "Doug Stamper (Advice Raps)"
Year: 2014
"Doug Stamper (Advice Raps)" comes from Open Mike Eagle's 2014 album Dark Comedy. The song finds Hannibal dispensing golden nuggets of information to the audience. His verse begins, "You a grown man do what I told you to / Stop pissing on the motherfucking toilet stool (disgusting) / Wash your hands when you touch your little dirty dick / And dry 'em off before you come trying to shake my shit (get outta here)."
Hannibal's take:
I’ve known Mike since 2000 or 2001. We went to college together. He was one of my first friends that I showed my stand-up to. We've done a bunch of shows together over the years. I’d been bugging him about getting on a song and it finally came together. I love dropping in and performing this live with him:
11. That moment he opened Statik Selektah's Lucky 7
Year: 2015
Statik Selektah's 2015 album Lucky 7 is packed with guest features, but it is Hannibal Buress who starts it off with a short speech about bad luck and how the term is misused. Getting caught drunk driving isn't unlucky, it's stupid.
Hannibal's take:
I met Statik at SXSW a couple years ago. He hit me up and asked me to talk some shit on the album. There's some freestyles sprinkled around too. He didn't give me a beat to spit over. I’m still pretty upset about that.
12. His collaboration with Lil Dicky, "Hannibal Interlude"
Year: 2015
Lil Dicky is an extreme example of a comedian-turned-rapper. Hannibal dabbles, but Dicky released an album that topped rap charts in the U.S. and peaked at No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 200.
Dicky's work with Hannibal took the form of a spoken-word interlude. He's giving advice again, but he goes in on the state of rap this time around. Don't wear too many chains (unless you're 2 Chainz), and stop rapping about money because there are no fresh perspectives left on the matter.
Hannibal's take:
I think Dicky is funny and has crazy flow. I saw the early videos of his that went viral. I met him when he was in Chicago doing a show the same day that I was doing a premiere party for my special Live From Chicago.
I reached out and asked if he wanted to perform and he came through. We kept in touch from there and he asked me to do this interlude on his first album.
13. His feature on BJ The Chicago Kid's "Nothin' But Love"
Year: 2015
For a moment, it sounds like Hannibal might be showing his serious side on this track from BJ The Chicago Kid's upcoming album In My Mind. The song's about unconditional love through tough times. For Hannibal, that means a late-night burger joint.
Hannibal's take:
I saw a tweet about BJ collaborating with somebody or something and I jokingly replied, "Put me on a hook" or something like that. And he said "Cool, let's work." He hit me up and asked me to come through the studio and do something on this. I tried to write a verse at first but it was coming off cheesy. It's dedicated to this 24-hour delivery spot called Bad Burger.
