Hip-Hop (And Other Things) by Shea Serrano

Author:Shea Serrano [Serrano, Shea]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781538730218
Google: U4crEAAAQBAJ
Published: 2021-10-26T02:33:59+00:00

FIRSTLY, I WAS NINE YEARS OLD when Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze came out. Secondly, I’d not seen a trailer for the movie before I sat down to watch it with my parents. And thirdly, it was 1991 when all of this was happening, and 1991 was a markedly different time for movie consumption. It was wholly possible to watch something in a theater without knowing anything about it beyond whatever it was you saw on the poster when you lined up to get the tickets. Which was why I lost my motherfucking mind when Vanilla Ice popped up in a cameo role at the end of the movie.

I had no idea it was going to happen. I was just sitting there, watching what I considered to be potentially the best movie ever filmed, and then a fight scene carried the turtles into a crowded nightclub, and there he was. Vanilla Ice. My favorite rapper at the time.1 Up on the screen, with Leonardo and Michelangelo and Donatello and Raphael. And he was scared at first (as he should’ve been, on account of having just learned about the existence of giant, mutated, talking turtles). But after a second, the music in the background caught his ear. And so he started dancing, and then he started rapping. And what’s more, he was rapping ABOUT the Ninja Turtles—celebrating them, encouraging them, championing them. And then the turtles, after they’d defeated their enemies, started dancing, too. It was a perfect moment for nine-year-old me. I couldn’t have asked for anything more. And that was when I knew that I was correct. That was when I knew I didn’t have to add the “potentially” qualifier to the sentence anymore: I was watching the greatest movie ever filmed.

The song Vanilla Ice performed in the movie was called “Ninja Rap.” And that’s why this chapter is called “What’s Your ‘Ninja Rap’ Moment?” Because here’s what’s happening:

I very much enjoy listening to people talk about stuff that they care about. As a practice, it’s good for your spirit. And so I asked ten of my writer friends to each tell me about a “Ninja Rap” moment in their life. Here’s the prompt I gave them: “Tell me about a time where you just really loved whatever rap thing it was that was happening in front of you. It can be from when you were a kid or when you were a teenager or when you were an adult. It doesn’t matter. As long as it’s something that you’ll carry in your heart as a beautiful rap thing forever.”

So that’s what this chapter is.

KATHY IANDOLI, ON LIL’ KIM’S SURPRISE APPEARANCE DURING THE BAD BOY REUNION SHOW IN 2015: My career in music journalism entered the double digits years ago, so I often wondered if I could have another fangirl moment. I had several in my preteen and teenage years—I mean, they’re the reason why I even entered this industry of superlatives, word counts, and deadlines.

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