Meet Riff Raff, the Hip-Hop Social Experiment I Can Support

Riff Raff’s “Tip Toe Wing In My Jawwdinz” video has arrived and I… don’t know how to feel as an intelligent black woman who has spent a decade as a music critic. On one hand, dude’s entire package is a joke based on black culture; on the other, dude is like an In Living Color skit gone terribly right—he’s hilarious.

Before you scream at your laptop, hear me out.

Hip-Hop was created by black and brown folks and we are sharing the pot with everyone these days. Blame Eminem or whomever else you want, but the culture that began in the Bronx is global now and open to satire, even if it’s in human form. Amidst drag queens like Iggy Azalea—Rich Juzwiak called this in April—who is not funny because she wants us to take her Charli Baltimore impression seriously, Riff Raff knows he is ridiculous and just goes with it. In fact, he plays it up to the literal hilt. The song is called “Tip Toe Wing In My Jawwdinz” for fuck’s sake, and there are models walking on their tip-toes in the video. There is a praying mantis which I’m sure was drugged before this video shoot began and… what is Christina Milian doing at the end?

Even the Vine clips that sprouted up around Riff Raff’s song are cackle-worthy.

Spoiler Alert!: The people who move the slowest are the most entertaining and I don’t think anyone is wearing actual Jordan sneakers.

In a 2012 video with Action Bronson, Riff Raff raps while holding an out dated giant cell phone from the 1980s while brushing his hair for no reason.

I couldn’t stop laughing while watching. In addition, Riff Raff can actually rap beneath all of those purple Shirley Temple curls, pointy grills and that BET (yes, Black Entertainment Television) tattoo. Now this is a social experiment I can support.

P.S. There is Pink Lotion on his bathroom counter in the Vine video below, why would Riff Raff need Pink Lotion? iCant.