The hip-hop world is a less than sensible place - lots of times, you're even required to clarify when bad means bad and when bad means good - so once a week we're going to get with a rapper and ask them to explain things. Something you always wanted to ask a rapper? Email [email protected].
This Week's Rapper: Airborne
This Week's Subject: Imagining Houston rappers as comic-book characters.
This Week's Prompt: Okay, listening to your tape it's pretty clear that you're a comic book guy. You even say so explicitly on the laser-ly "Villain."
So, sort of similar to what we did with A.D.D. and video games, we'd like to pull your card.
Airborne, "Villain" Airborne, "Villain"
Your challenge is to assign comic book characters to the following Houston rappers:
Bun B; Paul Wall; Chamillionaire
Trae; Z-Ro; Lil Flip; Scarface
J. Prince; K-Rino; Big Mello
Mali-booyah. Good luck.
AIRBORNE:
Bun B: Beast. The reason I went with Beast for Bun B is Bun can destroy a microphone and a career if one was foolish enough to oppose him. But he's a cool brother in person and has the game down to a science, relating to Beast's real identity [as] Henry McCoy, the scientist.
Paul Wall: Iceman. This is sort of a given [laughs]. Not only does Pall have the ability to ice himself out, he can also do the same for others and turn anything from teeth, cups, and even stop signs into that very thing.
Chamillionaire: The Chameleon. Besides the name, Chamillionaire has a unique ability to transform and blend into whatever setting he's in and at the end of the day, still be Cham. When I first heard him on The Mixtape Messiah I was entertained and inspired by a sound that I never heard before out of Houston.
Then once his rhymes hit the mainstreem circuit, he adapted to it as if he'd been doing it his whole career, yet we (original fans) could still identify him, just the same as the cops were able to identify The Chameleon when he tried robbing a bank as Spider-Man.
Trae: Wolverine. I matched these two because Trae isn't necessarily a good or bad guy. He's more so a chill, neutral dude who has a cool vibe as long as you have one. But if you piss him off, from what I've seen with past feuds with another artist, it would probably be wise for you to take a trip out of the states... and stay there.
