THE MENIL COLLECTION GETS ITS RAP TRIBUTE In advance of their exhibition and performances next month at the Art League of Houston, where they’ll recreate 5 performances by the Art Guys, “while adding a twist that could only come from Black Guys,” artists and musicians Robert Hodge and Philip Pyle II released what appears to be the first-ever song about Houston’s Menil Collection — or at least the first one available on the iTunes Music Store (where it costs 99 cents, but you can preview a short segment for free). And over on Glasstire, Bill Davenport has helped out the auditorially challenged by transcribing (most of) the entertaining and insider-y rap-style lyrics, including the catchy chorus (“Riding by Menil slow, you don’t need no cash flow, we the only negroes, Hodge and Phil”). Sadly, no accompanying video has been released, but a note on the website of Everything Records indicates an album entitled presenting . . . The Black Guys is forthcoming. A solo show of Hodge’s paintings opened last Friday at the CAMH. [Glasstire; Everything Records] Cover art: The Black Guys
WTF did I just read?
I applaud the Menil for its efforts in the science of confusing old white people.
That’s a catchy chorus?
This really is absurd. All this ghetto rap stereotyping of black people. I thought the Menil was progressive, this is like a Minstrel Show. My the Menil will let the rapper wear a Picasso on a gold rope chain around his neck while he gyrates on a Cy Twombly.
The Menil is the subject of this rap parody, not the author of it.
Dumb.