Most Unintentionally Funny Rappers

Rap music is generally a very serious thing. It's the story of black people rising from street life struggles to living a life of luxury, through complex and serious rhymes about drug dealing, owning the block, rising from rags to riches and making connections in the big leagues. But I always used rap as comedy to get me through the day. As tough and macho-posturing as the classic rappers get, there's just a few guys out there that come off as goofy and funny amidst all the seriousness of their lyrical content. These are a few of my favorites.

1. Busta Rhymes
Busta is the most unintentionally funny rapper in my book because he's so unpredictable. You never know what personality he'll show up with for a verse. You could get just rolled out of bed to do this verse Busta ("Can't Hold the Torch"), Jamaican Busta ("Make It Clap" remix) , hyper-manic 90s' Busta ("Everybody Rise"), turbo-charged Eff You mode Busta ("Look At Me Now") song-for-the-ladies Busta ("I Know What You Want"). Or you can get a combination of all of those personalities in a single song ("Touch It" + remixes).

Whatever he chooses to show up as, he's always charismatic, never phones it in, serves as the ringleader for a wide array of A-list special guests for every remix, has some of the funniest and random-est pre verse ad-libs ("Hey yo Mega, give me some of that barefoot jungle shit and let me shake a leg, nigga"), and just does more guttural grunts and random screams during verses (Yea! Haha! What you want now! Flip Mode now!") than just about anyone else in the game.

2. Snoop Dogg
Witty, laid-back, chill, blunted out. He could be doing a country song ("Superman" with Willie Nelson), a reggae song ("La La La" as his new alias Snoop Lion), a laid-back R&B song ("Sexual Seduction") or a more traditional West Coast banger ("Lay Low", "Drop It Like It's Hot"), and still come off as the funniest, most down to earth guy in the room. He's the one rapper I would personally drop 100 grand to get a recording session with, just because of how goofy and blunted his real-life personality is. He'd literally do a guest verse for anyone and NOT phone it in, which just shows how nice the guy is.

3. Diddy
The richest guy in the game is also one of the funniest. Especially in his post-murder trial comeback period (2000-04), Diddy was in permanent Eff You Mode ("Special Delivery Remix" "Welcome to Atlanta Remix" "Bad Boy 4 Life"). As a rapper and producer, he was always comically bad, biting all-too-obvious obvious samples, screaming ad-libs on steroids during other people's verses (Bad Boy Baby!" "We still here!" "As WE PROCEED!" 'THIS IS THE REMIX!"), and always appearing in people's videos for no reason. Ask Mark Curry what he thinks about all that. Even Dave Chappelle picked up on some of Diddy's idiosyncracies in a classic "Making The Band" spoof.

But he really isn't going nowhere. Just like he screams repeatedly during his songs, Diddy is still here, still has more money than God, and is still consistently funny during public appearances and guest verses.

4. DMX
Probably my favorite rapper who peaked in the late 90s. And probably the only rapper to have white girls screaming "Suck My Dick" (Party Up!) and white boys screaming 'Talk is cheap motherfucker!" (Ruff Ryders' Anthem) full throat in public. And then there's the "dog" thing. Apparently he's a dog in a rapper's body, a gimmick he ruthlessly exploits, his signature barking and growling noises often heard alongside his verses. As dark and hardcore as DMX is, I always had a hard time taking him seriously cause of the dog posturing.

5. Ludacris
The funniest out of all the Atlanta guys. When I first heard him around 2000 I thought he was a joke rapper, especially on "What's Your Fantasy". Dude had skits, sex jokes, songs about people who just won't get out the way (Move Bitch!), and ridiculous videos. I was ready to anoint him the Clown Prince of rap, Then he started acting, doing product endorsements, mailing in verses, and being serious on his cuts. He still can go for a surprisingly strong guest verse these days ("Country Shit"), but for the most part he toned it down and strayed from the initial balls-out raunchy comedic persona which made him so fresh in the early '00s.

6. Redman
The fact he's not on verses anymore is a damn shame. Apparently he'd rather be buying illegal fireworks and stuff like that than doing his trademark gorilla noise over tracks. From 95' to 02' him and Method Man were the dynamic duo of hilariously blunted rhymes, culminating in the cult classic "How High". Red has just about the funniest rap ad-libbed song intro of all time ("Attention all you niggas, all you bitches. Time to put down the Cristal, time to take off the ice for a minute. Time to throw a little mud in this mothafuckaa!" from Lets Get Dirty, which led to Christina Aguilera recruiting him for her finest moment), and the funniest guest appearance of the modern rap video era (as the Grand Wizard in De La Soul's Wizard of Oz-inspired "Oooh" video).

7.  E-40
He's the all time hypeman. the ringleader of all the "Hyphy" Bay Area madness. Whether he's tag-teaming with Too Short to complain about bitches ("Bitch"), directing traffic ("Tell Me When to Go"), or telling people how they do it in the Bay area, E-40 is a hilariously manic and underrated club rapper.

8. Lil' Jon
YEAHHH! I can associate more good times with Lil' Jon songs than any other rapper in recent memory.You know it's a party when he's on a track. Of course there's the classic Chappelle parody and all-to-familiar screams "WHATTTT!" "YEEAAHHHH!" OHHHHKAYYYY". He's still there, popping up on a random remix, collaboing with Steve Aoki and random techno artists, and just being goofy on TV every chance he gets. Very thankful he came into the game, it would be a lot less fun without him.

9. Kreayshawn
I love Kreayshawn, and not only because we share a religion (Judiasm), and a passion (rap music). I'm sure this girl wants to be taken seriously as a rapper, but her hilarious sassy delivery makes it very hard. Especially this collabo with 2 Chainz (which made me see breakfast food in a new way), proves that she's more of a goofy girl than a rap Lady Gaga.

10. Afroman
I'm sure there's at least a serious intention in Afroman's rap, especially on the huge record "Because I Got High". Because of the unusual times behind the song (the rise of Napster and free file sharing, a boom in novelty goof raps a year or two before 9/11, a revival in stoner culture), I've always loved Afroman and the unique cultural moment he was part of. Also if you can ever find Afroman's holiday album (A Colt 45 Christmas) it's a rare treasure. From his signature chicken clucks to an E-40ish "Yeea" on each track, even his in-verse background noises are funny. She Won't Let Me Fuck and Crazy Rap (Colt 45 and two zig zags) are comedy rap classics, while Because I Got High remains fresh and good for a laugh to this day.

11. Mystikal
The rapper so good, his stuff don't even need to rhyme. Has anyone ever noticed this? Getting by as a rapper spitting random gibberish over a beat punctuated by James Brown screams is one thing, but having a successful rap career where you don't even rhyme a single word? That's rarefied air. I bought 2 whole albums from him (Tarantula, Let's Get Ready), and don't recall a single stanza that rhymes. And now, he is freed from prison, for what who knows, and MGK has brought him back from the dead for a remix. Couldn't be happier to hear him on a verse again. Who is he, bouncin' back?