favorite songs of 2008, #29 of 30: the knux's "cappuccino"

My relationship with mainstream hip-hop can be described as tenuous at best. In theory, I like the genre quite a bit, however I have absolutely no time for misogyny or homophobia, regardless of how well you can turn a phrase or how many Grammy noms that may earn you. Simply put: hate sucks, and just as I refuse to overlook it in people, I can't see past it in my music. Unfortunately, it's all too frequently a part of mainstream hip-hop, so I guess that's why I prefer to take it elsewhere, saving my affections for indie artist like Q-Tip, Mos Def, Del tha Funkee Homosapien and the like.

A group that is very much in this vein is The Knux. They're smart, lyrically adept, fun, inventive, and rap ironically about the old hip-hop clichés rather than falling for them. As my husband says, "I like my hip-hop more geeky than ghetto," and I'm not sure you can get geekier than a duo who pens figurative rhymes about cappuccino and makes video homages to West Side Story.