The five best rap lyrics about ‘The Simpsons’
Odd as it may seem, The Simpsons and hip-hop are peers of a sort. While hip-hop is the older of the two, they found popularity roughly around the same time, with the first-ever The Simpsons episode being broadcast at the end of 1989, in the midst of hip-hop’s fabled golden age. From there, they grew up together.
The link between hip-hop and The Simpsons has been more explicit at times, too. Celebrity cameos have long played a part within the show, with legendary musicians such as Johnny Cash, Paul McCartney, James Brown and Michael Jackson all showing up at one point or another. Iconic rappers, too, have gotten in on the act.
50 Cent voiced himself for an episode in season 16, while Ludacris played a character called Luda-Crest in season 18. Among the earlier rap cameos was when Cypress Hill appeared in season seven, when it was implied that the group had accidentally booked the London Symphony Orchestra, “possibly while high,” to back them on stage. More than 20 years later, Cypress Hill brought this joke to life by actually performing with the orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall in London.
Rap, perhaps unexpectedly, has always been present within The Simpsons, but it goes both ways. The show has been mentioned in verses by plenty of hip-hop artists through the years, some of whom are among the biggest rappers around. Bearing that in mind, here’s a look at five of the best Simpsons rap references.
The five best rap lyrics about ‘The Simpsons’
5. De La Soul – ‘Pease Porridge’
De La Soul are arguably the underappreciated visionaries of hip-hop, having quietly led the way in the development of the jazz rap and alternative hip-hop scenes without ever quite getting the recognition that their contributions warrant. Even Questlove has admitted this, claiming on the Fired Up With Brad Jenkins Everything podcast in 2019, “Everything that De La Soul has done, I’ve seen other people come in and do afterwards and it’s like, ‘Ah!’”
De La Soul were always at the cutting edge of hip-hop, coming up with new ideas and jumping onto fruitful trends early. They even referenced The Simpsons while the show was still in its early days, with Trugoy the Dove rapping on ‘Pease Porridge,’ “I click, I click the TV to the Simpsons / And sip the Porridge deep into my system.” This track featured on the group’s second album De La Soul is Dead, which was released in 1991. The Simpsons was only on its second season at that time.
4. Gucci Mane – ‘Nickelodeon’
Suitably for a track called ‘Nickelodeon,’ Gucci Mane sets about referencing as many cartoon characters as he can fit in, albeit not all of them are actually characters from that specific network. There are mentions of comic book heroes: Wonder Woman, the X-Men, Catgirl, Batman, Spiderman, and Superman. And there are nods to famous cartoon strip characters who later became the stars of TV animations, like the Smurfs and Garfield. But that’s just scratching the surface.
Bugs Bunny, Elmer Fudd, Barney the Dinosaur, the Grinch, Tom and Jerry, Scooby Doo, Betty Boop, Daffy Duck, Winnie-the-Pooh—Gucci literally just doesn’t stop mentioning all these famous characters from our childhoods. But representing the yellow characters from Springfield in the track is Bart, with Gucci rapping, ‘Bright yellow rims, same colour my Bart Sim’.’”
3. Childish Gambino – ‘Bitch Look At Me Now’
That Donald Glover, aka Childish Gambino, is a Simpsons fan is hardly a surprise, given that, away from hip-hop, he has made a fine living out of writing and performing comedy. He was even voted the “most likely to write for The Simpsons” in his high school yearbook, although, as he once admitted to Rolling Stone, he wasn’t actually allowed to watch it at home. His mother forbade him. “But,” he said, “she let me watch the Muppets, which fucked up my brain more. Like, ‘Don’t watch this show written by Harvard graduates. Watch this thing made by hippies on drugs!”
Clearly he got around to watching The Simpsons at some point, and, eventually, he even managed to incorporate the show into one of his songs as Childish Gambino. Referencing the fact that the Simpsons children are timeless, never seeming to age, he raps, “I’ll always be childish, call me Maggie Simpson.” That line featured in the song ‘Bitch Look At Me Now,’ which was on his 2010 mixtape I Am Just a Rapper.
2. Mac Miller – ‘Thanks for Coming Out’
Filled with pop culture references, Mac Miller’s ‘Thanks for Coming Out’—not to be confused with another of his songs by a near identical title, ‘Thanks for Comin’ Out,’ with the “g” dropped from “coming”—mentions famous real and fictional characters like Winnie-the-Pooh, Andy Dufresne from The Shawshank Redemption, Nicholas Cage, and Meg from Family Guy. But there’s a Simpsons reference in there, too.
“They trippin’, every time I roll in, they dippin’,” Mac raps, “’Cause my style dope, call me Homer Simpson.” An impressive feat, making “Simpson” and “dipping” rhyme. Interestingly, this wasn’t Mac’s only Simpsons reference in a song, as he slipped another into Chevy Woods’ track ‘Drive,’ which he featured on in 2011. He rapped, “I was on my pimpin’, never will I homer hoes, shit, I ain’t a Simpson.”
1. Kendrick Lamar – ‘Let Me Be Me’
Few would argue that Kendrick Lamar’s self-titled EP, his first-ever release under that name, is his best work, but it laid the groundwork for the career that was to come. Released as a free download on New Year’s Eve in 2009, the EP featured a track called ‘Let Me Be Me,’ in which Kendrick announces to the world the sort of person and artist that he is, presenting listeners with a glimpse of the singular, self-reflective rapper that he would soon evolve into.
The track pushes back against the pressures that come with being a rising force in the music industry, as Kendrick was at the time. “And you can underrate me,” he raps, “but I know what I’m worth / A diamond in God’s dirt, a diamond in winter.” The next line is where the Simpsons reference comes, with Kendrick revealing something of himself for the sake of his art. “Watch The Simpsons and eating some cereal for dinner,” he raps. “See, I give you my life, to mix it up in a blender / To make sure that you finna.”