The 1989 NWA song Gwyneth Paltrow can rap word for word
Picture, in your mind’s eye, someone who appears to be the absolute antithesis of hip-hop culture. At the risk of seeming glib, this person looks an awful lot like Gwyneth Paltrow, don’t they?
Gwyneth Paltrow, the Hollywood star that appeared in Glee, runs a wellness brand accused of peddling New Age pseudoscience, and who once was married to the lead singer of Coldplay — this is not a figure who necessarily evokes the feeling of Compton grit.
But never judge a book by its cover, and all that. Paltrow, despite what we might assume, in fact appears to be a big West Coast hip-hop fan.
During an appearance on The Graham Norton Show in 2011, a programme known for its celebrity guests showing off their sometimes grindingly embarrassing party tricks — see Tom Hiddleston doing a Robert De Niro impression in front of the Robert De Niro — Paltrow was asked about her “disparate” musical tastes.
She spoke about her appreciation of country music, as well as her taste for Glee-inflected pop music, but host Norton also specifically brought up her supposed liking of ’90s hip-hop. She claimed to love it, so Norton tested her knowledge.
He mentioned Straight Outta Compton, which she correctly identified as NWA’s classic debut album from 1989. But Norton wanted more. He wanted her to recite some lyrics from it.
Warning that there was one word she couldn’t recite — it should be obvious which one — Paltrow agreed to rap. She then launched into Ice Cube’s opening verse on ‘Gangsta Gangsta,’ the first single to be released from the album. It came out in November 1988, some months before the album itself dropped.
“Here’s a little somethin’ ’bout a — like me,” she rapped, wisely skipping over that particular word. “Never should’ve been let out the penitentiary.” On she goes in this manner for a few bars.
The clip is about as cringey as one would expect it to be, but, in fairness to her, she does know the words. She certainly showed off her knowledge of the song, and her claim to being a big fan of rap seems to be backed up. Hip-hop is for all sorts.