Expert: Erronoeous Fisherman - 4/29/2000

Question
who are beck`s favorite rap artists?

Answer
Dear Abby (bet you've never got that before),

I don't know Beck's absolute favorite, if he even has one, but I know some of his influences have been rappers.  The first that comes to mind is Chuck D of Public Enemy, whom Beck was directly trying to emulate in "Loser." He couldn't really do it, so he wrote a song about that fact.  I remember Beck listing Bone Thugz N Harmony and OutKast as some favorites for one year.  Some others that come to mind are Rahzel (with whom he's done some stuff), the Beastie Boys (collaborated with Mike D on a Jon Spencer Blues Explosion remix), Biz Markie, Eminem (obvious reasons, I suppose), Dirty Ol' Bastard, Jeru the Damaja and Kool Keith (with whom he's apparently done an assload of work that should be available soon).  I'm not sure how down he is with the Insane Clown Posse, but they sampled one of his songs.  DJ Swamp is Beck's DJ.  Beck was supposed to have collaborated with Snoop Doggy Dogg, but I guess they were never able to work things out.  He did, however, lay down some vocal tracks for Puff Daddy.  I guess Puffy wasn't feeling it though, and basically told him to leave (Beck was rapping about expensive hormones and how he was gonna FedEx them to some girl).  He's mentioned the classics as having an influence on him, such as:  Afrikka Bambata, Kool Herc, Grandmaster Flash, etc.  I guess he's been influenced by Warren G in soem capacity.  On some bootlegs I have, he talks about how Warren G taught everyone to regulate.  He goes on these rants about regulatin', and then plays the most fucking fantastic renditions of "One Foot in the Grave" (a straight harmonica call-and-response song).  There's nothing like it in all of modern music.  Anyway, the last rap group I can think of is Westside Connection.  Beck mentioned them in some sort of article about favorite artists of the year like OutKast and Bone Thugz.

So, they include, but are not limited to:
Bone Thugz N Harmony
Westside Connection
Warren G
OutKast
Kool Herc
Afrikka Bambata
Grandmaster Flash
Snoop Doggy Dogg
Insane Clown Posse
DJ Swamp
Kool Keith
Jeru the Damaja
Dirty Ol' Bastard
Eminem
Biz Markie
Beastie Boys
Rahzel
Public Enemy

Hope that was some help.

 Keith