The Grimanator

Dizzee Rascal f/ Bun B – Where’s Da G’s (video)

Dizzee Rascal goes to Houston, where Bun B is his liaison for the purchase of some shades with Gangster Vision. Dizzee turns on the Gangster Vision and we see a Terminator-style visual heads-up display for all kinds of gangster-related information. Dizzee can now, with statistical certainty, separate the Snitches and the Mama’s Boys from the True Gangsters in all his street-related dealings. Gangster Vision also tells you who’s packin, who’s on that prometh, S.U.C. affiliation and where the leftover soul food on the table came from. There’s also a gangster radar sweep which detects gangsters in the area. So necessary.

Everybody apparently has a Gangster ID number, which implies the existence of a massive Gangster ID database, whose server farm is probably located in either Compton or the jungles of Columbia. I got some questions about Gangster Vision’s information; when it confirms Bun B as a True Gangster, it declares known associate Pimp C as “status unknown.” Is anyone really doubting if Chad will be a True G in the afterlife? Or is Gangster Vision’s database just managed and updated with IRS-level inefficiency?

Did the masterminds behind Gangster Vision also design models for other demographics? Is there Hipster Vision for detecting bad coke and trust funds? Can it give me a “hipster threat level” based on their iTunes library?

Anyways, this was one of my favorite tracks on “Maths and English” last year so I’m glad this was the track Def Jux chose to put forward stateside. Dizzee’s weird mad scientist flow is a good fit alongside Bun and Pimp, and “2 Types of Bitches” from UGK’s last album, was also really good (despite that retarded outro by Pimpin Ken). It makes a strong single and not just for the blog-ready collaboration. Still, there’s something really solemn about this video, with Pimp C’s verse chopped off the track entirely. The abundance of dead rappers has given the music video community plenty of practice filming around lyrics by the dearly departed, and Pimp’s verse was great. But this is end of days for integrity rap. “Where’s Da G’s” says it well enough with the lyrics, but the negative space makes the point even clearer. There aren’t many left and we just lost one of the best.

(The dirty version is embedded above, but there’s a clean version in an MTV2 player floating around with slightly different info on the Gangster Vision.)