The Rock has released his first rap verse and it is appropriately ridiculous
Tech N9ne released a new single, "Face Off," this week, featuring verses from Joey Cool, King Iso—and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson
Music News Hip hop
Dwayne Johnson is a man who’s good at a frankly absurd number of things; wrestling, weightlifting, getting film projects green-lit, and of, course, being a movie star—something he ranks among the very best in the world at doing.
Among the rare deficits in the Johnson skill catalog, though, is music; his single song on the soundtrack of 2016's Moana, “You’re Welcome,” is energetic enough, but you’re mostly getting carried along there by the melody, and the sheer weirdness of hearing The Rock sing a song. Beyond that, Johnson’s discography is more-or-less blank.
But, then, you don’t get to be Dwayne Johnson without treating essentially every single thought that crosses your mind with the same degree of horrifying, mesmerizing, apparently indefatigable passion that he already brings to lifting weights or pretending to jump off buildings or terrifying us with hints about an eventual presidential run. And so we are forced to come to terms tonight with “Face Off,” a new song by rapper Tech N9ne, that features, among contributions from other artists, a rap verse written and performed by Dwayne Douglas Johnson himself.
It is extremely funny.
Now, some of this unintentional comedy is not, strictly, Johnson’s fault. Tech N9ne—who Johnson is an established fan of, having met him years ago on the set of Ballas—does his buddy the probably unintentional disservice of placing him last in the line-up of verses, following Tech himself, plus Joey Cool and King Iso.
The effect, then, is of steady acceleration in the flow of the song, with King Iso, especially, delivering lines so fast that they pick up the staccato beat of a snare drum. The sudden switch to The Rock—rapping reasonably credibly, but not especially swiftly, and in a voice that can only be The Rock’s—is a juxtaposition that cannot be properly handled by the human brain without a sudden snort of laughter.
Still, Johnson isn’t exactly blameless, either, especially since he—multi-faceted entrepreneur that he is—can’t resist getting in a plug for his personal tequila brand during the song itself. (It also pops up repeatedly in the Variety story on the song’s release, which has heavy “We have negotiated the terms of this conversation to the tiniest decimal point” energy.)
It’s also very funny to see and hear the world’s largest movie star (figuratively and otherwise; dude looks massive with his recent Black Adam bulk) demand “What’s my mother fucking name?!” while standing in front of a bunch of pictures of charging bulls, running endlessly in a fashion we can only describe as “Dwayne Johnson-esque.”. There is no subtext. Subtext is dead. It has been drowned in the Rock’s endlessly mentioned, endlessly flowing tequila.
Hilariously, Tech reveals in that same interview that he did not ask Johnson to rap; he approached him to just do some inspirational spoken word stuff at the end of the song, which is meant to feel like a big, dramatic fight anthem. But then, “We got on the phone and structured it. He’s so talented, man. To be able to get on a song with master MCs and be a master MC himself? Dwayne did his thing.” (And, seriously: What would you do in his shoes? Try to say no?)
Johnson also noted, in passing, that his favorite genres of music are “hip hop and blues and outlaw country music,” so, yeah, we gotta ask: Album when?
25 Comments
So are we just forgetting “It Doesn’t Matter”, his collaboration with Wyclef from like 2000-01?
So are we just forgetting “It Doesn’t Matter”, his collaboration with Wyclef from like 2000-01?
A “What’s on TV Tonight?” on Tuesday obliviously mused about the possibility of Dave Chappelle bringing Charlie Murphy onstage during his upcoming Netflix special to repeat his Prince anecdote. That was in spite of Murphy having died four years ago of leukemia, as this website reported at the time. And now this:… on the set of Ballas …Remember “Ballas”? With Wayne “Rock-n-Roll” Jackson?Does this site have editors anymore? Or is it basically just a blog now? Or maybe it’s turning into The Outside Scoop by Jackie Harvey.
How do you ignore the rapping he did in “You’re welcome”?
Or how could you ignore this
You’re over 20 years late for The Rock’s first rap verse
Came here to mention this.
It doesn’t matter.
Ugh, you beat me to it as well.
Re: ‘Teremana’(It also pops up repeatedly in the on the song’s release, which has heavy “We have negotiated the terms of this conversation to the tiniest decimal point” energy.)….uh….it pops up twice.Twice.Now I remember why I rarely frequent io9 and AVClub these days. Writing quality has tanked over the years. It’s unfortunate.
Huh. He always seemed like more of a Rocker.Get it?Look, they can’t all be gems, folks.Okay, it’s also possible that none of them are gems, folks.
“Other rappers rap about-IT DOESNT MATTER WHAT THEY RAP ABOUT”
The best part of this is the “one take” boast at the end. Like LOL, I would hope that didn’t take even an iota more time than the 24 seconds the verse lasts.
Oh, so The Rock never teamed up with Slick Rick to rap about eating a slice of pie so delicious that it made him racist?
I got this “album” and Now that’s what I call music volume 3 one year for Christmas.
well, its not actually about pie. but yes let us never forget
The Rock had his own rap song in 2001 called ‘Pie’.
The Rock and Slick Rick created this cringey jam!https://youtu.be/40SLbGyxJwA
actually…
He should drop a few lines about how he likes to keep his elbows clean.
Oh snap. The performance part is filmed at the Lawrence, Kansas dive bar The Bottleneck, where damn near every well-known band played at before they got super famous.
I was really into Tech N9ne in high school (15 years ago). Seen him live a few times. He always put on a good show and is fun to try and keep up with. I always found him uneven content-wise, but good for him for blowing up some.