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Sunday, February 1, 2015

Main Source - "Fakin The Funk" (remix), Hip Hop video, lyrics, & lyric explanations)

Edited by Azizi Powell

This is the second of a three part pancocojams series about the word "funk". Part II features a video and lyrics of the 1992 Hip-Hop song "Fakin The Funk"(remix) by Main Source. That post also includes my comments about the meanings of certain words in that rap.

Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2015/02/how-funky-came-to-mean-something-good.html for Part I of this post. Part I provides information and comments about the Latin etymology and the Kongolese etymology for the word "funk". That post also provides several definitions for the word "funk" and the word "funky".

Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2015/02/what-dont-fake-funk-on-nasty-dunk.html for Part III of this series.

Part III presents comments about the meaning of the saying "Don't Fake The Funk On A Nasty Dunk" and includes a video of a commercial in which Shaquille O'Neil uses that saying.

The content of this post is presented for folkloric and cultural reasons.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to all those quoted in this post and thanks to Main Source for this record.

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SHOWCASE VIDEO:  

Main Source - Fakin' The Funk (1992)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMeqyLDs1u4&ab_channel=BlackUrbanGrooves

Black Urban Grooves, Feb 15, 2019
-snip-
The video clip that was posted by DiggindCratez Uploaded on Oct 22, 2011 which was originally published in this post is no longer available. Here's a quote from that summary as well a comment from that video's discussion thread. 

White Men Can't Jump Soundtrack ©1992 Wild Pitch Records/EMI
-snip-
This record is considered to be classic (old school) Hip Hop.

Here's a comment from that video's viewer comment thread:
TheReIntegration, 2014
"A lot of people never knew that this version is actually the "Remix" not the original version. This version got more hype cause this version was based on the sound track!"
-snip-
This song is included in the soundtrack of the "White Men Can't Jump" movie, and is heard on the car radio while the character Wesley Snipes is portraying is driving.

Click https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgB3jRdcyeQ for a sound file of the original version of "Fakin The Funk" by Main Source. Unlike the remix which was made for the for the soundtrack of the "White Man Can't Jump" movie, the original version contains profanity.

Click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Source for information about the Hip Hop group Main Source.

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LYRICS: FAKIN THE FUNK (remix)
(as recorded by Main Source)
(feat. Neek the Exotic)

[Large Professor]
Now I've never been one to knock the next man for getting his
You know what I'm saying? (Right, right)
And I do realize that now hip-hop is a form of showbiz (Uh huh)
But this has always been something with which you have to be true
So in the year on 1992...(this is how we do!)

[Large Professor]
At the age of 19, heard the scene
A lot of M.C.'s that do not come clean
Fronting on dealing hard times in rhymes
You see him in the streets and you see no signs
Of the hell, and they get on stage and tell
Some cornball war story, ring the bell (word)
You're fakin the funk
Talking that extra hard junk, you're probably a punk
And Imma let you know, that this way
You just don't cut with the artificial flow

[Neek the Exotic]When fakes try to front, they get smoked like blunts
My rhymes penetrate like skunk
Ayo word up, I think you're fakin' the funk
Neek the Exotic breaks backs and necks

[Large Professor]
You're fakin the funk! (You're fakin the funk)

[Chorus:]
Yo! You're fakin' the funk! (You're fakin the funk) [x6]

[Large Professor]
You do a song about a current event
Get on television and seem hesitant to represent
And that's what we call fraud
You can't kick the streets with a look I sold out a board (word)
And everywhere has streets
That's not trying to hear the same wack rhymes
Over the same stink beats
Cause times are real, and I can't feel
Putting...down on the reel to reel

[Neek the Exotic]
Now I'm a let you know
With those weak style of raps, it's time to go
I eject rejects that step
I'm a vet ready to snap your neck
I shine and rhyme at the same time
The mastermind of the sport called the rhyme
Now it's my time to dump chumps that front
(Ayo Professor what's up?)

[Large Professor]
You're fakin' the funk

[Chorus 1/2]

[Large Professor]
The era of the wack M.C.
Is getting shut down when the Main Source stomps through your town
Cause we don't play the role of a clown
And keep things jumping with the real rap sound

So to all the people stealing beats (You're fakin the funk)
To the crossover rapper with the pleats (You're fakin the funk)
To all the chumps that's claiming the streets (You're fakin the funk)
Fronting incredible feats (You're fakin the funk)
To the girl acting like a prostitute (You're fakin the funk)
Wearing that hooker type suit (You're fakin the funk)
To the rapper with the big space suit (You're fakin the funk)
To the artist that doesn't pay dues (You're fakin the funk)

[Neek the Exotic]
Cause, exotic and then you're torn with the hyper tone
I can't be blown because my rhymes are hard like stone
So prepare for the scare, because I'm you're worst nightmare, punk
Cause you're fakin the...

[Chorus]

Source: http://lyrics.wikia.com/Main_Source:Fakin'_The_Funk

****
EXPLANATION OF VARIOUS TERMS FROM THAT RAP
(given in order of their use in the rap with the lyrics given in parenthesis)

fakin the funk [title of rap & refrain]
From http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=fakin+the+funk by Nabru, September 14, 2005
"fakin' the funk
When you are pretending to be something you are not, capable of a skill or trait you do not possess, or in some other way misrepresenting yourself. See fronting.

KRS-ONE is an old school rapper who dislikes so-called "Gansta" rappers who are just fakin' the funk."

**
"come clean" [A lot of M.C.'s that do not come clean] = tell the truth
**
frontin [Fronting on dealing hard times in rhymes] = pretending, faking
**
Front [When fakes try to front] = show a fake visage
**
[when fakes try to front they are smoked like blunts] = blunts= marijuana cigarettes; The fake M.C.s are "smoked" meaning inhaled and used up without any real effort
**
[ring the bell (word)]= similar to "Tell the truth", "Tell it like it is", with someone else responding "word" [similar to That's right", "Yeah", or "Un hun".
**
Yo! = in this context, an interjection that in this context means the same as "Yeah".
**
represent [seem hesitant to represent] = to be a representative for; speak on behalf of a community and/or a group of people
**
streets [And everywhere has streets] = people from the streets [the 'hood, particularly refers to people from lower income/working class neighborhoods]
**
wack [That's not trying to hear the same wack rhymes] = weak, silly, inauthentic, in this context
lyrics that don't convey the reality of the streets (the 'hood)
**
Ayo word up = "Ayo" and "word up" were interjections that were common among African Americans in the early 1990s, with "word up" and "word" (meaning "That's right!) being more common than "Ayo".
**
blown (I can't be blown because my rhymes are hard like stone) = can't fail (can't fall down)
**
hard rhymes = lyrics that convey the hard life of the streets, lyrics that aren't wack
**
pay dues = put in hard work, blood, sweat, and tears to become a success

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This concludes Part II of this series.

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