Open Mike Eagle & Phonte, “Woke as Me” (Comedy Central Stand-Up)
Witness Open Mike Eagle and Little Brother member Phonte pulverize the old axiom that music and comedy don’t mix well, as the rappers battle for the biodegradable crown of whose satire is more fire. The biggest surprise here is that there was no “Kanye/quinoa” near-rhyme. The video by Lance Bangs is chockablock with hilarious reaction shots and a video-game subplot that enhances the wokeness theme; characters include “Hotep,” “Campus Crusader,” and “Info-Warrior.”
Musically, “Woke as Me” isn’t all that earth-shaking, but it doesn’t need to be. The plinky, ponderous production by Bionik is mainly there to offer an unobtrusive foundation upon which the two rappers can deal verbal body blows. And nearly all of ’em slap. Here are some good’uns by Open Mike Eagle: “I ain’t never been asleep, it’s excrucitiatin’/I’ve been woke so long I’m hallucinatin’/You say you woke, you just pretend to do it/I keepin’ all my pronouns gender-fluid”; “I know the planet fucked up and how it got that way/I only flush my toilet only once every gotdamn a day—I’m woke!”
Phonte’s retorts pack a wallop, too: “I don’t just rock the bells/I rock the bell hooks, in all lowercase, say her name, show her face/I been body-positive/Me and my hoes is overweight”; “Gentrifying all your hoods, your taxes gotta be murder/Come to your cook-out with kale and Impossible Burgers”; and best of all, “You thought toxic masculinity was new cologne/N*gga, you was wrong/I’m the antidote/My life’s so botanical/Green Party and I vote.”
Honestly, I can’t pick a winner here. Rare is the comedy sketch that keeps you laughing after four viewings. (And now I await the usual sour-ass commenters griping about how there’s no such thing as “woke comedy.”)
