In 2008, Joaquin Phoenix pretended to go crazy. He grew a hobo beard and decided to quit acting for two years to pursue a rap career. The entire world bought into his batshit insane character and he became the laughing stock of Hollywood. In 2011, James Franco began teaching a class at Columbia University about James Franco, which one would imagine, covers his recurring role on General Hospital as an artist named “Franco.” Everyone agreed that James Franco enjoys masturbating in ways thirteen-year-old boys can only imagine.
Also in 2009, Riff Raff was introduced to the world on the reality show G’s to Gents. The show attempted to refine G’s into functional members of society, with Fonzworth Bentley serving as parole officer by proxy. Unfortunately, Riff Raff was eliminated in two episodes for being so ridiculous that he made a former pimp and a dude with the name “A-Felon” seem respectable by comparison.
Joaquin Phoenix’s fake rap career wasn’t about how shitty he was at rap. The interesting bit about the whole thing was how the media reacted to him quitting acting and turning into a deranged beard enthusiast. Similarly, James Franco’s obsession with himself is more about exploring celebrity than whatever the fuck he teaches you in his class about himself. This is performance art. It’s art concerned with manipulating reality to create a challenging or compelling experience. The wild thing is, Riff Raff might be on the same Museum of Modern Art, media manipulation wave as the other two dudes.
The skeptical among you doubt that a dude who looks like an E dealer at a rave and named himself after trash (or a cartoon cat, shoutout Heathcliff) could possibly make anything resembling art. To be fair, a lot of people who’ve listened to his musical output, still don’t believe that the dude is making anything anyone should call art. They may be haters though, and as such they should be disrespected. To listen to Riff Raff’s music in isolation is like randomly attending one of Franco’s classes on Franco — it’s a cool experience but you’re a white rice short of a beef and broccoli lunch special.
Riff Raff functions on two distinct levels—Riff Raff the person and Riff Raff the rapper. Riff Raff the person is a comedic construction that rest somewhere between Chris Farley, Kenny Powers and that white dude that took too many shrooms and still wears Sean John and Phat Farm gear. This Riff Raff makes wild amounts of Youtube videos where he takes trips to Brazil to brag about seasoning salt (see above), tells stories about Alicia Keys shitting in cups on a dare, and instructs you on how to be disrespectful to haters by wearing colorful shorts. He also hangs out with the likes of Andy Milonakis, V-Nasty and former MTV VJ Simon Rex (now Dirt Nasty).
Riff Raff the person is fucking hilarious in the same way Will Ferrell’s characters are, you can’t help but watch them and wonder if it was one big bad life choice that lead them to their delusion or if they’re the result of a glacially paced divorce from reality. Think of Ricky Bobby from Talladega Nights, Ron Burgundy from Anchorman or Danny McBride’s Kenny Powers from Eastbound and Down and then you begin to see what Riff Raff is doing with his persona.
Be clear though, Riff Raff’s comedy is deliberate. It’s not, as many anonymous YouTube users claim, that he’s “fucking retarded.” Dude’s humor instead is dependant on a lot of very specific cultural references. His “Brazilian Adventure” videos — which I’m pretty sure, are shot in Houston — seem entirely random and insane if you’re not already familiar with the “Been Had…” meme of videos that he’s riffing on. The same can be said for his “Eating a Lobster and Shrimp Dinner” video with Dirt Nasty—where they marvel at the wonders of a business class hotel in Cleveland. This joints make little sense if you’re not familiar with the rather obscure mid 90s SNL “Bill Brasky” series of skits, where drunk Midwestern businessmen exaggerate the exploits of a never seen Bill Brasky. Be sure to note, Riff Raff’s TV is running the menu from Anchorman on repeat during his “Brazilian Adventures” videos. While you may not be into Riff Raff’s humor, it’s clear that this dude is far from “retarded” as said detractors would claim.
Riff Raff the rapper is a different beast. For most of his relatively short career — he didn’t start rapping til about ‘09 — he’s been a competent Houston rapper who occasionally get’s lazy with the freestyles. But, when he’s been on, technically he’s no worse than a Mike Jones or Paul Wall. As a rapper he’s largely been less funny and weird than as a persona, but if you dig southern rap you could do worse. Recently though, Riff Raff has started to bring the rice out — his coined expression for excellence at all things — and make tracks that bring in the weirdness of his persona paired with an off kilter delivery. His style has become a bit of an abstracted pastiche that sounds like you cut up a normal verse and only kept nouns and random adjectives that rhymed. Check his verse from the epic collaboration with Action Bronson “Bird On a Wire” where he drops:
“Gucci towels and bathroom vows/ Now’s owls(?)/ Aston Martin, sparking one in valet parking/ Loan sharking/ Hoping that my days don’t get dark/ In cheetah skin/ outside the park, a propaganda/ Propellers, Ostrich feathers/ Security guard with nine Berettas…”
To most heads that sounds like the ramblings of schizophrenic, but if you dissect it he could easily be painting a picture of rolling up a blunt in a luxurious hotel room then smoking it in the parking lot while talking shit in dead animal adorned clothing. If you think, that “Bird On a Wire” was somehow a miraculous one off of goodness, check “Buns” where Riff Raff conveys a similar abstract picture of tough guy elegance with the lines:
“Diamonds in ya sight/ Make her wanna fight/ Take a flight gone for half a night/ 40 tabs of angel dust…/Camp look like savages/ Swords barbarian/ Cream seats Bavarian, condo in Barbados”
When you take Riff Raff the rapper, together with Riff Raff the persona you get a much stronger effect — like orange juice and E pills. You end up with an experience that becomes less about Riff Raff singularly as an amazing rapper or a funny dude. Experienced as a whole, there’s a unique interplay between his raps and his videos, that leaves you with inside jokes that don’t really exist with anyone — ie. after you hear Riff Raff’s Alicia Keys shitting in a cup story, his mention of her in “iCU” becomes an unintentional (?) punch line. In this way, Riff Raff’s entire existence becomes a weirdly elaborate piece of fiction played out over YouTube and an increasing amount of other mediums.
It’s as if Danny McBride played out his “too weird for real life” Kenny Powers character by joining a real AAA baseball team instead of starting an HBO show. The scary thing is, while Danny McBride will never learn how to throw a 100 mile an hour fast ball, Riff Raff is actually getting good at rap.
An odd coda to Riff Raff’s continuing multimedia performance, is his involvement in Gummo & Kids director Harmony Korine’s Springbreakers. Riff Raff was originally intended to play a part in Korine’s new movie starring Selena Gomez, Vanessa Hudgens and Gucci Mane (what?), but he has been replaced — due to a scheduling conflict — by James Franco channeling Riff Raff. With Franco portraying Riff Raff, we have two different performance art pieces crossing over and before this movie shows a second of footage it’s already deep into “snake eating it’s own tail” territory. I guess James Franco is now the art game Riff Raff.
While we await as this all enters film, go grab Riff Raff’s latest, Rap Game Larry Bird in the meantime.
