Kids Today

Blake Hounshell draws our attention to a distressing trend:

A teenage rap duo in Chicago has recorded a track, aptly called "The Economist," that extols the British publication's breadth and brevity and samples podcast commentary by correspondents Edward Lucas and Anthony Gottlieb.

"The style in which they write is simple and concise, how do they get their sentences so precise?" the rappers wonder.

The answer, of course, is "heavy-handed editing" facilitated by lack of bylines.

Comments

Just noticed the ad for your book over on the TPM, and that they actually misspelled Ezra's name in the blurb.

For some reason, this makes me very happy.

Posted by nolaboyd | May 6, 2008 9:49 AM

The theory I'll run with is that these two ne'er-do-welling rappers are so enamored by The Economist because they are from Chicago. I mean, The Economist can't report on a cultural event in Tajikstan without finding some way to play grab-ass with the Chicago School.

Posted by bend | May 6, 2008 9:54 AM

Definitely, rapping in favor of right wingnut publications like the Economist is a disturbing trend . . .

Posted by rea | May 6, 2008 10:15 AM

This is all Joey Ramone's fault. He started it with "Maria Bartiromo."

Posted by nitpicker | May 6, 2008 10:35 AM

Definitely, rapping in favor of right wingnut publications like the Economist is a disturbing trend .

WTF?!?! The Economist is now considered "right wingnut? The Economist is better described as center-right (or is is centre-right?). It's pretty shamelessly pro-free markets, but it's pretty socially liberal and not supportive of random wars of aggression.

Posted by Mo | May 6, 2008 10:37 AM

Wow. Nas was right. Hip hop is dead. Long live nerdcore.

Posted by Paul | May 6, 2008 10:55 AM

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't The Economist endorse Kerry over Bush in 04? That hardly qualifies as "right wingnut".

Posted by matt foley | May 6, 2008 12:50 PM

Proof that the liberal establishment is out of touch with the rapping younger generation. If only McCain could directly deliver a message to America's youth why America must remain committed to Iraq in the only language their drug-addled brains will understand: the language of rap.

Posted by jpsousa | May 6, 2008 1:06 PM

I can't believe someone beat me to a Chicago School joke (mine was going to be: "Hey kids, tired of that Old School rap? Well listen to this--its CHICAGO SCHOOL rap!").

So I will have to content myself with this:

All right stop! Don't regulate and listen:
Friedman is back with a brand new invention.
Deadly, when I derive a dope theory,
Anything less than a Nobel goes to John Kenny.
Sequential sampling, I rock statistics like a vandal.
Light up fiscal policy, and wax Keynes like a candle.
If there is a problem, yo, the markets will solve it;
Check out the recession while the money suppy resolves it.

Yo man, I'm out of here. Word to George Stigler!

Posted by DTM | May 6, 2008 1:39 PM

How long before the Economist rappers start feuding with the Financial Times rappers?

Posted by blah | May 6, 2008 1:43 PM

I like the Penguin Cafe Orchestra sample

Posted by Ron Mashate | May 6, 2008 1:54 PM

This rap should be laid over the SNL "Chronicles of Narnia" video.

Posted by TedL | May 6, 2008 2:16 PM

DTM,
if it's any consolation, yours is considerably better than mine.

Posted by bend | May 6, 2008 2:29 PM

I generally had the feeling reading The Economist in 2003 that they backed the Iraq War. The tone they used for describing anti-war liberals is the same tone they used to describe anyone to the left of Hayek on economics.

Posted by Reality Man | May 6, 2008 2:54 PM

" [The Economist is] not supportive of random wars of aggression."

Huh? What about their cover some years ago covering Afghanistan which said, in big letters, "A tragic but necessary war"?

Posted by Maynard Handley | May 6, 2008 4:08 PM

Maynard.... wow, just wow....

Afghanistan isn't "random wars of aggression". The 9-11 attack was orchestrated from there?

Posted by scottynx | May 6, 2008 9:52 PM

This is nothing new. Back in the '80s, NWA recorded a whole album about National Review.

Posted by jim@ | May 7, 2008 11:07 AM

first, i'm blown away that people are trying to characterize the economist as a right wing publication. i'm pretty liberal, but i think it's hands down the best news magazine out there. and i thought this song was hilarious; it's junior varsity MC Paul Barman, but entertaining nonetheless.

Posted by daniel | May 7, 2008 1:20 PM

What's so damn distressing? The Economist kicks ass, stands for freedom and tells it like it is in a wonderfully clipped and smug (in a good way) tone. The Iraq war support was a huge letdown, but with the astonishing number of 'liberal hawks' that fell for the whole thing, its hard to blame them too much. Calling them right wing nuts is typical 'netroots' crap.

Posted by Rohit Thombre | May 7, 2008 2:17 PM

Attention world: it's called smartcore, and I've been talking about it for ten years now. Just sayin'...

Posted by Angry Sam | May 8, 2008 12:24 AM