Hip Hop Fact Checker: Treach

Artist: Treach of Naughty By Nature

Claim: "So clap your hands and hold your shorty" from "Feel Me Flow" (1995)

Breakdown: Treach is suggesting that we, one, "Clap your hands" which is pretty easy for most able bodied people to accomplish. Two, he asks us to "hold your shorty" which, again, is a fairly thoughtless task to do.

However, the tough part comes when the two tasks are being asked to be done at the simultaneously. Clapping one's hands and holding onto their wife/girlfriend at the same time would be very difficult.

Perhaps he is asking that we sit and hold onto said female with our legs while clapping hands? Maybe the claps are very weak as the wrist on up of the arms are holding onto said "shorty"?  Maybe there is a device, such as a rope or a ratchet tie-down invloved?

Conclusion: Yes, we can clap our hands and hold our shorty, but it will be very awkward and/or very demanding.

Hip Hop Fact Checker: B-Real

Artist: B-Real of Cypress Hill

Claim: "Inhale, exhale, just got an ounce in the mail" from Black Sunday's "Hits From The Bong" (1993)

Breakdown: Everyone inhales and then exhales, that's basic human physiology. As far as the ounce in the mail, the United States Postal Service can ship packages as light as a letter and as heavy as 100+ pounds. They will deliver it to any approved address, including B-Real's location.

Given B-Real and Cypress Hill's penchant for marijuana, we are assuming this ounce is the green stuff. And as the late comedian Mitch Hedberg once said, "my mailman is my drug dealer, he just doesn't know it."

Conclusion: B-Real did get an ounce in the mail.

Hip Hop Fact Checker: Big Daddy Kane

Artist: Big Daddy Kane

Claim: A champ like Tyson, a Captain like Kirk, no
Employee of the Month, cause yo, I do work. (From "I Get The Job Done" )

Breakdown: We poured over the boxing groups WBA, WBC, and IBF rankings from the bulk of Kane’s career, and there is no mention of either ‘Big Daddy Kane’ or ‘Antonio Hardy’ as holding any championship belts in any weight class. However, he might’ve held a lesser belt, but given he wasn’t ranked by the three major federations, that is highly unlikely.

Next we contacted the local Star Trek aficionados who run Star Con and they checked the Star Federation’s logs to see if Big Daddy Kane was a Captain of any of the Enterprise's counterpart ships. No matches were found. He received no commission from the Starfleet Academy that would be required of any Captain.

As far as BDK being an ‘Employee of the Month’, this is hard to verify, but given that he was a full fledged rap star, it would be hard for him to hold any type of job in which he could garner such an accolade.

Conclusion: Big Daddy Kane was neither a champion, a captain, nor an employee of the month.

Hip Hop Fact Checker: Funkdoobiest

Artist: Funkdoobiest (Son Doobie)

Claim: "Cause I cause disasters like the Dukes of Hazard" from "Bow Wow Wow"

Breakdown: First, we have to question whether Bo and Luke Duke, residents of Hazzard County, did cause any actual disasters. As far as a true disaster (along the lines of flooding, an immense fire, a hurricane, a massive terrorist attack, or any other calamity that causes millions of dollars in damage) the backwoods means of the Dukes would be hard pressed to cause any such disaster. Hell, the two barely held a job, how could they fund a terror operation? That said, they did wreak havoc on the county's law enforcement structure. Massive damage to the police department's cruiser fleet was inflicted from 1979 to 1985 by the Dukes, as well as mental anguish to the leaders of the county and substantial damage to the seemingly endless amount of uncompleted bridge work in the county. Son Doobie was never known for any such mayhem, in fact, at the time he was too young to drive the General Lee which caused much of the said "disasters."

Conclusion: Son Doobie did not cause disasters like the Dukes of Hazard.

Hip Hop Fact Checker: Shock G

Song: "I Get Around"

Artist: Shock G

Claim: "I’m Shock G, the one who put the satin on your panties"

Breakdown: The first part of the rhyme is correct, he is in fact Shock G. Although he is also Humpty Hump and also is known as Greg Jacobs in the eyes of the government. However, there is no evidence to suggest that Shock G is any sorts of tailor or seamstress capable of putting satin on women's undergarments. Given that most textile manufacturing is done in the Far East and done for for very menial wages, it is highly unlikely that Shock G would leave his lucrative enterprise of Hip Hop in the early 90s to toil in an overseas factory.

Conclusion: Shock G did not put the satin on anyone's panties.

Hip Hop Fact Checker: Phife

Song: "Award Tour"

Artist: A Tribe Called Quest (Phife Dawg)

The Claim: "Comin with more hits than the Braves and the Yankees"

Breakdown: By our count A Tribe Called Quest had eight tracks that could be considered a "hit" (each of the first three albums singles.) Another six-seven album tracks ("Butter", "Suck N*gga", et al) could be considered a "hit" and a few remixes ("Scenario Remix".) Phife himself had one single off his solo debut that generated a little buzz, 2000's "Flawless." In addition, Phife also had a cameo on the Fu-Schnickens' bangin 1992 hit "La Shmoove" as well as the classic "Buddy Remix" from De La Soul. All in all, we'll give Phife a total of 19 hits.

The Braves (14) and Yankees (9) hit total from last night easily exceed Phife's total number of hits. However, if we take the Braves and Yankees hit total from their last regular season game of 1993 (Midnight Marauders wasn't released until November of that year) one would see the Yankees had four hits; two coming from 2B Pat Kelly) and the Braves belted out 12 hits versus the year one version of your Colorado Rockies (including one by Mr. Halle Barry himself, David Justice, his 40th.) The Yankees and Braves hit total on that day was a combined 16.

Conclusion: Phife did, in fact, come with more hits than the Braves and the Yankees.