Longtime hip-hop fans were saddened last week to hear of the passing of Bronx rapper Tim Dog. Always brash and entertaining, his cult-classic 1991 album, Penicillin On Wax, and legendary feud with N.W.A made him one of hip-hop's all-time ballers. The world was reminded of his greatness last summer when NBC's Dateline dedicated a two-hour episode to covering the allegations of Tim Dog defrauding various women for thousands of dollars, leading to a full-fledged, hip-hop social-media explosion that was nothing short of an event.
Tim Dog leaves behind a one-of-a-kind legacy, with some of the most memorably over-the-top verses in rap history. We at the Weekly are paying our respects by looking back at some of his most disrespectful moments. Here are our choices for Tim Dog's Most Outrageous Songs.
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5. “Dog's Gonna Get'cha”
While repetition in rap songs has its roots within the call-and-response crowd participation of house and block parties, it has never quite matched the menacing intensity as displayed on Tim Dog's “Dog's Gonna Get'cha.” The sheer berserk rage he taps into is not only startlingly visceral, but also breaks numerous unspoken rules of recording a rap song (staying on beat, concluding one's rhyme at the end of the line) to show how much trouble whoever the Dog wanted to get was in. Even his random references were menacing, boasting, “Freddy Krueger can't fuck with me/and I'm starring in Halloween 3.” Granted, the third Halloween film had already been out for years by that point, but you better believe reminding anyone of Season of the Witch would, in turn, mean the “Dog's Gonna Get'cha.”
4. “You Ain't Shit” (heard at 19:13)
While the average hip-hop guidebook would remember Tim Dog primarily as a catalyst of the East Coast-West Coast feud, it should be noted that Tim Dog hated pretty much everyone. While he does mention enjoying Ice Cube, Ice-T and Public Enemy's work on Penicillin On Wax, just about every other hip-hop entity finds itself in Tim Dog's crosshairs. On “You Ain't Shit,” Tim Dog takes shots at Kid-N-Play, Young MC, Kwame and even the idea of Afrocentric positive-message hip-hop as a whole. Furthering the confusion is his adding a “Peace to the Zulu Nation” at the song's end.
3. “Going Wild In the Penile”
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Politicians and concerned parents have accused rap music of glorifying prison stints for years. There's nothing glamorous about Tim Dog's “Going Wild In the Penile,” which describes every aspect of why jail's no fun. From getting into fights to being hit on to uncomfortable bus rides to less-than-optimal television-watching conditions, it's a vivid account that projects the type of horror no “Scared Straight” special could hope to emulate. It does, however, offer some great tips on how to keep sweet-talking your girl over the phone while beating up a prison guard.
2. “Secret Fantasies”
When Kool Keith isn't the most absurdly, sexually deviant presence on your record, you know you've kicked an explicit verse. Years before Biggie unleashed “Dreams (of Fucking' an R&B Bitch),” Tim Dog penned a wildly inappropriate vision of what he would do in a room alone with En Vogue. While he does strive for an element of realism (it's not initially an ideal circumstance, as one member needs to “douche”), he also accounts for how each and every act went down (“she took it in the butthole/she took it quite well”). We at the Weekly challenge you to try to get through Tim Dog's verse without smiling. We doubt you'll make it past the way he says, “Oops!”
1. “Fuck Compton”
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In 1991, N.W.A was the most intimidating and feared group on the planet. Tim Dog had the Epcot-sized balls to record an incendiary dis record on which he repeatedly disses the crew by name and offers an unmistakable dis to their city. Propelled by a claustrophobic video that shows several N.W.A trademarks being destroyed, as well as Tim Dog doing his best impression of Dr. Dre's then-girlfriend before dissing her, it's a haunting banger that still knocks two decades later. N.W.A responded by suing Tim Dog for not clearing an N.W.A sample on his record. Tim Dog also dissed Superman, but DC Comics remained silent on the issue.
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Long live R.I.P Tim Dog ✊🏽 👑