Did you know the Ice Cream Man is directly tied to hip-hop? We’re here to tell our story.
There's 2 things loved by every hood anywhere in the country -- Hip-Hop and the Ice Cream Truck. Whether it’s Mr. Softee, Mr. Freeze, Good Humor or any of our bootleg ghetto creations -- from The Bronx to Compton to The A -- the sound of the ice cream truck coming down the street was a rolling, refreshing mirage from the sweltering summer heat.
Hip Hop and ice cream's love affair can be seen in movies, videos and in rap lyrics. Gucci Mane even put a tattoo on his face. But just like the inside of a project elevator, the original ice cream song stinks like day-old piss.
Now we come to find out that the song the hood made racist was actually already racist! In the 1830s, minstrel-show performer George Washington Dixon popularized a song called “Zip Coon” that had a familiar tune and some undeniably racist lyrics.
That song grew popular in ice cream parlors around the turn of the century, and subsequently became synonymous with ice cream trucks. Then in 1916, vaudeville actor Harry C. Browne wrote an even more racist version of the song called “N**ger Love A Watermelon, Ha Ha Ha!”
Iconic hood ice brand Good Humor, recently decided to hit pause on their favorite ice cream truck melody and hired The RZA to invent a new sound. The new song can be heard in ice cream trucks rolling around hoods nationwide this summer.
And that’s just a little on the history on Hip-Hop & The Ice Cream Truck, SOHH YOU KNOW.
Read more at SOHH: https://www.sohh.com/rza-flips-racist-rooted-ice-cream-song-for-kids-adults-too/
#RZA #TheIceCreamTruckSong
#First #BOHH #BlackOwnedHipHop
SOHH on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sohhdotcom/
SOHH on Twitter: https://twitter.com/sohh
SOHH on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sohhdotcom
There's 2 things loved by every hood anywhere in the country -- Hip-Hop and the Ice Cream Truck. Whether it’s Mr. Softee, Mr. Freeze, Good Humor or any of our bootleg ghetto creations -- from The Bronx to Compton to The A -- the sound of the ice cream truck coming down the street was a rolling, refreshing mirage from the sweltering summer heat.
Hip Hop and ice cream's love affair can be seen in movies, videos and in rap lyrics. Gucci Mane even put a tattoo on his face. But just like the inside of a project elevator, the original ice cream song stinks like day-old piss.
Now we come to find out that the song the hood made racist was actually already racist! In the 1830s, minstrel-show performer George Washington Dixon popularized a song called “Zip Coon” that had a familiar tune and some undeniably racist lyrics.
That song grew popular in ice cream parlors around the turn of the century, and subsequently became synonymous with ice cream trucks. Then in 1916, vaudeville actor Harry C. Browne wrote an even more racist version of the song called “N**ger Love A Watermelon, Ha Ha Ha!”
Iconic hood ice brand Good Humor, recently decided to hit pause on their favorite ice cream truck melody and hired The RZA to invent a new sound. The new song can be heard in ice cream trucks rolling around hoods nationwide this summer.
And that’s just a little on the history on Hip-Hop & The Ice Cream Truck, SOHH YOU KNOW.
Read more at SOHH: https://www.sohh.com/rza-flips-racist-rooted-ice-cream-song-for-kids-adults-too/
#RZA #TheIceCreamTruckSong
#First #BOHH #BlackOwnedHipHop
SOHH on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sohhdotcom/
SOHH on Twitter: https://twitter.com/sohh
SOHH on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sohhdotcom
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MusicTranscript
00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 - More!
00:07 Go down some money!
00:10 The Ice Cream Man is coming!
00:14 - Did you know the Ice Cream Man
00:16 is directly tied into hip hop?
00:19 There have been years of references
00:22 made to the cold summer dessert,
00:24 and we're here to tell our story.
00:26 - The Ice Cream Man is, you know,
00:28 goes hand in hand with the hood.
00:30 There's two things that's loved
00:31 by every hood in America.
00:33 Hip hop and the ice cream truck.
00:37 Whether it be Mr. Softee or Mr. Freeze,
00:40 no, not that Mr. Freeze.
00:42 Or even good humor.
00:44 Everyone loves the ice cream truck sounds.
00:48 From the Compton, to the Bronx, to Atlanta.
00:52 There's nothing like that sound.
00:54 So, the Ice Cream Man.
00:56 - The Ice Cream Man was kinda like the hood Pied Piper.
01:00 - I could hear the jingle from the ice cream truck
01:05 17 flights up in the building that I lived in,
01:09 in the Bronx.
01:09 - In Seattle, we had our Ice Cream Man.
01:12 He kinda played like this hip hop beat,
01:14 like from the ice cream truck, right?
01:16 - Whatever you're doing, just stop dropping
01:17 and go get your ice cream or whatever.
01:19 - It was that, you know, do your ears hang low song.
01:23 But he was like, he slowed it down
01:25 and he kinda added the full extra bass
01:28 and just these little elements to it.
01:30 That it was kinda like, you know,
01:31 we had like the hip hop ice cream truck.
01:33 It was almost like a DJ screw, like chopped and screwed,
01:38 you know, but like this little kid song.
01:41 Like, so it was pretty funny looking back on it.
01:44 - Grab my little change and run downstairs
01:46 to get a treat from the ice cream truck.
01:48 - You would see the Ice Cream Man portrayed in movies
01:52 and videos.
01:54 [upbeat music]
01:56 - What you gonna do?
01:57 [upbeat music]
01:58 - Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey.
02:00 [upbeat music]
02:04 - What you want?
02:04 - What you got?
02:06 - Boy, what the fuck you want?
02:08 - Give me some chili Frito.
02:09 - Ice Cream Man for Master P.
02:11 ♪ Mr. Ice Cream Man ♪
02:12 ♪ Mr. Ice Cream Man ♪
02:14 ♪ Mr. Ice Cream Man ♪
02:17 - That was pretty big, you know,
02:18 and it was kinda like, not creepy,
02:20 but I guess it was just in a way saying
02:22 that everybody loves me like the Ice Cream Man, you know?
02:26 You also had Wu-Tang had the Ice Cream song
02:30 and you hear Method Man in the background.
02:32 ♪ The Ice Cream Man is coming ♪
02:35 ♪ Watch these rappers ♪
02:36 - Many other artists have made songs about ice cream,
02:40 including Tyga's Ice Cream Man,
02:43 Duro's Ice Cream Paint Job,
02:46 Sean Kingston's Ice Cream Girl,
02:49 and another track from Master P,
02:52 Selling Ice Cream.
02:53 Atlanta superstar Gucci Mane
02:57 even had an ice cream cone tattooed on his face.
03:01 [screaming]
03:03 - But just like the inside of a project elevator,
03:08 the original Ice Cream song stinks like a old piss.
03:13 - Back in the Bronx where I grew up,
03:15 whenever we would hear the ice cream truck,
03:17 we would come running
03:18 and we would actually sing a song
03:21 called Puerto Rican Ice Cream
03:22 because the Ice Cream Man was Puerto Rican.
03:25 So we would go,
03:26 ♪ Da da da da da da da da da ♪
03:29 ♪ Puerto Rican ice cream ♪
03:31 Now, I don't know, was that racist though?
03:33 [bell dings]
03:34 Yeah, that probably was racist.
03:36 Shout out to my Puerto Rican brothers and sisters.
03:38 I was 10, we didn't know we were 10.
03:40 - Now we've come to find out
03:43 that the song The Hood Made Racist
03:46 was actually already racist.
03:48 In the 1800s,
03:51 minstrel show performer George Washington Dixon
03:55 popularized a song called Zip Cone
03:59 that had a familiar tune
04:00 and some undeniably racist lyrics.
04:04 That song grew popular in ice cream parlors
04:09 around the turn of the century
04:11 and subsequently became synonymous with ice cream trucks.
04:16 Then in 1916,
04:20 vaudeville actor Harry C. Brown
04:23 wrote an even more racist version of the song
04:26 called Nigger Love a Watermelon Ha Ha Ha.
04:30 ♪ Nigger love a watermelon ha ha ha ♪
04:33 ♪ Nigger love a watermelon ha ha ha ♪
04:36 ♪ Burn it up ♪
04:37 ♪ The main twist and the number two ♪
04:38 ♪ That is nothing like the watermelon ♪
04:40 ♪ That's supposed to hurt your tooth ♪
04:41 ♪ Nigger love a watermelon ♪
04:42 - Ironically, hood humor recently decided to hit pause
04:46 on their favorite ice cream truck melody
04:49 and hired The RZA to invent a new sound.
04:53 Translation, we know Wu-Tang is for the children,
04:57 so we paid RZA to fix this shit
04:59 so that black Twitter don't cancel us.
05:01 The new song can be heard in ice cream trucks
05:05 rolling around hoods nationwide this summer.
05:09 (upbeat music)
05:11 (upbeat music)
05:14 Thanks RZA for the new song,
05:18 but I might still come running
05:20 when I hear the original ice cream song.
05:22 I'm sorry, it just hit different.
05:25 And that's just a little bit on the history
05:28 of ice cream and hip hop.
05:31 So you know.