De La Soul “Millie Pulled A Pistol On Santa”

5 Great Christmas Tunes That Aren’t Really In The Christmas Spirit

This song just has so many things going against it.

No one---absolutely no one---wants to hear a song about child molestation.

Sure, you can get tricked into it, with a catchy song featuring an interestingly named child (yes, I’m talking about “Luka”). But you’re not going out of your way to hear it.

Nor does anybody appreciate a holiday tune where someone gets violent with Santa. It’s just not in the Christmas spirit.

Just the title is going to make folks pass over this one: “Millie Pulled A Pistol On Santa”

But if you can get past all that, this is a masterfully told narrative, telling the story of Millie’s abuse at the hands of her Foster parent, recounted through the eyes of the classmates who had been dismissive of her accusations.

One of the things rap music can do much easier that some other forms of music, is incorporate other voices, to give a story multiple narrators, and paint a more vivid, nuanced landscape. (You wish it were a device more often, and more effectively, employed)

Another one not for the kids, but not to be missed (just maybe save it for after the Holidays).

Soul Coughing "Uh, Zoom Zip"

When people talk about the Landmark sample-based records that middle America latched on to, where is Soul Coughing in that discussion?

The Beastie Boys "Paul's Boutique," the first 3 Public Enemy albums and De La Soul's "Three Feet High And Rising" are all seminal, in terms of ridding the prejudice against samples and beats. They met with varying levels of commercial success, but they are all records that people returned to years later for ideas and examples.

"Ruby Vroom" should be part of that canon, and I can't figure out why it isn't. It's such a smart record and it one-ups the others mentioned above, with lots of live playing---real drumming, a heavy bottom stand-up bass groove, and dense, imaginative lyrics that you could spend hours and hours parsing out.

It's an under-appreciated classic, to my mind.

Hear "Uh Zoom Zip"