The Epic:

After multiple requests by YouTube user Niyok671 to try a song by Ludacris protegee Trina, I embarked upon covering the duo's "B R Right." The verses alone constitute more than 600 words, which were pretty damn hard to memorize and keep in the proper order. But the real challenge of this one was the last verse, which is not so much a verse at all as an arhythmic spoken word section.

The Drunk:

After a kitschy nod to early '90s rap with "Monie In the Middle" I set out to challenge myself with a song by a fast-paced, highly-regarded rapper. A quick Google search brought me to an overwhelming favorite of hip-hop fans, Bone Thugs-n-Harmony's Krayzie Bone, and I randomly chose his verse from the Chamillionaire song "Ridin'." I practiced for a bit, and spontaneously decided to record my attempt after coming home tipsy from a party one night. This was my first try, which I considered pretty good, considering my blood alcohol content.

The Slutty One:

In June, 2010 I found myself on vacation in Ocean City, Maryland, where I was staying in a condo with no air conditioning as the thermostat tipped past 100 and the barometer hovered around 98%. B.O.B.'s "Airplanes" was all over the radio, and I wanted to try Eminem's verses from "Airplanes Part 2" while the song was still on top. I forced myself to rap through the heat, which required that I do so in my bathing suit. Covered in sweat with my boobs hanging out, but with a cold that left me sounding like Bea Arthur, I decided to record the song as I was. Based on the whorish thumbnail, the video immediately began to get 30 times the views of my other videos. However, when viewers found me rapping in a deeper voice than Eminem's, they reacted with mixed reviews. This video continues to get more hits daily than some of my other videos have gotten in 6 months.

The Ugly Evolution:

Between December, 2009 and March, 2010 I continued to experiment with songs that were recommended to me, and a few I found on my own as I attempted to expand my awareness of hip-hop. I tried out verses by Eminem, 50 Cent, Har Mar Superstar, Dyme Def, Lupe Fiasco and Ludacris, with varying degrees of success. The feedback I got, whether positive or negative, almost universally commented on my unwillingness to move or blink. What I considered "performance art" was, to everyone else, just bad rapping. I decided to further the weirdness by doing this Talib Kweli verse with no makeup on, in an ugly shirt, holding onto my roommate's Chihuahua Ebineezer (also wearing an ugly shirt). While it doesn't stand up visually, the video marks the first time I began to "get in the groove" of real rapping.

The Medley:

In December, 2009 I decided to start a YouTube page dedicated to these strange rap videos I was making. My first song under this banner was Drake's "Forever" which features one verse each by Drake, Kanye, Lil Wayne and Eminem. Perhaps I had lofty aspirations, but I tried it anyway. This time, I actually did all the verses in one take, but was afraid people wouldn't want to sit through the choruses, so I was dumb enough to edit those out (erringly making it look like I may have done multiple takes of each verse). Note the continued semi-catatonic state. When (understandably) asked in the comments, "What are you doing?" I responded only, "performance art."

The Challenge:

When I showed NameBrand my "Centerpiece" tribute to him, he laughed and said I should try doing a Jay-Z song. So I took his challenge and did this, "Empire State of Mind." I was not confident enough to do it straight through, so I split it up by verses and did them one at a time. I didn't know what to do with my eyes, face and body, so I just stared straight ahead, almost catatonic. I did not realize that my concentration led me to blink approximately zero times, but the viewers certainly noticed. Some even assumed that my stare was due to the fact that I was using one of those little computer teleprompters, but this could not have been further from the truth. Ironically, I was concentrating on remembering the words so hard that people actually thought I was just reading them.

The Virgin Rapper:

I had never so much as sung along with a rap song before. I didn't listen to hip-hop; all I knew of it was what friends and the radio told me. But then my friend Rami Dearest started an incredible band called Electrolightz with his cohorts eRoc (the DJ/producer), Barry Romance (the percussionist) and NameBrand (the rapper). I instantly loved their fresh blend of electronic, pop and hip-hop. I listened to their song "Centerpiece" so many times - staying up all night watching everything on the E-lightz YouTube page - that at about 7 am, I realized I could do the rap along with the song. So I hit record in iMovie, and such was the birth of White Chick Raps.