These factors would go on to define the “genre,” inasmuch as you can even call it a genre, of acoustic rap covers. But Dynamite Hack’s cover has qualities that its predecessors lack: parodic sensibilities, unabashed usage of racial slurs, comic juxtaposition of soft instrumentation and explicit lyrics. According to a 2000 writeup in The Austin Chronicle, the song was a massive hit on Napster, though it was often mistakenly credited to Phish.ĭ-Hack weren’t even the first rock band to cover “Boyz-N-The-Hood.” The Red Hot Chili Peppers made a very abridged, decidedly non-acoustic version a live staple during their 1989-90 tour. As other devotees of ’90s gangsta rap, alternative music, and/or raunchy campfire singalongs may or may not remember, alt-country band the Gourds (coincidentally also from Austin, Texas) recorded a twangy version of Snoop Dogg’s “Gin And Juice” in 1996. Technically, Dynamite Hack’s take on Eazy-E wasn’t the first acoustic cover of a hip-hop song, if such a thing can even be determined. One Caddyshack-inspired video later, it became the band’s commercial high-water mark.
“Boyz” was released as Superfast’s lead single. So instead of singing crappy lyrics, I started singing ‘Boyz-N-The-Hood.’ Chad came in the room and was like ‘Oh, that’s awesome. “Every lyric was, ‘Oh, I love you,’ and it just wasn’t working. The flukey hit has an origin story to match: “I had this guitar riff that was probably going to end up being a very stupid, shallow love song,” Morris said in the same interview quoted above. Outside of their biggest hit, the Austin-based four-piece play punk-tinged alternative rock, easily slotted alongside Blink-182, the Offspring, Harvey Danger, or almost anyone else in the sea of late-’90s, early-’00s radio rockers. This was an act that lasted just over three minutes - a well-informed one, considering the band’s fondness for both N.W.A and golf culture spoofs (“dynamite hack” is one of many nicknames Bill Murray’s Carl Spackler gives his weed in Caddyshack) - but otherwise, it was a complete departure from their norm. Watch more of their music videos or live performances and you won’t see the sweater-vest-clad preps they play in the “Boyz In The Hood” clip. Peruse the rest of Dynamite Hack’s breakout album, Superfast, and you won’t find any other nods to hip-hop. The past 20 years, however, have shown just how banal acoustic rap covers can be.
The cover, an acoustic pop-rock take on the late-’80s gangsta rap classic, has been called a lot of things in its lifespan - notably, one of the 50 worst songs of the 2000s by The Village Voice - but rarely has it been called “genius.” Perhaps a better descriptor, at least at the time of the song’s release, would be “novel.” In 2000, setting Eazy’s streetwise day-in-the-life tales to “sweet music,” as Morris called it, was intriguing enough to rocket the song to #12 on Billboard’s Modern Rock Tracks chart and make its irony-driven video a mainstay on MTV. That’s Dynamite Hack frontman Mark Morris, discussing his band’s cover of Eazy-E’s “Boyz-N-The-Hood,” released 20 years ago this month. Honestly, I really didn’t think about it that much.” “Some people tell me I’m a genius… that I’m forcing white America to listen to the problems of black America, that I’m tricking them into listening to the song by putting it to this sweet music.