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By now, you've no doubt heard Jibbs' single Chain Hang Low. In August, the song was the number one rap download on Itunes and the video was in heavy rotation on all of the music video channels. Its now October, and the song maintains much of its popularity. I have to admit I don't care for the song, as I find the hook annoying and the lyrics entirely generic. Some information about the song itself has come to light in the past couple of weeks that makes me dislike the song even more.
Chain Hang Low was suspect from the beginning due to the fact that the hook is based on an old minstrel song, Zip Coon. Zip Coon, which is another name for the coon caricature of the slavery era, was made popular during the 1800s by singers in blackface. You can read the lyrics and hear the music for Zip Coon here.
The mimicking of minstrelsy in rap music seems to be a developing movement in hip hop these days, so I wasn't entirely surprised to hear about the origins of Jibbs' single. For his part, Jibbs claims he was not aware of the song's blackface era origins, but with all of the people that get involved in the development of a hit single these days, you would expect that someone in his camp was aware of it before the song was released.
Two weeks after news of the minstrel roots of the song surfaced in the New York Times, Jibbs has now been accused of stealing the idea for the song from a group of pre-teen rappers. 3KZ, a group of three girls from Trenton, NJ, claim they created the song "Pants Hang Low" almost four years ago. Like Jibbs' Chain Hang Low, their song is essentially a recreation of "Ears Hang Low", the child-friendly version of Zip Coon. Listen to both of the tracks side-by-side:
Comparison of Chain Hang Low / Pants Hang Low
Any song that bases its melody and lyrics on Ears Hang Low is going to sound similar, so it becomes a question of whether 3KZ created their song first, and if Jibbs heard their song before creating Chain Hang Low. I got in touch with 3KZ and asked them if they had any proof that they made their song before Jibbs. This is the response I got from them:
"YEA WE DO HAVE SOME PROOF. WE HAVE EARLIER VERSIONS OF THE SONG FRM WAY BACK N THE DAY. WE WROTE THE SONG WHEN WE WERE ABOUT 10, 8, AND 6 AND NOW WE ARE 14, 12, AND 10."
Not exactly rock solid evidence, but I assume they are saving any substantial proof that they might have for their inevitable court case against Jibbs.
As for whether or not Jibbs was influenced by the 3KZ song, its hard to say. Listening to the hook on Chain Hang Low and then comparing it with the 3KZ song, its undeniable that they sound alike. Music royalty cases have been won over less similarities than that. The melody for the original Ears Hang Low is so basic, though, that its not surprising the Jibbs and 3KZ songs are nearly identical. My guess is that, if 3KZ does have physical evidence that they produced their song 3 years ago, Jibbs will be making some sort of settlement with them in the near future.
In the end, I have to give Jibbs himself a pass on all of this. As an (alleged) 15 year old, I would imagine he doesn't have much control over his career and the music he produces. His manager and the executives at Geffen records are the ones to blame. (Then again, looking at this picture on his myspace page, if he really is 15 he would have fathered that child at the age of 11. Not impossible, but not likely either. However, that's an issue for another post.)
3KZ has recently put together a video for their song Pants Hang Low, presumably to draw attention to their case. You can watch the 3Kz video for Pants Hang Low here. If you still haven't had enough of Ears Hang Low remixes, go watch Jibbs' video for Chain Hang Low.
10/5/2006 10:45:39 AM posted by Fresh