Rented Lamborghini? Check. Overwhelming use of AutoTune? Check. LiveStrong bracelet? Check. Toronto's Mike Lickver, recent law school grad and current mergers and acquisitions, securities and corporate finance associate at Bennett Jones, may be North America's very best living example of That Guy.

Peggy Noonan. White. A white woman, yes, a Manhattanite, but a vital white woman, a woman of opinions, of breathing, of warbling on Sunday talk shows, about America—this America. This country. This great city, New York, where Peggy Noonan sips a gin fizz, contemplates that good American, Ronald Reagan (yes, a good…

Rap lyrics do not equal endorsements, but that doesn't mean Nicki Minaj's apparent affection for Mitt Romney won't raise eyebrows.

"I Gotsta Get Paid," the new single from ZZ Top's first album after a decade-long hiatus, may sound familiar to fans of 1990s Houston crack rap. That's because it's a cover of Texas rapper DJ DMD's much beloved "25 Lighters," an ode the practice of gutting Bic lighters to hide crack cocaine in them. ZZ Top guitarist…

Were you one of the 49 million people on the internet who watched that "Gangnam Style" video from the South Korean rapper PSY and wondered what the hell was going on? Max Fisher at The Atlantic has an excellent explainer about the "subversive message" of the video today.

Several costumed pugs perform Bone-Thugz-N-Harmony's "1st of tha Month." I usually have a fairly low tolerance for, you know, this kind of thing, but, come on. Bone-Pugz-n-Harmony! [via Harris Wittels]

Here's the follow-up to middle-aged casino executive Allen Samuel's debut, "One of the Worst Rap Videos Ever Made." This one here is called, ah, "An Equally Painful Rap Video That Never Should Have Been Made, This One With Some 'Economic' Angle or, Christ, Who Even Knows."

We do too, AARP. We do too.

Why did Jay-Z and Beyoncé name their kid "Blue Ivy"? What was the deal with Madonna's Super Bowl halftime show? Why did Whitney Houston die? Some people might say that "famous people are weird and sad" is the answer to all three questions. But no, the answer is: The Illuminati. Who? Allow us to explain.

Here's Nicki Minaj, pre-Young Money signing, pre-"Super Bass," pre-pink hair, pre-Super bowl, pre-nonstop mugging, pre-stupid voices, walking through Queens and rapping over a Terror Squad beat. Pretty fun. [via Hypetrak]

Last Friday, Murk Avenue's Donovan Strain changed the internet with a rigorously-researched theory: the "good day" of Ice Cube's 1993 classic "It Was a Good Day" took place on January 20, 1992. But did he get some facts wrong? Mike B. of Lahatiel enters the most important intellectual debate of the 21st century with…

"The World Is Yours," Nas.

Here's Bill O'Reilly and Bernie Goldberg, arguing about who is the the most white person on the planet, and who is a "brother," based largely on who can accurately distinguish between two famous black men. I had a long rant planned about how embarrassing and irritating it is when white people play the "who's…

An American hero by the name of Rich Jones has obtained and published the entire 94-page FBI file of Ol' Dirty Bastard, the Wu-Tang Brooklynnnn Zuhh member who died of a wildness overdose in 2004. Some select highlights are below. [Click to enlarge the images]

We've explained time and time again that you should put down the camera and not make that rap video. Apparently some clarification is in order: This goes for web startups, too. In fact, web startups should avoid music videos of any sort.

It doesn't matter whether sonorous squirrel Justin Bieber is good at rapping. It doesn't matter if, as rumored, his supposed freestyles are actually ghost-written and pre-rehearsed. If Justin Bieber wants to rap, he will rap, and the world will listen.

Columbia Journalism School kids exploring "The Elements of Style" in hip hop form? Don't make that rap video.

A Northwestern University student-tipster who's enrolled in the same American history class as Chet Haze—the rapping, acting, West Side (of Evanston)-dominating consequence of Tom Hanks' potent ejaculate—passed along this email that Haze sent across a listserv at 4 AM this morning:

Melanin-deficient battle rapper Mac Lethal's pancake-focused cover of Chris Brown's "Look At Me Now"—which he recorded while making pancakes—has garnered nearly half a million views since being uploaded to YouTube about 24 hours ago. Why? Because as you'll see above, it's amazing. But also: because it hit the top of…