My Internet Friend, Riff Raff

A few months ago, VICE interviewed Riff Raff about a variety of subjects during his G's to Gents heyday. We decided to check in with him to see how he's doing, and to also find out how he feels about James Franco playing him in a movie. 

People tend to look at me funny when I tell them that Riff Raff is my favorite rapper. This is because even though he has appeared on an MTV show, is signed to Soulja Boy’s label, and has one of the best Twitter accounts in the universe, Riff Raff is not particularly famous. There is also the matter of his actual rapping, which is like listening to noise music or drinking straight turpentine.

Riff Raff is a white dude from Texas who has the BET logo tattooed on his neck, and raps sort of like a combination of Pimp C and a guy who would work at a tow truck company but does not enjoy his job. His lyrics are the sort of stuff that almost make sense and then suffer a total logic breakdown right before they reach the point of transcendent coherence. Also, he raps over beats that sound like they are from a future where everyone is on cocaine always. To explain his personal style succinctly, Riff Raff dresses like he rolled around in Miami’s vomit, but in a totally awesome way. Oh, and he has recently become very newsworthy because James Franco is playing him in the new Harmony Korine movie. Selena Gomez, who is famous because she was on a TV show or something but mainly because she dates Justin Bieber, also appears in the film.

Riff Raff traffics in extremes—everything he does is so crazy that it must either be part of a metacontextual Dadaist joke and he is a genius, or he is just profoundly dumb and has been blessed by the Rap Gods with infinite luck. There is no other way of looking at it. Riff Raff and I chatted over email about, well, something. I left some of his typos in, because it seems like he made them on purpose—just like his rapping, Riff Raff’s typing has an internal rhythm and logic all its own.