I’m going to have to issue a respectful but firm "Hell no!" to my man Dave Greenwald’s recent call for a "Moratorium on Hip-Hop Christmas Songs." Sure, the Gap ad that inspired his post is pretty wack on the merits. I don’t think anyone needed to hear Flo Rida, Trey Songz, and least of all Rainn Wilson yammering about jingle bells. But does that mean happy-holidays rap is "always a bad idea," as Dave argues? Surely not. Sometimes it can be an idea so wrong, it’s right — so incongruous, so unnecessary, that it’s a miracle of sorts unto itself.
Just look at the contributions Harlem hustler Jim Jones has made to the form. He dropped the wonderfully WTF-worthy A Dipset Xmas in ’06. And this season he’s following it up with a project titled Jim Jones & Skull Gang Present A Tribute to Bad Santa Starring Mike Epps. Now, Bad Santa, while an excellent film on all counts, came out five years ago. And Mike Epps wasn’t even in that movie! Meanwhile, are the song samples Jones is streaming online actually "good"? Absolutely not. (Sample lyric: "How can I be without money on Christmas Eve?/Cause I’m thinkin’ of robbin’ you…") All of which makes this a kitsch masterwork in the making. Someone actually went to the trouble of following through on this strange, strange concept. Just let that sink in for a minute. It’s like the Star Wars Holiday Special of rap mixtapes! Seriously, Jim Jones might have just stumbled upon the ideal Chanukah present for someone like me.
In closing: Dude, "Christmas in Hollis"! Any genre that includes that stone-cold classic (after the jump) can’t be all bad. Can it?
More on Yuletide rap:
Hey, what ever happened to that Ludacrismas album I was promised?
Biz Markie shouted out Xmas favorites from Kurtis Blow, the Treacherous 3, and more
EW gave 1998′s Jermaine Dupri Presents 12 Soulful Nights of Christmas a C+
I had to pick up the new Mad magazine when I saw it at a newsstand the other night, even though I knew in my heart that the once-fine comedy publication jumped the shark pretty brutally years ago. (Or maybe that was just me maturing past the age of 12.) So why’d I do it? Because of the cover image you see to your left. It’s a Lil Wayne parody, of course, and there’s just something so arresting about that Wayne-ified Alfred E. Neuman. Check out the level of detail they put into Alfie-Weezy’s many tattoos! That, folks, is a work of comedic art. And this feels like a real watershed moment of some kind for Wayne as pop icon. Like Eskay 
As part of 
When he isn’t spinning tunes for LebronJames and Jay-Z, providing music for corporate clients such asMicrosoft, or remixing Coldplay into mashup heaven, DJ Mick Boogie (pictured, left) is an ardent supporter of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. Boogie’s so excited about his candidate of choice, in fact, that he cooked up an Obama inauguration playlist for PopWatch. Enjoy the full set of songs after the jump, and feel free to post your own McCain- and/or Obama-inspired playlists in the comments section below. 
Welcome to this week’s edition of 
Welcome to this week’s edition of 
