10 Rock Songs That Were Written As A Joke

10. I'm the Man - Anthrax

In the world of Anthrax, metal and hip hop always went hand in hand. For as long as Scott Ian was listening to rock and roll, he had always been listening to the early days of bands like Run-DMC, having the same heaviness of hard rock with an emphasis on rhyming instead of riffing. The metal guys could hang too though, and their first attempt at rap metal made for one of the goofiest songs ever written by a thrash band.

Because if you listen to any sort of hip hop, Scott, Charlie, and Frankie are not the greatest MCs by any stretch of the imagination, almost sounding like a bunch of frat bros who happened to get on the mic for the evening and screaming non sequiturs at each other. Then again, part of the appeal is that the whole thing is meant to be self aware. These guys know that they are far from the greatest rappers in the world, and most of the verses revolve around how they can’t complete the rhyme correctly, aiming for just the right word and then dropping it at the last second.

The goof worked though, becoming one of the first gold records that the band ever had and going on to be the launchpad for them working with real rappers in the future, like when they teamed up with Public Enemy for a remake of the classic song Bring the Noise. This could have easily come off as just a mean spirited parody, but for all of the scariness that comes with metal, this was coming from a place of love for the guys in Anthrax.