Another example of Phil Collins' profound influence on Rap

Willie Dee - Trip Across From Mexico
(From Controversy; 1989)


When The Convicts released Illegal Aliens in 1991 as the stand-out cut on their self titled masterpiece, the general consensus was that the song was a wholly successful attempt to surpass Ice Cube's xenophobia, but Rap-A-Lot is a label that's always bequeathed N.W.A and Phil Collins with equal levels of reverence and so Big Mike & 3-2 would probably be the first to admit Illegal Aliens was merely retreading ground Ill Phil had firmly staked his claim on 7 years earlier with what's possibly the most astonishingly racist pop single of the 80s :

Genesis - Illegal Alien
(From Genesis; 1983)

Even though the single version omits the lyrics from the LP version where Phil offers his sister's sexual favours in exchange for admittance across the American border, I will argue to the death that Phil's bizarre faux-Mexican accent, video costume and "over the border is the promised land/where everything comes easy, you just hold out your hand" stanza from the song are still more willingly offensive than anything Big Mike & 3-2 had to say on Illegal Aliens. The Convicts song is designed to shock, where the jovial tone of the Genesis banger right chea makes it all the more jaw-dropping.



Here's hoping Eric Clapton's influence stays confined to Japanese menswear and never permeates Rap, because I shudder to think what would happen if peckerwoods like El-P and Asher Roth were to suddenly take philosophical cues from his infamous shitfaced 1976 on-stage rant in Birmingham after he'd caught some ethnic lad pinching his wife's arse :