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Our Ten Favorite SXSW Photos of Riff Raff (With Accompanying Ridiculous Tweets)

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March 20th, 2013 8:57am

We generally aren’t ones for the low-impact process of Buzzfeed-styled list-making, as popular as the practice might be, and especially with every site run on behalf of corporate alternative weeklies. But every now and then a figure will rise from the meme factory so perfectly molded for contemporary attention spans, that everything he or she says or does is the perfectly bite-sized morsel of mindless entertainment.

I would almost say that’s the case with Riff Raff. That’s the mysterious rapper with Houston roots who’s so conceptual in everything he Tweets, raps, or says to interviewers, that he elevates the aggressive boastfulness of a rap career to some sort of beautifully poetic waking daydream, bordering on a never-ending performance art piece. Though it’s somewhat unsubstantiated, he has repeatedly claimed to be the inspiration for James Franco’s character “Alien” in Harmony Korine’s new film, Spring Breakers. It certainly appears that way. He is matched only by Lil B or his former label-head Soulja Boy in terms of modern savvy in the ways of viral communication. In short, these three musicians have done as much to dismantle the entire top-down traditions of the music business as the DIY punks and underground rappers before them. Locally, I think only theatre critic Elaine Liner comes close to his Tweeting abilities.

I caught Riff Raff at Emo’s East during South By Southwest this year. Though he performed along to his tracks with an entourage the way many rappers do, there were weird technical instances where sounds seemed to drop out and vocals came and went. I was worried. For a second, it seemed that the artist could never live up to the planet-gulping massiveness of his self-made image. But that only made the event more apt for the era he’s defining. If Riff Raff is not the greatest rapper in the game, but he can still convince you he is, then the punchlines to his jokes are even more hilarious.

What follows are a selection of my favorite shots from the show by photographer Andi Harman, along with Riff Raff’s best Tweets from the week of South By Southwest. The world’s greatest music festival featuring the world’s greatest living rapper was a match made in hype heaven.

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