When I heard rumblings of Slaughterhouse being formed I got excited, I mean these guys are the Fantastic Four of the rap-game. Gargantuan lyricists all roped together to form an even bigger, harder hitting, deeper rap entity that’s mission was to rid the scene of emcees who weren’t carrying the banner of hip-hop the way it should be. Welcome to the Slaughterhouse, enter at your own risk.

As serious a “mission” as these guys are on, and as seriously as rappers in today’s climate take themselves  in order to preserve (or try and convince others of) street-cred to stay legitimized, the video above illustrates a few things. First, the members of Slaughterhouse understand that the thug image is waning; as social media expands and the line of contact between fans and artists thins people are looking to artists who are more willing to be transparent  – comic relief helps. And not only with the craft of making music but it provides great PR for the group. When T-Pain decided to try and distance himself from his vocoder it didn’t work out well for his sound engineer but was great for his image. He got a tophat full of compliments on his sense of humor and through showing us another side of his personality, he prevented his audience and critics, granted not all, from becoming tired of who he was.

Secondly, from a peer-to-peer perspective, this “mission” Slaughterhouse is on is dicey. They’re indirectly calling out artists to step their respective games up – this video diffuses the sting that might be felt by emcees that used to have beef with any of the members of the group or anyone who might take their claims the wrong way. And by going through The Real, one of the most well respective hip-hop vlogs in cyberspace, it further disperses the smack.

Mr. Tahiry, Royce (The One With The Voice),  Joell Joell, and Crook “The Heart Thief ” all clown on themselves for nearly three minutes and thanks to the team at The Real, we get a memorable and poignant video establishing the mood and tone of the group, as well as their ability to come up for air once in a while. Besides, what artist do you know who would stick a Teddy Ruxpin line into a video like that?