Brian May, Slash, Silly White British Rappers Have “Badger Swagger”

Axl Rose is a huge Queen fan, Brian May infamously recorded a guitar solo for the Chinese Democracy track “Catcher in the Rye,” which Rose replaced on the final version with a more traditionally Slashy solo by Bumblefoot (you can hear a demo version of May’s solo here and Bumblefoot’s final solo here). And even though Rose has no one to blame but himself for the fact that he now has no Queen collaboration on public, unbootlegged record, I would imagine he’s the kinda dude that will still get pissed that his former bandmate has now beaten him to it: May, in what I’d like to imagine was a deliberate act of vengeance against Rose, “has recruited Slash to collaborate on a track promoting his anti-badger-cull campaign,” according to Classic Rock. The project is called The Artful Badger & Friends — a painfully unfunny Oliver Twist joke — and “also features naturalist Sir David Attenborough on a spoken-word section plus Massive Attack’s Shara Nelson and others.”

I don’t know who all of those “others” are and I’m too lazy to do the research, but the most prominent one is a white British rapper dressed like the Artful Dodger, if the Artful Dodger had access to a washer/dryer. I’d say he ruins the song, but the song isn’t really all that great to begin with, and the fact that someone is actually rapping about badgers adds some much-needed comedic value. So maybe Axl Rose isn’t too pissed about this.

Neither Slash nor May are in the video, but I dunno how else to let you guys stream the song so yeah here it is. You can buy the song on iTunes if you have mediocre taste in music and/or really love badgers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=juw-ms2XuMM