Dr. Seuss’ early books predate rap music by more than three decades, but anyone who has read the rhythmic “One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish” or the tongue-twisting “Fox in Socks”—or any of Seuss’s delightful rhymes, really—can instantly see the connection between the two.
In fact, my daughter was just asking me the other day if anyone had made Dr. Seuss books into rap songs, and I told her about a man I wrote about a few years ago, Wes Tank, who went viral for putting Dr. Seuss rhymes to smooth Dr. Dre beats.
But now there’s a new Seuss rapper who goes in a slightly different direction than Tank, hearkening to the fast rap stylings of Eminem and Busta Rhymes. Jordan Simons has garnered a following of 23 million TikTok users, simply by rapping Dr. Seuss books.
Well, “simply” is a bit of an understatement.
Like, the ABCs are simple, right? Dr. Seuss made a fun little book that helps familiarize kids with the sounds of the alphabet, but it’s never sounded like this:
@jordansimons4 Rappin “Dr. Seuss’s ABC” by Dr. Seuss! #rappinrhymebooks #DrSeuss #FYP #fyp #foryourpage #rap #bars
Right?!?
I read “Fox in Sox” so many times to my kids over the years, I have the whole book memorized. And in my wildest dreams, I could never do this:
@jordansimons4 (Part 1/2) Rappin “Fox in Socks” by Dr. Seuss! #rappinrhymebooks #DrSeuss #fyp #foryourpage #rap #bars
Part 2 is just as impressive. (The tweetle beetle battle part has always been my favorite to read.)
How about “One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish”? I read that so many times as a child, I had it memorized before I had my own kids. And still, could I ever pull off this feat? Nope.
@jordansimons4 Rapping “One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish” by Dr. Seuss #RappinRhymeBooks #DrSeuss #rap #bars #fyp #foryourpage
Simons’ most popular video to date was his rapping of “Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can you?” It may not be as well known as some of Seuss’ other books, but when you see it you’ll see why it’s been watched more than 36 million times.
@jordansimons4 (REPOST) Rappin “Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You?” By Dr. Seuss ! #rappinrhymebooks #DrSeuss #fyp #foryourpage #rap #bars
You can follow Jordan Simons on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube.