Hot Diva and the Rapper Dude

I was at Lifetime Fitness today and heard another of those chick-diva songs with the pre-requisite rapper in it. Ho-hum. Will that ever get old? I think that the rap has kind of become the same as the guitar solo is to rock songs. You just have to put it in, even if it really doesn't belong there. You can pick any of the divas of nowadays where they sing great and then, BAM, there is that rapper dude going at it (Mariah, Nelly Furtado, etc.). Now, don't get me wrong: I don't hate rap. In fact, there are some that I like (eminem, Jay-Z). But, c'mon, are these producers just running out of ideas? It is almost like they just HAVE to insert a rap somewhere in the song!

Enough of the rant. As I was listening, I was thinking of what it might have been like in the earlier days of pop music if the guy had to rap his part rather than sing it. I had a few interesting ones come to mind:

1. Sonny and Cher: can you even try to imagine Sonny having to rap "I've got you babe, uh, uh.."? Yeah, that picture in my mind was pretty disturbing too.
2. Elton John and Kiki Dee: many of you might not know Kiki but they did a huge hit in the 70's: "Don't Go Breaking My Heart". A lot of jokes came out about Kiki about the time Elton came out of the closet. But, you know, I could actually see Elton attempting to rap that one...er, ok, maybe not. Yeah, I was just kidding.....really.
3. Ike and Tina Turner: I could actually see that one working for Ike if rap existed then.

I'm sure that there are a bunch more out there...