Rock Candy

Earlier this year, MIMS, the self-styled savior of New York rap, reached the top of the charts with the song “This Is Why I'm Hot.” Overblown bragging has a long, rich tradition in hip-hop, but on “This Is Why,” MIMS manages something unprecedented (and a little mind-boggling): He brags about not rapping, while rapping. In the first verse, he rhymes, or rather, he doesn't rhyme, “This is why I'm hot / I don't got to rap / I can sell a mill saying nothing on the track.” The hook follows through on that promise: “This is why I'm hot / I'm hot cause I'm fly / You ain't cause you not.” Not to get all William Safire on your ass, but that, my friends, is half tautology, half logical fallacy — a hook so dumb, it's kind of catchy. But you probably know that already. The song is so ubiquitous this year, it's probably entered your blood stream. The show, sponsored by various local radio stations, is being billed “Rap for the Cure, Rock for the Cure,” in coordination with Saturday's “Race for the Cure,” and will also feature local alt-rockers Cities and Thrones and 13X, a local metal act, plus rappers Rockst*r  and Dre and Jontai.