America's Hottest Video: A Hawkeyes tribute from the mean streets of Cedar Rapids

It seems everybody's beaten me to linking or airing the "Hawkeyes" video starring Notti Boy.  Black Heart Gold Pants did - I expect that. Many is the time I thought I had something fresh only to find out BHGP was on it.

But Fox 28 News? They got something that's priceless before I did? That's a wound to the ego, a cold slap to the face.  Unacceptable. It can not happen again. It will not happen again.

I need the back story on this video. Can someone please arrange an old-school sit-down with me and Notti Boy? If there isn't a column to be written from this, I'm going back to my old job as "event planner" for billionaire pro golfers.

The video, as most of you surely know, is all the rage in Iowa and across Planet Earth. But for those few of you who have yet to see it (or those like me who can't get enough of it), feast your eyes and ears on the visual and verbal treats that are Cedar Rapids, the rap stylings of Notti Boy, and the video skills of Cory L. Forbes.

It's . . . interesting. (Of course, I think Univision is interesting, and I don't speak Spanish.) It's Cedar Rapids ghetto. The flooded-out, desolate Time Check neighborhood? Hmmm.

An I-380 overpass? That is so dope. And mispronouncing Kirk Ferentz's last name to make it fit in a rhyme would bring tears of joy to Jay-Z's eyes.

The following is from Notti Boy's MySpace page:

Im a Cedar Rapids native. Born and raised on the south east side of town. I have been rappin since the age of 10. And i must say that practice makes perfict cuz im the best at what I do and that is makin music. I used to roll wit another record label but soon realized that they wernt for me. Real reconize real and now Im with Korn Fed Records. It Is What It Is Vol. 2 commin soon.

Notti Boy, I want to tell your story. Call or e-mail me, or however you say that in hip-hop terms. In the meantime, ladies and gentlemen . . . "Hawkeyes."