The West Coast’s top cat rapper has taken the internet’s obsession with cats to a whole new level.
This live Facebook video of self-proclaimed “cat rapper” Moshow, who hails from Portland, Oregon, went viral after it hit social media last week.
The video features Moshow (whose real name is Dwayne Molock) washing his cat, Ravioli, in the tub. Moshow cheerfully serenades the furious-looking feline with some soothing verses: “Rub a dub dub, gotta give, gotta give my cat a scrub / Ravioli, acting like they know me…”
Since Moshow posted it on Facebook, the video has been viewed more than 1.7 million times.
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Before any animal rights activists get up in arms about the ethics of using a grumpy, damp cat as a music video prop, Moshow wants us to know: Ravioli really did need a bath.
In an interview with Oregon Live, the rapper said all of his cats were due for a bath that day. According to Moshow, his four hairless Sphynx cats need regular baths to stay clean and healthy.
Moshow said he hadn’t written anything before getting into the tub with Ravioli. He was just inspired and came up with the rhymes on the spot.
“I’ve been rapping since I was 16. I rap all day everyday; I just can’t turn it off,” he told Animal Planet last year. “I LOVE CATS and I’m extremely close with mine.”
In an interview with Willamette Week, Moshow explained more about his creative process.
“I grew up in the projects, so I was rapping gangster stuff and pretending a life that I didn’t really live,” he said. He soon stopped rapping about those subjects, though, because he “just didn’t feel comfortable rapping about things I didn’t do.”
In college, he clicked with a friend’s sphynx cat. That friend later became his girlfriend, and Moshow the cat rapper found his creative inspiration.
This isn’t Moshow’s first brush with online fame. In early December, he partnered with the Oregon Humane Society on a video that features him rapping about the joys of cat parenthood.
The video, “Adopt a Cat,” encourages Oregon residents to adopt a feline friend.
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Is this furr-tastic or what?
