"Nerdcore" Rap

[Kunikos]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1C2SPpvmOfc

Totally fucking lame. I really don't understand why this bullshit is gaining "momentum" (in their view) but I'm surprised that their audience doesn't suddenly keel over died from an embarassment-caused heart-attack. Oh right, because they all look like this:

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m81/mattdkerr/tychougly.jpg

and think they look like this:

http://www.penny-arcade.com/images/avatars/tycho.jpg

[Moore]

Is that Darth Vader?

[Rob_Merritt]

Whatever, I've been listening to a lot of nerdcore rap lately like MC Lars.

[Gary Whitta]

Didn't Weird Al pretty much issue the definitive work in this genre already?

[Matthew Gallant]

Most of the genre is just vocabuwanking, but MC Chris is a real rapper.

[LesJarvis]

Frontalot is alright, but it kinda bugs me that he claims to have "accidentally invented" the genre. MC Paul Barman was at least two years ahead of him (though he didn't use the label,) and he wasn't alone.

[madkevin]

MC Chris is the only one of those guys I can listen to.

[bloo]

I thought MC 900 Foot Jesus was a nerd rapper about 15 years ago.

[Moore]

Is mc 900 foot jesus the one with that kickass song about arson? has a lyric in it like 'I lite the fires while the city sleeps' or something? that was a good song.

[Jack Black]

MC Chris is MC Peepants, for the ATHF crowd.

[Wholly Schmidt]

MC Chris owns. I wanna go to an MC Chris show.

Also, the real Tycho looks exactly like Strongsad.

[nKoan]

Frontalot is alright, but it kinda bugs me that he claims to have "accidentally invented" the genre. MC Paul Barman was at least two years ahead of him (though he didn't use the label,) and he wasn't alone.

Ug, I could never figure out the appeal of MC Paul Barman. And I still can't figure out a lot of the nerdcore rap. I mean, I'm pretty nerdy and I like rap, but something about nerdcore rap is just plain stupid. "Hey look, I'm gonna make a song that sounds like gangster rap, but it'll be about fax machines and cubicles. Isn't that hilarious?"

[shift6]

Because being a member of an in-joke laden, hip and edgy counter-culture is such a new idea.

[malphigian]

Frontalot is alright, but it kinda bugs me that he claims to have "accidentally invented" the genre. MC Paul Barman was at least two years ahead of him (though he didn't use the label,) and he wasn't alone.

I met Paul Barman once at a party, before his first album came out. I spent a good while making fun of him after listening to him hit on this girl, tell her he was a rapper, and proceed to stage whisper some incredibly lame rhymes in her ear. It was a pretty pathetic display.

In related name dropping news, I just realized I went to school and worked at the radio station with Frontalot (damien hess). He had a pretty fine radio show, and a one man band called "Urine Luck" that did a great cover of Manic Monday.

Not a fan of nerdcore, however. Someone over on metafilter linked to another nerdcore promo video which was even more nerdy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8VTmy5clHk

Whatever, tied up with comic cons and stuff, fine, but one of the guys being interviewed is wearing a Doctor Doom mask. Which is total bullshit. MF Doom (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyiB-lkQBFY) is already an established artist (http://www.myspace.com/mfdoom), with real cred. He's plenty nerdy even, without being so... lame about it.

[balut]

MC Chris is good stuff.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRhnw1gFuDA

[charmtrap]

Nerdcore as a, what, movement?, is pretty stupid, but Frontalot is really quite talented in his way. C'mon, I heart fags is brilliant. It's pretty amazing what he gets done with just Cool Edit.

[Kunikos]

Ug, I could never figure out the appeal of MC Paul Barman. And I still can't figure out a lot of the nerdcore rap. I mean, I'm pretty nerdy and I like rap, but something about nerdcore rap is just plain stupid. "Hey look, I'm gonna make a song that sounds like gangster rap, but it'll be about fax machines and cubicles. Isn't that hilarious?"

Also, asking to be treated as real rappers in the same sentence. Hilarity.

Weird Al's covers of existing songs are hardly the same thing as someone making up new beats with lyrics that only tenously go along with them, as in they are spoken at the same time not on tempo, and are only raps in the sense that they rhyme words.

Also, I'm going to pre-emptively say that Phoenix Orion sucks.

[Elton]

Pretty funny story about Paul Barman. I kind of suspected he wasn't as handy with the ladies as he suggests on the CDs. And yeah, his albums can be hit-or-miss, but some songs are highly listenable -- "Old Paul" has a bizarre appeal.

MC Chris sounds pretty good too though.

[Joel]

I enjoy it because I am not a mean dick!

[Daniel Morris]

There is nothing quite like the genius of MC Hawking (http://www.mchawking.com/multimedia.php). His collection, A Brief History of Rhyme, is some of the best $14 you'll ever spend on a CD.

[Kunikos]

I enjoy it because I am not a mean dick!

... your lack of taste in music also plays a strong role! For someone who lives in Brooklyn you show no shame for liking poseur hip hop that fails on so many levels.

[MatthewF]

Does pre-Samberg SNL lonelyisland count as nerdcore? Because they're really quite talented, I still have Ka-Blamo and Stork Patrol on the MP3 player rotation. It's too bad only Samberg gets to be in the SNL music videos, the guy with the really high pitched voice would have been a good addition to their rap parodies. But hey, at least the other two get to be writers. We can probably thank them for "Dick in a Box."

http://www.thelonelyisland.com/

[Mordrak]

MC Chris is good stuff.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRhnw1gFuDA

Hey he's good. But, but, but MC Frontalot looks like are cartoon character!

Good vs Cartoon..... arrgghh my brain splody.

Actually, the Nerdcore Rising trailer wasn't cut that well. The teaser is much better, but if the quality degraded from teaser to trailer, I don't have much hope for the flick. Not that I care personally about, just that it might have been interesting.

(Not a nerd anything listener other than the Al.)

[LesJarvis]

Ug, I could never figure out the appeal of MC Paul Barman. And I still can't figure out a lot of the nerdcore rap. I mean, I'm pretty nerdy and I like rap, but something about nerdcore rap is just plain stupid. "Hey look, I'm gonna make a song that sounds like gangster rap, but it'll be about fax machines and cubicles. Isn't that hilarious?"

I'm not really a fan either, just to be clear.

[nijimeijer]

The closest I've gotten to this is 2 Skinnee J's, who I believe predate Paul Barman and Frontalot. Of course, they're not still together, which could be why they're not talked about these days.

[MatthewF]

I think Paul Barman had one good song and that's it.

"I love it when you call me Paul Bar...man."

[MattKeil]

Nerdcore should really skew more in the direction of what Bill Dungsroman sees when he closes his eyes. (http://www.poetv.com/video.php?vid=139)

[Erik J.]

Actually went to see MC Chris live in Baltimore a couple years back when a friend of mine who moved to Florida came back, and she was excited to go see him. Not a bad show, really. Pretty laid back, and the crowd gets into it, and he is relatively accessible. He rails a bit too hard against the establishment. Like... crazy violence, i.e. kill all the cheerleaders and jocks, which is retarded, but hey, the rest is pretty good. Fett's Vette is awesome.

Erik J.

[balut]

Nerdcore should really skew more in the direction of what Bill Dungsroman sees when he closes his eyes. (http://www.poetv.com/video.php?vid=139)

I'm sorry, but THIS (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbGkxcY7YFU) is what Billy D sees when he closes his eyes.

[Machfive]

I'm sorry, but THIS (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W91sqAs-_-g) is what Billy D sees when he closes his eyes.

[balut]

I'm sorry, but THIS (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W91sqAs-_-g) is what Billy D sees when he closes his eyes.

Not homoerotic enough.

[Machfive]

Not homoerotic enough.

Wait for the Sanjaya cover version.

[Kunikos]

I'm sorry, but THIS (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W91sqAs-_-g) is what Billy D sees when he closes his eyes.

That's just plain awful. I think that ranks worse than the original video, even with it's parody aspects. She needs to take some serious lessons from Weird Al.

I have a sneaking suspicion that he'd rather be seeing this. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oW97bDAOUSs) It's "GOOD, GOOD"!

[Kyle Wilson]

I'm sorry, but THIS (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W91sqAs-_-g) is what Billy D sees when he closes his eyes.

Wha... Machfive, you're back!? After four years away from Quarter to Three? And you announce your triumphant return by... posting a video that's deemed insufficiently homoerotic!

[bago]

No MC++ or YTCracker?

Ameteurs.

[Joel]

... your lack of taste in music also plays a strong role! For someone who lives in Brooklyn you show no shame for liking poseur hip hop that fails on so many levels.

I just listen to things that I enjoy, even if they may be lame! It's easier than being a mean dick! ELO rules!

[Machfive]

Wha... Machfive, you're back!? After four years away from Quarter to Three? And you announce your triumphant return by... posting a video that's deemed insufficiently homoerotic!

Damn. When you put it like that, I feel ashamed. ;D

[Kyle Wilson]

Damn. When you put it like that, I feel ashamed. ;D

I really do hate to pry, but I have to ask. I'm sure everyone's wondering: Did you, in the end, actually go through with legally changing your name to that of a cartoon car?

[Machfive]

I really do hate to pry, but I have to ask. I'm sure everyone's wondering: Did you, in the end, actually go through with legally changing your name to that of a cartoon car?

Thank goodness, no. I came to my senses pretty soon after I drifted away from Qt3.

[RepoMan]

Well, now that you're back, it's clearly time to get on it! We demand a pic of the name change certificate once it's official.

[Unicorn McGriddle]

I'll second appreciation for Mc Chris, MC Frontalot, and MC Hawking.

Believe it or not, simply injecting other themes into a genre's lyrics has the potential to be a powerful revitalization (when accompanied by talent). Every genre has its staple themes, such as occult revelations in black metal, violent crimes in rap, and love in every single genre ever. Without innovators like nerdcore rappers (and bands like TMBG who will sing about ANYTHING), every song would draw from a limited shared vocabulary. Crazay would be rhymed with baybay in every chorus. And who wants that?

I encourage sundry haters to listen to MC Chris' Arulapragasam or MC Hawking's Entropy (a reworking of Naughty by Nature's well-known hit O.P.P.) for examples of how this broadening of subject matter can be a benefit rather than a simple gimmick. Arulapragasam in particular does a fantastic job of blending nerd tropes, familiar Americana, and smooth rhymes into a seamless whole. And it's damn good!