A Nerdcore Sampler
It seems to be my place here to be the old fogey who's always talking about music gone by, so let me take you back in time to an age where everyone was still pretty excited about the internet, the Stile Project was still pretty cutting edge, and Old Man Murray was the place to turn for video game reviews. Besides, Vu challenged me to do an entry on white boy rap and this is what he's going to get.
Deltron 3030 has been mentioned here before and Del Tha Funkee Homosapien has enough other projects under his belt that he's not technically nerdcore, but the album was released around the same time and features futuristic rap battle in the year 3030, so it's hard to leave out the nod entirely.
And who could forget our favorite proto-Nerdcore synth act from back in the day: KOMPRESSOR? KOMPRESSOR, otherwise known as Andreas K. or Drew (of Toothpaste For Dinner and Married to The Sea fame) was some kind of whack-job alien from Bremen, Germany. With a heart full of hate in a time of deep seated indolence, he struck a chord with America's dotcom yuppies.
Deltron 3030 has been mentioned here before and Del Tha Funkee Homosapien has enough other projects under his belt that he's not technically nerdcore, but the album was released around the same time and features futuristic rap battle in the year 3030, so it's hard to leave out the nod entirely.
Enter onto the scene, the first nerdcore act that I can think of: MC Hawking. Getting around the problem that white folks don't know how to rap by using a text to speech program, MC Hawking was supposed to have been Stephen Hawking's alternate life as a "lyrical terrorist". Happily, the real Hawking was flattered by the homage and didn't sue MC Hawking into a proverbial black hole.
Finally, at around the same time, MC Frontalot emerged on the scene, and actually gave the genre its name. Frontalot's is reminiscent of 80's acts like The Fat Boys, Fresh Prince, and Young MC when rap was fun, playful, and safe. From there, the genre has taken off, to include all kinds of nobodys doing this for no particularly good reason (much like another genre close to my heart, Wizard Rock). On the one hand, nerdcore is just another novelty genre, but on the other it's a place for you all to get off your collective asses and make some music, without worrying about whether it's terrible or not.
You know, not that I do that ever, but... hey... didn't we have a sponsored QotD about this sort of thing? And next time, I swear I'll post something that can't be categorized as "novelty". I'm just going through a nostalgia phase.
xoxo,
Mooxie Carmichael
Finally, at around the same time, MC Frontalot emerged on the scene, and actually gave the genre its name. Frontalot's is reminiscent of 80's acts like The Fat Boys, Fresh Prince, and Young MC when rap was fun, playful, and safe. From there, the genre has taken off, to include all kinds of nobodys doing this for no particularly good reason (much like another genre close to my heart, Wizard Rock). On the one hand, nerdcore is just another novelty genre, but on the other it's a place for you all to get off your collective asses and make some music, without worrying about whether it's terrible or not.
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xoxo,
Mooxie Carmichael
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Comments
This reminds me of a Wired article I read a few months back.
Agree with Pax on MC Frontalot.
Talking about nerdcore; a couple of weeks ago, I listend to Hotel Coral Essex byt the Futuristic Sex Robotz, which gave me a good laugh... the entire album is streamable in full on last.fm
Thanks for posting.. good stuff!
Mary: I already did my wizard rock tirade before I was on the We ♥ Music crew. I actually haven't done a sampler like this, but mostly because I couldn't manage to narrow it down to just three or four examples.
Pax (& Random): It's a subject near and dear to my (aging) heart. The other tracks are funny, but I agree that Frontalot is the only one who's even trying to stand on the basis of artistic merit, rather than novelty. (Actually, the Deltron 3030 album is awesome, but it's sort of hard to judge based on the sound byte I threw in. The title track in Vu's earlier post is a pretty good example.)
Krizz: I'll have to check it out. I'm just now getting current with the state of nerdcore.
be there for the rap battle
it's going to be interspectacular!
fantabulous!
it'll blow your socks off
it's one of those things where machine vs. man
man vs. woman
woman vs. your mother
be there intergalactic rap battle,
it's instupituous!