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The Dueling Nerdcore Documentaries
Colin Reuter writes "There are not one but two feature-length documentary films in the works about the burgeoning nerdcore hip-hop scene. Nerdcore Rising from indie company Vaguely Qualified Productions in NY focuses on the founder of the "movement," MC Frontalot, and features MC Hawking, mc chris, Weird Al Yankovic, Brian Posehn, Daily Show personnel, and dozens of aspiring nerdcore rappers from around the country. The competing movie, Nerdcore For Life from Chicago's Crapbot Productions covers many of the same personalities, getting the backstory on more than twenty young nerd rappers including ytcracker, MC++, and Lords of the Rhymes. With two movies duking it out, the print edition of Wired profiling the rappers, and the Associated Press getting onboard, is nerdcore going to turn into a legitimate subgenre? Or will this always be our dirty little secret?"
No, and yes.
Seriously, ANYTHING can be a "subgenre" of something, and you'll always be able to find someone or group out there who likes anything. The answer is, it's already a "subgenre".
If the question is, "Will nerdcore ever be popular beyond my really small group of friends and I who never get laid?" then the answer is, "No."
I don't know about that. The article mentions Weird Al Yankovich, who was nerdcore before there was name for it. He's made himself quite a living doing what he does and has gotten a whole lot of airplay. Will all nerdcore go as mainstream as Weird Al? No, but neither did all gangsta rap or all goth rock. But some of it snuck through, and I expect nerdcore will continue to grow in popularity. Do you know how many people I've heard with a fhqwgaads ringtone?
My blog
like what? Wii vs. PS3? Linux better than Microsoft? Microsoft bashing? book reviews on programming subject we have seen 100s of times? more crap about Stallman? your right and net neutrality or some other "web [VIRTUAL] atrocity" etc... etc...
None of it really matters, it's all just interesting to read. Not all of it, but there is something for all nerds here. Also, If I had mod points and this was not an AC post (as I just realized as I get to this point in my response), I would mod down.
Why do these movies 'dueling' and 'competing'? Sounds like they're different takes on the same subject. Can't we watch both?
... is to have a VJ battle of the two documentaries and release the resulting mash-up.
Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.
-- Pablo Picasso
the ON [Original Nerd (C)] Netmaster 10baseT?
It only take a room full of idiots and a music exec. I suspect that we already have enough idiots and now all we need to do is wait for a music exec before we're stuck with another genre of crappy music. All hail the music industry for taking so many small time fads and turning them into massive trends for the masses. /optimism off
Procrastination -- because good things come to those who wait.
Plus he's got Stan Lee samples on his albums. How dorky is that?
Also, have the older "rap is crap" crowd taken the day off because usually these stories have whole threads about how music died in the 60's?
come for the naked robots, stay for the zombies
What about MC Paul Barman, Infesticons (and their alter egos the Majesticons), even El-P and Company Flow have been delving in these realms for years. Check them out if you never heard of them, you may like them even if you are not a fan of hip-hop.
Some like Weird Al are already popular and others like MC Lars are getting there. Their songs have mainstream appeal and do talk about other things than technology. They also don't get too overly technical with their songs that are more tech driven. However, others like ytcracker who raps in java during one song are simply too geeky to be mainstream
...cause my geekcore genre is the mad shizizzle. My geekcore rhymes are fresh and fly, 'cause they're written by a Lisp-powered strong AI. And my DJ skills are so off the hook, they be askin' me to write the O'Reilly book. Y'all test my songs while they're still in beta, and don't be no RPG playa hata. If all y'all hear me, wave your hands and say: G to tha E to tha E to tha K.
Step into a huge movement. Don't Tread In Me.
I'm also quite annoyed by people more into geek or nerd 'culture' than the intellectual pursuits which usually end up earning the honorable title of geek or nerd. People just into the look, sound, dress, or other surface effect just aren't.
"We are all geniuses when we dream"
- E.M. Cioran
While not strictly Nerdcore, I'd say MC Lars should be included. He's more of a literature geek, but his stuff is definitely White & Nerdy rap. He bills his work as "post-punk laptop rap". A few of his songs:
- Download This Song
- iGeneration
- Space Game
- If I Had a Time Machine
- Mr. Raven (based on Poe's "The Raven")
- Internet Relationships
- Ahab
- Signing Emo
Give him a try. His stuff is fun.
I.V.
"These laws they're passing won't even compile anymore, let alone execute." - anon
you're right. he's an ESTABLISHED nerdcore rapper. and if you don't think that "white and nerdy" or "all about the pentiums" do not qualify as nerdcore, then wtf does?
A "nerdcore" rapper does music (to use the term loosely) in the style of rap -- that's their particular style. Weird Al does parody of music using the style of the original music. That he happens to do parodies of some rap songs does not making him an "aspiring" nerdcore rapper.
Sometimes it's best to just let stupid people be stupid.
Well, if having three or four good "nerdcore" songs makes Weird Al a "nerdcore artist", then he's also a gangsta rapper and a pop musician and swing singer (or whatever you'd call that) and folk singer and apolka singer and a hip-hop artist and a Grunge artist and... you get the point.
I question the utility of labeling him that way. "Parodist" covers it best.
Of course - a smart crowd with large vocabularies could never be interested in a form of expression which relies heavily on the quality of the lyrics, rhymes, and meter. That's also why smart people generally avoid such primitive forms of non-art as poetry.
So will there be a beef between linux rappers and Windows rappers?
If MC Ubuntu gets shot I know it was Windows 2000 PAC that did it.
Are there lyrics licensed under GPL?
Windows 2000 PAC
I spit mad rhymes without taking a breath,
Any sucka MC's that step to me will see my blue screen of death!
It's necessary that my style is proprietary,
All you bitches running MAC are straight up wack.
MC Ubuntu
Of course my flow is open source.
I know you like it so,
Download and burn my ISO
I aint no sucka MC
you can download my shits for free
Not free as in beer,
You dumb ass Ballmer queer
I first got started on nerdcore with MC Chris. I didn't even know it as nerdcore then. Some time later I discovered there were more artists doing this kind of music. Forget how I heard of them, probably IRC. Started off with the Rhymetorrent site. Its stuff I can relate to and the beats are actually good. Its nice to see that its growing. I look forward to watching the 2 films. Best of all most of the nerdcore artists give their music away for free. If you haven heard of them, check out Futuristic Sex Robots. They're one of my favorites.
There are 10 types of people in the world: those who understand binary and those who don't.
Sorry, as head cheerleader for the Latin grammar nazi team, I'd like to point out that it translates better as "What you are, I was. What I am, you will be."
So there.
How can a post be modded "overrated" or "underrated" when it hasn't been rated yet?
I am not a troll.. (drool, dribble) I am a human being!