
WEBSITE: http://frontalot.com/
PURCHASE: Amazon
“Nerdcore could rise up, it could get elevated. Oh and wouldn't all of those tough rappers hate it.”
I begin my entry with a couplet by the subject of this post, the self-procrlaimed, “world's 579th greatest rapper” and the indisputable godfather of the bastard child that is Nerdcore Hip Hop: Mc Frontalot. I do not claim to have expert knowledge of this, “obscure and potentially self limiting genre” (a phrase the artist himself has sarcastically used to describe his music) but hope that my enthusiasm in promoting its benefits will excuse any deficiency in my explanation. In my opinion a description of the Front himself might recommend readers to the major issues addressed by Nerdcore.
I relate to Mc Frontalot on many, though certainly not all, of the levels present in his compositions. As a gamer, I eagerly absorb his commentary on the culture and its attendant memes. I am emboldened as a geek by his self-deprecatory pieces lamenting the relative lameness that geekdom bestows. Within this stark truth it is possible to become overwhelmed by the negative, but the flippant manner in which he treats these phenomena never fails to remind me that the geek identity is in fact the rejection of pressure to give into cookie-cutter existence. Frontalot's on-stage uniform of an office/IT Drone, thick spectacles with a short-sleeved button down shirt and tie, creates a brilliant juxtaposition with songs about the geek's other life where he/she can become whatever they want in a RPG or rise to the top as a hacker or programmer. His music awakens a pride that I never knew existed. And never wish to fade.
The Front is refreshingly sarcastic about his own bluster. Whereas mainstream rappers and musicians struggle to make their images fit some idealized authenticity to appease their fans, Frontalot's refusal to take himself seriously allows him to, among other things, use the track “Charity Case” to plead with his tech-savvy fans not to download his music illegally, “You got my album off Bittorrent? Explative!” I believe this form of rap broadens the horizons of Hip Hop and provides his listeners with a sense of belonging to geekdom. An online search of popular streaming video websites would be enough to convince anyone of this (The videos of his performances at the popular gaming expo PAX are of particular note). This proof of nerdly empowerment, or elevation as the Front prefers to call it, causes this humble listener to agree with the optimistic estimation of the likelihood of Nerdcore's Rising offered by the Mc: “We consider the possibleness of this not overstated.”
"Nerdcore Rising" off of Nerdcore Rising
FAVORITE TRACK: It Is Pitch Dark
FOR FANS OF: Less Intimidating Rappers, Mc Lars, Gaming.
Labels: _Agressive, _Hip Hop, *Posts by Scotches, Mc Frontalot
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