Emmett’s been on my back to post MC Frontalot, the self-proclaimed “world’s 579th greatest rapper.” I’ve been putting off Frontalot for two reasons: 1) he’s got A LOT of songs to choose from, all available for free download, and 2) I can’t tell if he’s for real, or if this is all just a way for some Cal Tech computer science Ph.D. candidate to let off some steam. Regarding the latter, the obvious next question is, “Does it even matter if he’s legit?” At least I’ve come to a decisive “Hell no” answer to that one. So here’s the nerdcore hip hop, ten songs worth. When you’re done laughing at the silliness you get here, go ahead and download the other 52 songs available at www.frontalot.com. Or, you could buy his record, I suppose.
Sharing the sharing.
electronika/rap and good beats this CD has it all. Plus its different from what I normally hear.
Nerd rap has made an all-time push in the last year or so. I'm a believer in Shabaam Sahdeeq's "hip-hop is like a library — go in and choose your book" but I gotta say this is NOT my book.
I hope he's for real. I hope that he's in love with hip-hop as a lifestyle and I hope that if it's for real then he makes it big time.
But if not — has the world not gotten bored of the classic "nerdy whiteboy says 'word'" cliche?
A nerdy whiteboy saying "word" may be a cliche in and of itself, but MCF has the distinction of actually having chops. I mean, despite the joke title of "579th best", this fucker can actually rap. The humour of a lot of the tracks might overshadow the talent, but if you listen to songs like "Which MC Was That?" and "Good Old Clyde", you see that he's actually a competant MC who can hold his own.
I just got my copy of "Nerdcore Rising" in the mail this morning (along with a t-shirt and some nifty stickers). It's so good it's insane! I mean, I can honestly say that this is only the second CD I've actually purchased *after* downloading it, and it was worth every penny.
As for the "legit" question, I disagree. I think it is a relevant question, simply because he is truly legit. In the same way that Weird Al is legit, anyway. See, there's humor, there's satire, there's some self-mocking, but underneath it all is a lot of talent. True, for the most part MC Frontalot is more a persona than a person (you usually can't get a straight answer from him in an interview), but his intentions are pure.
If nothing else, the album is worth purchasing for the guest vocals by Jesse Dangerously and MC Hawking.
Let me third, fourth and fifth recommendations for the CD. It's not just a packaging up of old material to be sold for money. All the new songs are amazing, and the old ones all have newer, better vocals, if not redone beats as well (only two don't have redone beats because there weren't any samples that needed removing).
Frontalot's legit. He's not pretending to be a gangsta (see "Crime Spree"). He genuinely loves the art form, and is not going for, "White boy saying, 'Word!'" points. He's said so in interviews, and I think how much he enjoys doing what he does is pretty obvious from the time, care and effort put into making his songs (particularly the album) awesome.
If you want some PhD student blowing off steam, go check out MC Plus+ (whom I don't really care for, even though he goes to my school).
I'm not sure how applicable Weird Al comparisons are in this context. Frontalot doesn't write parody songs, or novelty songs, though that's not to say there's not a lot of cleverness and humor on display. I suppose one could compare him to Weird Al only if one is talking about Weird Al's original songs.
The question is whether or not one can write songs that contain humor without them being jokey novelty songs. I think the answer is yes, if one does it just so. Frontalot has quite a lot of skill at pulling that balance off.
Frontalot's a talented dude. And needs sammich money. You should buy his CD. I've yet to encounter anyone who isn't amazed by it.
After like a month of listening to Frontalot, Joe finally put up the review. Knowing the amount of songs "The Front" has on his site, it wouldn't have suprised me if it took longer.
I would have liked to have said all the sweet things I know about MC Frontalot, but Ugliness Man and Alex summed up most of MC Frontalot's story.
A few months ago I used to frequent Frontalot's site on a weekly basis because it was getting to the point where every week or two he'd release a new song. Then it stopped. Now I know it was because he was working on tracks for his album.
One amazing element of Frontalot is the fact that alot of his songs originated from this weekly competition called Songfight which is on http://www.songfight.org. He's the underground king of the competition, which he rightfully proclaims in "Romantic Cheapskate." So considering that a fair bunch of his songs were put completely together for a random topic for week's deadline makes the taste of MC Frontalot's music that much sweeter.
I think thats half of Frontalots appeal. The fact that there is such a wide range of topics discussed using verbose words that one would think could never find its way into a hiphop song. That's why nerdcore hiphop will reign supreme.
It's not a schtick. Dude is a for real dork and he is also a for real rapper.
Hip hop is actually a pretty nerdy thing to be into. All those samples, that history, the Cazal glasses.
Oh my how I love this record. Even the parts I'm NOT on, which is MOST OF THEM!
Fans of MC Frontalot would probably do well to check out MC Hawking…
http://www.mchawking.com/
MC Frontalot has got sum mad skills but if you like him, you'll luv mc chris. they both sang at the PAX 2005 con and rocked. check mc chris out at http://www.mcchris.com
I wrote a post about nerdcore and Front a while back here:
http://myvogonpoetry.com/wp/2005/07/05/nerdcore-h…
brian
I couldn't agree more.
http://www.rhymetorrents.com has two great new Frontalot remixes, by Baddd Spellah and MC Hawking's Dark Matter band. Not to mention the other 52 nerdcore artists who put tracks on the site…
http://www.nerdcorehiphop.org also has the latest nerdcore news and releases.