Knowing is Half the Hasselhoff

Over the weekend, Hex announced Nerdapalooza 2009's first headliner. Much to the surprise of the scores of fans following such developments, the big reveal was attached to an even bigger name: mc chris. Fully realizing that this proclamation will be greeted with shock, disbelief and possibly even a modicum of outrage, I felt it pertinent to weigh in with my 2 cents.

The subject of mc's performance at Nerdapalooza was first broached by chris himself. He mentioned it in passing last month in the time between my review of Part One Part Six and our follow-up interview. He told me that he had contacted Hex Warrior with the proposal, but that he had yet to get receive a response. A quick message to Hex uncovered the problem; he had assumed the message was a joke, a prank by someone other than mc motivated not out of disrespect or malice, but rather mischief for mischief's sake. Once this misunderstanding was cleared up, things quickly proceeded.

But how mc chris came to be on the bill for this year's Nerdapalooza is far less important than what happens now that the announcement has been made. Everyone involved, including mc, knows that this event will surely prove to be a gathering of both fans and haters. There are still some people in the larger geek community that are unhappy with his tumultuous relationship with nerdcore proper and any other number of issues that I won't seek to catalog here because doing so would be counter-productive.

Instead I'd simply like to point out that I genuinely believe that mc chris will be good for Nerdapalooza and that Nerdapalooza will ultimately be good for mc chris.

The purpose of this festival is two-fold. It exists to celebrate all the glorious flavors of nerd music and culture, and it also serves as an opportunity to leverage the power of our passions for a greater good. Nerdapalooza supports the community itself, but it also supports the Child's Play charity. mc chris is a fantastic performer and a huge draw, and Orlando is a solid center of his fanbase. His inclusion leads to more interest, higher attendance and more money raised for a good cause.

Just as importantly, having mc chris around will be fun.

His is the music that brought so many fans and fellow artists into the realm of geeky hip-hop, and, nerdcore or not, he is one of us. He's a wonderful addition to an already astounding lineup, and I truly believe that if we all put petty differences aside he will do more than his part to make sure that Nerdapalooza 2009 will be appropriately epic.

And speaking of appropriately epic, I think this is an ideal time to unveil and brand new, ongoing project centered on none other than mc chris himself.

A few weeks back, I was kicking around crazy ideas on Twitter, as I am wont to do, when I issued a tongue-in-cheek challenge dubbed Knowing is Half the Hasselhoff. The crux of which was to motivate producers and bootleggers to mash-up mc chris a cappellas with songs from hairy-chested crooner David Hasselhoff.

After a little prodding, my good friend funky49 stepped up to the plate with a little jewel I like to call "mc Christmas with the Hoff." He's given me the green light to share it with you in the hopes that it will inspire your own mc/Hasselhoff boots.

There's no deadline and the project is open to anyone, so my plan is to simply collect and share submissions until such a time as there are enough to warrant collecting them into a legitimate compilation album/EP.

So, as you're wiling away those summer days, why not partake in a little MC-Pee-Pants-meets-Michael-Knight action? You'll be glad you did.

Download: funky49 – "mc Christmas with the Hoff"