This Dual Core Music Has a Grip on Me

Last year I wrote the following: "In a genre that sometimes seems more interested in talking about music than actually making it, Dual Core stand out as a beacon of musical integrity."

Allow that to stew in your brain pan for a moment?

Done?

Good.

It’s not the quote that strikes me as so odd – if anything, their continued output has proven my point – but merely the timeframe. Though I’ve known their music for only around 18 months, I simply can not fathom a time when I didn't listen to Dual Core. Like a good book or a fine film, their music exists in a space outside of the temporal. It’s a feast for the ears, and, indeed, for the mind, that seems familiar much in the same way that a foreign beach or exotic mountaintop may seem familiar; it appeals to some baser instinct, some unnamed part of the human psyche that marks and responds to veracity.

From the opening strains of the first track to the gradual fade of its unlisted final remix, Lost Reality, the group’s third album, continues their well established reputation for excellence. I can’t recommend it highly enough, but that won’t stop me from trying.

1. "For Real"
   Dual Core have made no secret of their problems with radio rap’s commercialism and lack of greater artistic depth, so it’s logical that they open Lost Reality with a celebration of "the true heart of hip-hop." Producer c64 makes his presence felt through a favorable combination of light, airy piano and a heavy beat while int eighty "dedicates" the album to his hip-hop forbears: b-boys, DJs, MCs, and graffiti artists. The opening salvo summarily reminds the listener that Dual Core, while doubtlessly nerdy, have their hearts in hip-hop culture, and sets the template for the album to come. And on a purely personal note, never before have I heard a more convincing validation of nerdcore as a style.
2. "Beginning of the End"
   "Dear Mama" for the hacker set? Maybe. Personal but not sappy, "Beginning of the End" lets you know how eighty became eighty through slick storytelling and a well-metered flow. 64 once again demonstrates his knack for incorporating just the right sample at just the right time for maximum impact. The track further helps to establish the album's recurring motifs, but, at a healthy five minutes, manages to keep things interesting.
3. "Unplug"
   A turning point of sorts, this is a song for programmers, developers, or anyone else who lives the bulk of their life online and plugged in. It’s another long one that keeps things personal but expands its scope to include elements imminently relatable to fans. Props to the guys for their skillful reflection on "Dull Boy" from their debut album, and the effortless way that song’s refrain carries through. But don’t be fooled; this is less a continuation of that theme than a different (perhaps more universal) look at the same sort of digital miasma that plagues so many of us who work in the tech sector. With lines like "my desk lamp burns midnight oil," int eighty’s penchant for quotable lyricism remains, quite obviously, intact.
4. "Hold On"
   A musical change-up that takes you by surprise, "Hold On" kicks up the tempo a bit as well as the aggression. eighty comes through as hip-hop motivational speaker while 64 lets us see a side of his production style that he seldom reveals: his inner musical mad scientist. The beat that is so compressed and intense as to put you almost on edge, but all the way eighty admonishes you to hold tight, not merely for this track, but for the rest of the album to come. A musical signpost, this song serves as an aural cue, telling you that Lost Reality’s artistic peak is fast approaching.
5. "My GF is…"
   Trailing in expertly from the previous track, "My GF Is…" is another amazing story-song. You could call it "Hostage Down" for non-gamers if you felt so led, and I, at present, do. This tribute to geek girls is certainly on par with modern classics like Schaffer the Darklord's "Nerd Lust." Easily one of c64 and in eighty’s finest efforts, its sing-along chorus – an element, which, while prevalent in Dual Core’s music, is often the shortcoming of CS rap in general – contains just enough humor, just enough doe-eyed infatuation, and just enough allusions to Hackers. Though I’m nothing short of thrilled with eighty’s contribution, this is easily a track in which 64 displays his musical mettle.
6. "Fantastic Four (ft. Beefy, YTCracker, and Wheelie Cyberman)"
   The third in a trio of veritably flawless offerings, "Fantastic Four" is, conservatively speaking, the finest nerdcore posse track since "Nerdcore Rising," and quite possibly the best of all time. 64 exercises amazing restraint by letting these four epic MCs do what they do in a manner that is very Jurassic 5 (and, yes, that’s a huge compliment). eighty’s slow and steady flow is a nice counterpoint to Wheelie’s speed, while Beefy’s sharp annunciation plays well off YT’s thick, nasally drawl. A highlight of this or any album that is sure to please. Truthfully, this is the sort of track that almost makes an album hard to review because you just wanna keep listening to it over and over! If I didn’t know better, I’d think this song was crafted just for me.
7. "Random Bits"
   With listeners breathless from the previous barrage of razor-sharp witticisms and tag team MCing, this track trails in with an oddly dissonant flavor to the beat. Surprisingly short and very techy, "Random Bits" boasts a level of smooth DG posturing that would make YT proud. A nice change of pace, this one reminds us that Dual Core, while now wholly entrenched in their "sound," are unafraid of experimentation.
8. "Lost Reality (ft. Ill Poetic)"
   Damn it’s nice to hear some political venom for a change. Am I sick of hope? It’s a possibility, but it’s much more likely that, like eighty himself, I’m simply a bit tired of election year promises and bought-and-paid-for optimism. This uniquely nerdcore take on the current political state features the best use of Bushisms in recent musical memory, and guest rapper Ill Poetic comes through as another Class A contributor. While a political track on such a personal album may seem an odd choice from which to draw a title, the song is yet another high point on a disc full of superlative material. While eighty has long demonstrated his ability to convey sorrow, elation, and resonant concern, the anguish and frustration inherent in lines like "Do you even know who your representative is?" further serves to highlight his scope as a vocalist.
9. "Judgment Day"
   Another movie song in the spirit of "A New Hope" (the first cut from Zero One), "Judgment Day" takes on the Terminator mythos with skill and vigor. At once a counterintuitive follow-up and a perfect transition from "Lost Reality," it serves to blur the line between political reality and nihilistic allegory. While int eighty’s stark rhymes seem firmly placed at the forefront, this track all but belongs to c64 as he pulls out all the stops to draw you deeper into the dense undertones of his creation.
10. "Rock It"
    In short, this is just as big a banger as the title implies. After plying his skills as a lyrical chameleon up to this point, eighty sort of reverts to his default flow for this track, but, to his credit, it still sounds great. The hook is screechy, pitchy, and somehow totally fitting, and lets you know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that this song was made to be performed live. Concert attendees take note: learn the chorus now. You will be expected to sing along.
11. "Dual Core"
    Thus far I’ve bandied the word "personal" about fairly liberally with regard to this album, but this track takes that concept to its logical conclusion. We’ve admired Dual Core for three albums now with only the slightest inkling as to their origins, but at last their story is told. In verse, no less. With a lead-in I can only characterize as "crazy-ass" and a beat that is wholly fitting such an epic tale, this one links nerds and rap better than any song before in a firsthand account of triumph and gratitude.
12. "Take It Forward"
    Slow and deliberate both lyrically and musically, "Take It Forward" confronts stereotypes head on and in a manner most eloquent. Much like the overall album, it brilliantly combines substance with uniquely relatable hip-hop. A song for anyone who’s sick of having to explain what they are as opposed to demonstrating who they are. eighty uniquely defines himself not merely as a hacker, a gamer, or a rapper, but as a complex individual who refuses to hide behind labels, even those with whom he proudly associates. Again, this is exactly the kind of personal, universal fare upon which Lost Reality is built.
13. "Take It Back (ft. Stephanie KB)"
    A great counterpoint that tweaks the musical motifs of "Take It Forward" to make a completely different animal. While still figuratively centered on showing what you are by being who you are, it is quite literally about the tenacity of the gamer. While lyrically on-point, this track is so musically impeccable that it seems almost wrong not to tip the artistic hat to 64. Though I wasn’t exactly sure about Stephanie KB’s vocal contribution going into the track, by the last chorus I was singing along myself! Her voice adds a really different element – an additional aural texture, if you will – that compliments the booming beat and tight guitars perfectly. Another song that manages to remind you that Dual Core is much like gaming at its best: all about friendship, camaraderie, and frenetic action.
14. "Player vs. Player"
    If there’s one thing historically missing from hip-hop, it is existential angst. This song remedies that by having eighty confront what can rightly be called his dark side. This nerdiest battle rap on record pits our own hero against a mainstream caricature of his genuine substance and style. While it features some of eighty’s sharpest couplets to date, it also shows an inherent understanding of the reasons behind his distaste of the overly simple nature of much of commercial rap: anti-eighty’s rhymes are funny but not necessarily fun and memorable without ever being clever. 64 again shows great restraint by letting the song be as opposed to trying to shoehorn in unnecessary elements. Seriously old school and really different than the rest of this album’s tracks in sound, but wholly at home in scope and still undeniably Dual Core.
15. "Fantastic Four (Remix)"
    A second helping of the earlier musical excellence that was "Fantastic Four," this take lets c64 flex his muscles via a totally re-orchestrated backing – which is, oddly enough, the song's original take. Looser, with its lilting harmonica, but also somehow more appropriate in its less frantic state, this "remix" is every bit as good as the song's first instance. Once again, 64 proves that the best Dual Core remixes come from their own lab. A smooth jam that refuses languish, it wraps up the album nicely... except that it’s not quite the end.
16. "Hidden Track"
    Taking us home is what can only be described as a crazy acid house remix of "Give Me Wings" (my favorite track from Zero One). While he’s come to the forefront several times in the album proper, this one is all 64. Further, it proves that, no matter how you slice it, he’s easily one of the best nerdcore DJs/producers out there. This one mixes well with alcohol for late night partying. It’s like a gourmet mint on your pillow at a luxury hotel; it’s not strictly necessary, but it reinforces the excellence of the overall experience.
    

One of the reasons I tend to eschew the word "review" is that it is positively packed with pretense. Most disturbingly, it gives the impression that I have done your requisite listening for you, when, in fact, it should do the opposite.

Whether I love or hate a track, I hope that my words don’t color your opinion so much as they challenge you to listen for yourself. My impressions are merely, as I’m so fond of saying, one asshole's opinion. And yet I hope you see it, at the very least, as an informed opinion.

And my (hopefully) informed opinion is that you should immediately purchase Dual Core’s Lost Reality. Not just because I enjoy it, mind you, but because I believe you will enjoy it.

It has a sort of universal appeal that can be attributed both to an obvious love of craft on the parts of both eighty and 64 and a uniquely relatable approach to songwriting. I think eighty summed it up best when he admitted that while their previous efforts may have presented opportunities to "get to know about Dual Core," Lost Reality offers the listener a chance to "get to know Dual Core."

And I highly suggest you do.

"The beat’s in the speakers, so we gotta rock it."

Hard to the Core

Do you know what I like? Bacon!

But I reckon this isn’t exactly the place to talk about that. On the other hand, this is the perfect place to talk about something else I like, in this case international nerdcore combo Dual Core.

A few weeks back, int eighty promised me an update concerning the various exciting things the band’s been up to in recent months, and such a communiqué just graced my inbox. And since I know y’all dig Dual Core too, I thought I’d share the wealth.

Think of it as an artist-specific NNIB, in all it’s bulleted glory.

• New Digs: At long last, the new version of the official Dual Core Web site is now online. It features an RSS feed, snippets from their albums, and photos from recent shows. Peep the knowledge.
• Missing: 1 Reality. Slightly Used. Reward.: At even longer last, the duo’s new album Lost Reality is now officially available online through said swanky new site. You can also score it via iTunes and Amazon, so there’s no reason not to own it. (I’ll elaborate on this fact later this month in my official album review.)
• Friends Like These: You can also hear the dulcet tones of eighty on the newly released Digital Gangster LP from the dynamic duo of YTCracker and MC Lars. Did I mention that this is an album you need to buy as well?
• On the Road Again: Dual Core also joined the Digital Gangster tour with MC Frontalot, MC Lars, and YT for three glorious shows in Bowling Green, Chicago, and DeKalb. And they’ve appeared at a number of conventions including Toorcon X (San Diego, CA), Con on the Cob (Akron, OH), Ohio Linux Fest (Columbus, OH), Day-Con II (Dayton, OH), and Phreaknic 12 (Nashville, TN).
• The Future is Now: Perhaps most importantly, eighty let slip that they are already hard at work on their next album, which will, I am assured, boast "more awesome production from c64." Not only that, but they’re slated for guest appearances on several other upcoming releases. Of course, they didn’t want to spoil the surprise by telling me which releases. But trust me; as soon as I know, you’ll know.

Nerdcore's European Vacation

What is the meaning of this?!

Okay, admittedly that came off a bit too demanding, but check out the link and see if you don't have a similar reaction. Go ahead. I'll wait.

Done? Good.

Let's discuss:

When this site was brought to my attention this weekend, I was a little skeptical. I mean, why would some as-yet-unknown (at least to me) Dutch organization purport to be bringing nerdcore to The Netherlands? That seems, y'know, a little unbelievable. But the more I looked into this, the more legit it appeared.

First and foremost, the idea of a European screening of Nerdcore For Life certainly isn't out of the question. And both the site's info concerning the doc and its presentation seem to jive with the overall feel of the film, as well as its established modus operandi. (To this end, I've hit up Dan for details and will share them when/if they become available.)

Secondly, the site's footer links the Glitched event with Glitch.nl, the R&D arm of Dutch Internet application firm 4worx. So this, too, makes sense, as I have no problem believing that such a company would benefit from sponsoring what amounts to a Euro-centric geek celebration.

Then we have the clincher. Check Beefy's sig file over at Rhyme Torrents, and you'll see a link to the same event page. So it doesn't exactly take Adam fucking Savage to state that this is, at least on the surface, wholly plausible. But there are many unanswered questions.

If Lars, YT, Beefy and Router have been confirmed to perform – which, again, makes sense when attached to a film screening – will this be an isolated event or can we expect a full-on European tour? Moreover, does this mark Router's official return to the nerdcore fold? And there's always the question on money; I mean, is 4worx really footing the bill to fly these folks all the way to Amsterdam?

In the end, what I'm looking for is details. Failing that, I'll also accept theory and/or conjecture.

My fellow nerds, you now have the floor.

Nerd News in Brief

In a week that's seen the (thankfully non-fatal) YTCracker/MC Lars/MC Frontalot tour van crash and mc chris (once again) apologize to the nerdcore community, things can not conceivably get any weirder. Or can they?

Such events have led me to one simple and irrefutable conclusion; the end is nigh.

To further drive home this point, I will now call to your attention that today is the birthday of one Schaffer the Darklord. If my star charts and sacred geometry are accurate, Schaff is, by my rough calculations, 666 years old. This, of course, means that he will soon rise to power and govern for seven years of peace. Before, y'know, eventually gathering the masses of his father's black army to charge headlong into the battle of Armageddon.

Bow before the son of perdition! Also wish him a happy birthday!

And while we wait for what will surely be our bloody and painful end, here's some Nerd News in Brief.

• Kiss and Make Up: As previously mentioned, mc chris has started what can be casually termed an atonement thread over at Rhyme Torrents. His wish is to "squash every shred of beef before the new year," and to that end he is answering questions and explaining his sometimes inflammatory actions of the last year. For those of you who only make an annual pilgrimage to the RT forums, this is certainly the thread to plumb.
• Short:Also from the mc chris file comes this piece from Charleston's The Post & Courier. It's a (very) brief interview with mc. It's important, however, because therein he mentions his current cartoon project, which also comes up in his RT thread.
• Gonna be His Man: As a result of the aforementioned auto accident, MC Frontalot is looking for a replacement tour keyboardist. (NPR wasn't hurt in the accident, but his nerves were far to frazzled to carry on.) Do you play keys? Are you familiar with Front's catalog? Are you looking for work? Give the bespectacled one a holler!
• Watch Out Boy, She'll Chew You Up: Church points out that the University of Missouri – Columbia Maneater loves Frontalot's new album. It does, however, erroneously name "Wallflwoers" the album's best track when we all know that title goes to "A Skit About Vocations."
• There be Dragons: Also from Church is this link to the Googlemaps version of Cloverfield. It's like watching the movie all over again. Only much more awkward.
• Something Old, Something New: This week's releases are what you may term "exciting". On one hand we get a collection of classic Metamystiks material (i.e.: all their shit) compiled in one simple package in the form of Children of the Sword. On the other we get brand new hotness from Able-X's concept album The Butterfly Effect. Can you get them both for free? Yes you can!
• Special Guest: The newest edition of The Geekly Weekly features an interview with anime voice actor Kyle Hebert. He's worked on shows such as Dragonball Z and Bleach, which I assume everyone save my anime-illiterate ass already knew. Take a listen.
• Tonight's the Night: Oh, to live in Gotham! It seems like I miss out on all the good shit due to my not living in New York. Wait, you live in NYC, don't you? Then, by gods, you better head out to Otto's Shrunken Head at around 10ish tonight for a free show from my friends Uncle Monsterface and Shael Riley and my not-really-a-friend-but-I'm-sure-he's-a-great-guy Sudden Death! Yes this free show is free! Go there. Get drunk. Buy stuff. Kiss Marty! This I command!
• Sins of the Father: And while you're buying shit, be sure to pick up the new limited edition "Father of Death" 7" from The Protomen. The vinyl also comes with a digital download code that lets you get the single and b-side (in this case "No Easy Way Out" of Rocky IV fame) to boot. Get 'em now while they can still be got.
• And Lest I Forget: Tomorrow is the big day for my pal Anthony's West Coast Wigout, a nerdcore and VGM show featuring The Megas, ZeaLouS1, and… wait… Sudden Death? How the fuck is he pulling that off? At any rate: 10 bucks, 7:00 PM to 1:00 AM, CIA. Be there.
• An Icy Chill: How else could we end a week so genuinely fucking odd than with this submission from Matt? It's Jonathan Coulton performing "Creepy Doll" live in Manchester with special guest Neil Gaiman. Be afraid.
  
  
  

Righteous Bad Ass

Have I mentioned lately my boundless affection for our northern neighbors?

No? Then allow me the pleasure; I love Canada. I love Canadians. I love the Northwest Territories Human Rights Act. I love Second City Television. I love Rush and the Leafs and vinegar on french fries. (Though I do not love poutine. Sorry, Snake.)

With all that on the table, it's no surprise that some of my favorite artists are also Canadian: Baddd Spellah, Wordburglar, The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets, and the aforementioned Snake Eyes just to name a few. But when one references the mystical land of Canadia in the same breath as nerdy music, it is likely that this wholly theoretical individual is talking about none other than Jesse Dangerously.

Never one to turn down the chance to drop a little knowledge, Jesse was kind enough to agree to a little virtual sit-down with yours truly. Therein we discussed his humble hip-hop beginnings, his love/hate relationship with the nerdcore community, and kidnapping Weird Al Yankovic.

Suffice it to say it's a good time.

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You've stated before that you became interested in rap in the late 1980's. Was there a lot of hip-hop coming out of Halifax at that time?

There was a little, but I wasn't exposed to it yet. Having been born in 1979 and introduced to rap through more or less the usual pop culture channels by the time I was ten, I was too young to have done much independent exploring of what was going on either downtown or on the ground in any neighborhoods other than my own. Halifax's storied North End, home to the tragically stigmatized Uniacke Square project created to house the displaced residents of Africville when the city decided to demolish our continent's oldest indigenous black community (smooth move), had all kinds of hip-hop culture popping off, due to kids importing nth-generation tapes of New York radio shows and even early hip-hop live events. So from that area there were local crews like Uniacke Square Posse, Care Crew, MCJ and Cool G, Universal Soul and anyone working with the mighty Witchdoc Jorun who would become the scene's most venerable DJ and producer through time. Also, people like Buck 65 or the members of Hip Club Groove who were from more rural, outlying areas of Nova Scotia made a point of seeking out the tiny, nascent rap scene in order to become a part of something real. But they were already teenagers, some just barely, by the time anyone told me rap existed, which for me was the summer after grade 5 if I recall correctly. So it was a while yet before I was able to experience any of what my own city had to offer, instead relying on pop radio to play Young MC or Maestro Fresh-Wes and my friends to dub me their older brothers' major label tapes.

The first inkling I got that there might be anyone doing it locally was a CBC (Canada's NPR, except nationalized) broadcast that my dad taped for me in maybe 1991 or so. I think the show was Basic Black, named for its host (Arthur Black) and not any particular cultural group, but I could be mistaken. They were talking to a few local MCs and even though I think I lost the tape shortly after hearing it and only ever heard it a few times, I remember clearly that they spoke to MC Fiz of Universal Soul and that he explained he got his name from when he was in an earlier crew where they all took their names from different kinds of candy and they played a song by him and another rapper that was called "Free At Last" - I should ask Jorun if he has the song anywhere, he archives everything he was ever involved with - and one of the MCs shouted out his address in a verse. I didn't know any neighborhood but what lay between my house and school, so the street name "Maynard" didn't mean anything to me at the time, but later when I became a frequent visitor to (and eventually, resident of) the north end, I started to realize what a statement of pride it was to represent for the area most disrespected and maltreated by the municipality at large.

People laugh about the idea of Canadian cities having ghettoes, and therefore rap (which is a troubling equation in itself), and with the overall non-white population of the country overall being so low, there are probably hundreds of thousands of people in this country whose principal interaction with any non-white culture is watching BET or harassing the one native kid in town. But urban areas are a different story, and Halifax is a different story yet again. Some of the larger urban areas are quite diverse, racially... Nova Scotia, on the other hand, was a haven for ex-slaves (escaped from the US, generally) and their descendants right up until the middle of the last century when we bulldozed their community to build a second bridge across the harbour, and instead of our increased population adding to the region's diversity, we have like three tiny, marginalized pockets of black community and the most deeply entrenched sense of mutual resentment I've encountered anywhere in the country. Not on an individual basis - person-to-person, most people respect one another and find it easy enough to get along. But white Nova Scotia as a culture is unsympathetic and exasperated with the things they don't understand about Black Nova Scotia, and Black Nova Scotia is sick and tired of being told to just get over it by (even the most liberal elements of) white Nova Scotia, and sorely-needed co-operation is rare because everyone has their hackles up whether for good reasons or bad. I never realized I was swimming in such a racist environment until I moved away and spent more time in parts of Canada where - although still far from perfect - more progress had been made in coming together. Nova Scotia's still stuck at maybe square one and a half.

I'm sorry to write you a book on that tangent, I just wanted to address the themes that underlie the idea that it might be surprising to know that there was rap in Halifax before white media imported it as a commodity.

You've obviously been greatly influenced by the artists of hip-hop's "golden age" of the late 80's/early 90's, an era that saw the rise of acts as disparate as Public Enemy, 3rd Bass, N.W.A., and De La Soul. Do you feel that contemporary hip-hop is this diverse?

Absolutely and also not at all. Like, on a sheer artist-by-artist basis, ignoring any question of exposure or popularity, every kind of rap you can imagine is being made somewhere in the world right now, so diversity is greater than it ever has been. However, the early 90s was a time when even major labels were experimenting and taking risks - not because they were nobler then than now, but because they didn't know yet exactly what aspect of rap was going to resonate the strongest with the buying public. It's funny that you mention those four acts in particular, because not only with the hindsight of nearly two decades do those acts seem to have had more in common than separating them at the time, but the differences that do exist between them are more or less exemplary of four different ways the labels were courting a white audience - PE and NWA represent vicarious thrills, either by aligning yourself with the struggle or trying to live vicariously through cartoonishly debauched thug shit, and 3rd Bass and De La represent more comfortable familiarity for a stereotyped white audience, with all but the DJ in the former group being real live white people and the latter group having a decidedly non-threatening, erudite and educated demeanour about them. I hate to talk about some of my favourite groups that way (except NWA, I hate that shit) when I know that their artistic endeavours represent so much more than that - De La Soul weren't trying to act more WHITE, they were just being more or less themselves in an ocean of exaggerated stereotypes. Public Enemy wasn't a hollow pretense at revolution like Rage Against The Machine or that hackey-sacking dude we all know who has awful poems about freedom, they honestly bore the torch of black pride and black power for an in-between generation who were lacking revolutionary leadership. 3rd Bass was two white guys from different backgrounds in New York - one from the hood, one with an English degree - who were very serious about contributing to hip-hop culture in their own way. NWA was even the same way really, except they were from LA and Ice Cube's degree is in engineering. But the reason they seemed sooooo different at the time isn't because of what really made them different, it was the marketing. And now, nearly twenty years later, hip-hop marketing is no longer an experimental venture. A combination of an entrenched commercial rap establishment and the least adventurous music industry in history means that since they figured out cocaine and misogyny were the magic binary compound to alchemically turn black people into money, nothing else has been given a fighting chance in the mainstream. Even our "conscious" rappers are just describing the flipside of that same limited coin - if the dominant rap style is gangsters, it creates a niche in its shadow not so much for non-gangsters, but for specifically anti-gangsters, or a particularly soulful kind of gangster. Nobody is really interested in giving black America a platform to talk about something that ISN'T cocaine or misogyny, there's just a moment where you get to choose your angle - do you love selling crack or hate seeing what it's done to your community? Do you feel like women were put on earth to cater to your sexual whim or are you specifically opposed to that viewpoint, constituting the beginning and the end of feminism as far as the rap establishment is concerned?

But the irony with me talking about all that is that it doesn't really affect what I do, or what anyone does that I know. This is where a dichotomy rises up between my perspective as a cultural consumer and my perspective as a participant in creating things - since I'm an active listener to rap music from all eras and all regions and well most styles, I have an opinion on the mainstream stranglehold because it interferes with what new music ever gets exposed to me. But on an independent level, unless an artist makes a conscious decision to compete in that narrow field, it has no bearing on what we do. And that's why contemporarily, hip-hop is actually more diverse than ever - it just takes a lot more individual legwork to plumb the considerable depths of the various niches now than it did when they were shallower but better lit.

I guess the one other way in which the narrowing of what's accepted in mainstream rap does affect me is that it narrows the expectations of hip-hop's potential audience. Even though rap is ubiquitous now and almost everybody likes at least some of it, it's relatively rare for a person who doesn't intentionally immerse themselves in it to be cognizant of the fact that it has broad possibilities and doesn't actually have to be either a guilty pleasure or shameless vice. Like, misogynist rap is popular because western culture is extremely misogynistic and it's being produced to meet that demand, not because it's impossible to respect women at the same time you speak lyrics without singing. I hate it when rap is singled out for blame on that tip, and I also hate when ignorant motherfuckers celebrate it on that tip. Okay I'm definitely digressing at this point I just wish people - whether they think they hate rap or love it - were more open to the idea that it can be different than the fast food version they get rammed down their throats. If you like that cool and if you don't cool but it's only the merest tip of the iceberg, I just wish people were better informed about that.

Your distinctive style is characterized by rapid-fire delivery, acerbic wordplay, and dynamic intonation. How long did it take you to find your voice as an MC?

Leaving aside that it's still shifting and settling in a lot of ways, I guess it took me about six to eight years to go from a very stripped-down and derivative flow, through a phase of totally unintelligible and barely rhythmic speed raps, to the stuff I was doing in 2001 which pretty much forms the basis of my style such as it is today. I'm still not satisfied though, and I don't think I will be satisfied until I can't tell my own records from records by Akinyele, Lord Finesse or Casual. And that will never happen, and that's a good thing, but for that reason I don't think I'll ever stop trying on new hats and by hats I mean flows, inflections, tempos, harmonies, whatever. My friends influence me a lot, especially when I'm collaborating, I don't want to kick a rhyme that's too superscientifical or fey when I'm rapping with someone who only listens to M.O.P. so I let different influences and impulses come to the forefront. I hope to always have a very fluid style, and to continue to add tools to my belt for the rest of my life.

As someone who both raps and produces, what's the songwriting process like for Jesse Dangerously? Do you tend to build verses from beats, beats from verses, or is there more a delicate balance?

I don't think I've ever set out to make a beat to suit a set of lyrics, I think it's almost always vice versa unless I'm remixing someone else's song. Most commonly, especially in the last few years when I've had so many backed-up collaborations on the go, I write to the specific beat. I just play it over and over and sit there and work on the raps for hours or months or whatever it takes. Sometimes I'll put on the instrumental from another artist's 12" if it has a crazy vibe that's unlike anything I could do myself or anything I'm likely to get from a friend, and I'll write to that until I'm sick of it. I remember writing a lot of older material, probably stuff that wound up on Origami, over the instrumental to Company Flow's "End-To-End Burners." In 2005, I wrote two nearly complete songs over "Hola Hovito" which is a track Timbaland produced for Jay-Z - I didn't even have the 12", I just kept lifting the needle back on the LP and writing more and more until I had everything but the very end of "Outfox'd," plus a full set of lyrics for another song that subsequently found a home on a slammin' Baddd Spellah beat that happened to have almost the same bounce. The beat tends to dictate a lot of what goes into the rhyme as far as cadence, melodic parts and structure (if it's already tracked out). Occasionally I get such a fiery-hot lyric idea that I'll write part of a verse in my head (risky) or on paper with no beat when I'm out somewhere, but usually a beat is involved in tidying up that lyric and making it presentable.

Historically, your rhymes have often boasted a palpable socially conscious slant. Do you consider yourself a political rapper?

Yeah I think that's a mantle I've tried to wear, but I'm pretty staunch about not wanting to be a BORING or DISMAL political rapper, because I hate that shit even when I agree with the content. I'm drawing on my favourite era, back when every rapper was political in some sense whether intentionally or not, but still felt an obligation to be entertaining. Because what's the point of expressing what you consider to be important political content if the form that expression takes makes people want to not listen to what you're saying? That's why if I make a track that's a polemic on a given topic, I still want to be flexing rhyme acrobatics or even just giving people an emotional anchor point they can hold onto that makes it personal and relatable instead of a scathing stream of statistics and vitriol about all the things that I wish were going differently in the world. It's also why I do things like throw a thumbs-up to abortion in the third verse of "Aww Shucks," which is mainly a gimmicky and fun brag rap that just goes right off the rails into an indictment of racism at the end. By that time you're four minutes in, you've hopefully had fun during the first two and a half verses and there's still another set of scratches you want to hear so if I play my cards right, you're invested in sticking with me through the opinionated elements and maybe it'll stick with you next time you give that stuff some thought. Originally I had even rhymed "anti-abortion" with "Andrea Dworkin" on my sketchpad, which would have been a whole other political mess to get into, but fortunately my homegirl Andrea Dorfman made a movie called Parsley Days which was on the topic and provided a funny bridge from a line about "herb" (specifically not drinking booze or smoking it, so I guess that's lightly political as well) so I got to shout out a Nova Scotian indie film maker and also avoid trying to deal with analyzing the social impact of pornography in one or two lines of brag rap before wrapping it up.

I think, especially in an artform as verbose as rap but also always, it's almost intrinsically political to make art. Whatever perspective you bring with you becomes part of the cultural discourse, so that a song with a particular idea doesn't represent only one person thinking it but anywhere between a few dozen to a few million people being confronted with it and taking it under consideration to some extent themselves, whether consciously or just as any one of the zillions of flecks of intellectual detritus that we absorb or deflect every minute we're awake. So I want to make people deal with the things I think are right or wrong on that level at least, so I make a point of being honest in my lyrics. I think that's political, and if certain people would undertake it (not me, I'm too establishment) it could be radically so. And I wish they would, and I'm glad when they do.

In contrast, the bulk of the cuts from your recent release Verba Volant, or, at the very least, the tone of these tracks, tend to give it a more good-time, party album feel. Was this by design? Was there a concerted effort to "lighten up?"

There definitely wasn't a concerted effort, and for my part I had the feeling that Verba Volant was maybe a little darker or more sober than Inter Alia, but I guess nothing involving Timbuktu (the producer, not the African city) can be completely sober. "So! Much! Fun! (UNH!)" is about some fairly heavy personal ish, but I guess it's kind of disguised by being pretty and at least superficially optimistic... "The Day's Arc" was supposed to be kind of ominous, or at least grumpy, as well, but I guess it's also too fast to make sense without reading along in one's booklet. So I can confidently say I wasn't trying to lighten up, per se, but I will admit to this - when I work with others, as on VV and IA and the record I was working on for three years before that and didn't finish, I feel an obligation to please my collaborator. And it would feel completely weird to take a beat that someone else gave me, particularly for an album that's intended to be almost as much theirs as it is mine (but not quite), and force them to tacitly endorse every breakneck, winding turn of my personal philosophies. So I did make more of an effort to rap in styles and on topics that I hoped would be most agreeable and interesting to the homies, and for that matter I was trying to match the tenor of the beats they gave me to work with. I feel like overall the vibe to Verba Volant is kinda spooky-carnival-but-not-in-a-Insane-Clown-Posse-way, and being like "okay I'm about to take you to the outer limits of the horror and rage I feel with regard to violence against women!" over a beat like the title track would have undermined both the topic and the fun potential of that beat.

That said, this is why the album I'm finishing up this summer is 100% self-produced, because there have been things I've been bottling up and feel a need to confront in rap form, and I figured only my own beats were the exact right place to take care of some of them.

Which brings us to an interesting topic. Despite the fact that you're known for your production acumen as well as your skills on the mic, both Verba Volant and its predecessor Inter Alia feature outside producers. Was there a clear reason behind your decision not to self-produce those albums?

Aw yer makin' me blush. Am I really known for it? Go on! But yeah there was a clear reason by the time Inter Alia came around, which was that I had been out of the habit of making beats for over two years by that point. It was combination of technology marching on and inertia on my part - once I bit the bullet and started using Windows instead of DOS, it got harder and harder to have Impulse Tracker 2.14 as my axe for beats. Eventually I just couldn't run it at all anymore. If I were a different kind of person, that would have been my great catalyst to save up some dough (I even had a job in those days) and buy some real gear or at least pirate some up-to-date software, but instead I was like you know what? I'm TIRED from making all these beats, it's 2003 and I'm down with Backburner and half my friends are making insanely dope beats that I'm drooling over every weekend anyway and I want some of that magic to come MY way for once. I'm going on sabbatical!

I started soliciting beats for a record I called The So-Called Solo Album (making fun of rappers who break away to make a "solo" record with over a dozen other people involved) and the plan was to have sixteen tracks, with each producer represented one time only. I got at homies I knew online from different scenes so that we could all be cross-promoted to one another's audience... not just me but so that fans of one producer could discover other ones they never would have heard of otherwise. Plus ha ha I would get all the dopest beats. And I did! I got a couple dozen truly fantastic beats and I wrote the best rhymes - to this day - of my whole career over them, and then I got stalled on recording and have yet to finish the album. I do a lot of those songs live though, and I have been ever since before Inter Alia, because they're some of my best songs. I just get too easily distracted I guess. Inter Alia was supposed to be a little side project while I took a short breather from that album, and now I've done two and a half other albums since then. It's rough being my own A&R; I have no discipline!

Seriously, Jesse, what's up with all the goddamn Latin?

Aside from just being very pretentious, I used to work in a law office and later I entered the family business of title searching which also involves reading a lot of legal documents, and a few of the cliché phrases really stuck out to me and seemed cool. "Inter alia" just means "among others", say if you're selling a bunch of land lots in the same deed, and at the time I felt really connected to the Halifax hip-hop scene, like being among others and playing shows with them and writing songs with them was the best thing, and also it was a really active time for me socially even outside or auxiliary to the hip-hop scene so I felt very warmly toward the people around me. Most of the songs have to do with those relationships too - not the remixes so much but "Outfox'd" is about conflict and is mainly set in that community, "The Altogether" is a posse cut with friends I was playing live with a lot, "The Prestidigitator" is about the new confidence I had with women and "The Force" is about growing up in Halifax and loving rap, eventually culminating in the familial situation I was feeling at the time. Even having the scratches split between my regular DJ, Uncle Fester, and Halifax scene legend Jorun was a reflection of that sense of belonging that was so new to me after a decade of being chumped for liking rap.

Once I had that name in place, I decided to make it the first in a series - I liked the split-producer formula, I liked the brevity of an EP plus two remixes and I liked having covers that would look cool all lined up together. So I made the Latin phrase part of the blueprint, and when Verba Volant was nearly finished I made a list of ones that I thought would suit it and showed them to the producers and DJ, and got feedback. Verba Volant seemed especially apt once we noticed how fast I was rapping on most tracks, even though I'm always trying to slow down on Backburner beats. The next one (not the self-produced record I was talking about) is called Ipso Facto, and I've got a nice stash saved up for future installments. I mean it's a whole language so the possibilities are actually fairly vast.

You're very often associated with the nerdcore hip-hop movement - to a degree, I've noticed, that it tends to dominate most of your recent interviews and other press. Do you find this at all stifling to the musical message you seek to impart through such dialogue?

Well only a little bit. I think with some interviews I've had, if not for having the nerdcore angle to hang it on I might not have got the call in the first place. Certainly it was my foot in the door at MTV Canada, which hopefully will still prove fruitful. But yeah if you only get so many words and whoever edits the interview chooses to place emphasis on that part of the conversation, all the other stuff I'm more interested in gets reduced to a blip. And that's their prerogative, but it can be frustrating. It still gets my name out, but I'm still ambivalent as to whether having been associated with Nerdcore as a fixed idea has been beneficial or harmful to me.

In the Nerdcore For Life documentary, you state that you're fine with the nerdcore association providing it's used more as an umbrella term as opposed to relating to a specific niche or sub-genre. In your opinion, which is it?

Dude, until you asked me that I didn't know if any of my footage made it into the movie! I kind of assumed I probably got cut out after another year of shooting and editing, I'm happy to hear that I didn't. Unless I came off stupid - how was my hair?? But yeah that was a three hour interview from just over two years ago, so I can't remember what exactly I was talking about then or even if it's something I still think is accurate, but since you're asking me that right now I'll just answer based on what I think now, which is that Nerdcore is a scene. It's a weirdly aggregated scene, since its venue is certain websites and very little in-person contact (Nerdapalooza notwithstanding, I'm still waiting for Wordburglar to fully debrief me on that event but it sounds like it was a lot of fun), and I think the things which make it different from how other scenes work are the things which make it mostly suck and be a chore to deal with. Basically, it's all the cliquishness and ego clashes that make traditional scenes so turbulent, multiplied by the collective mentality of the YouTube comment page. I think if all those exact same people had to deal with one another face-to-face with any regularity, the "beefs" would arise and play out very differently. Some people would be way more polite, and some people would be way more scarce, and some people just wouldn't bother. But it would cut down on how much any discourse in that community, such as it is, is dominated by completely infantile bullshit.

One of the major things that really trips up nerdcore as a scene, socially, is the total rearrangement of power dynamics that occurs on the web. Nerds may still be geeks on message boards, but they aren't necessarily DWEEBS anymore. Who gets to pick on whom gets totally reset to the norm of mainstream culture, without a lot of niggling subsets - white males rule the roost and behave almost predatorily toward anyone else. The internet is basically inside every nerd's head, so instead of being cowed by women the dweeby little shy dude gets to act out his resentment toward them for all the ways they make him feel. The power flip ruins people, all of a sudden it's non-stop racist invective, gay-bashing and rape jokes because the internet is where no-one can kick your ass, ever. It's not that I want people to get their asses kicked, but being completely removed from accountability vis-a-vis the presence of other people can really turn some people into useless creeps.

When mc chris once again split with the nerdcore community in late 2007, he explicitly referred to you as "the only (nerdy rapper) I like." Did you have any sort of response to that declaration?

Yeah, I was very very sympathetic to it! Not just his excellent taste, but his frustration at watching what by all rights SHOULD have been a scene full of artists he would love and identify with turn out to be a scene full of people who think rap is stupid and it's funny to make bad rap. I think it was probably carelessly phrased because I know for a fact that he's down with other nerdy rappers, and I think it really speaks to the collective maturity and sensibility of the nerdcore scene that almost every single person who identifies as involved with it took that statement as a personal slight. I mean, I have the luxury of being the only person in the world excluded from the criticism in question, but I think if he had said Frontalot was the only nerdy rapper he liked, I would have been able to look at the statement as being about nerdcore at large instead of being about ME, as one of dozens of people who wasn't mentioned. As it is, it's just a nice compliment from a cool dude as far as I'm concerned. I tried to link up with Chris when I played with Front in Brooklyn but my cell phone stopped working once I was on the US network... and by "stopped working" I mean "started costing a million dollars a second just to be turned on, plus text messages didn't arrive until the next weekend". So that's a pleasure I still have to look forward to.

What nerdy rappers does Jesse Dangerously like?

Well rap is essentially an intellectual pursuit, so I could bust that category pretty wide if I wanted to talk your ear off about all the rappers throughout history who I ever thought were geniuses... but if we pare down the idea of "nerdy" to some flexible combination of not only intellectual but non-macho and at least mildly obsessed with esoterica (not Esoteric the rapper), then hmm... yeah mc chris is probably right, it's just me and him.

Only joking! I like Frontalot of course and lately I've been getting along real nice with MC Lars (wait'll you hear our song together! it's political!) and obviously Wordburglar is my baby mother so I gotta ride for him. Thesis Sahib is the real thing. Other Canadian big timers include More or Les, Epic and Noah 23. It's hard to decide exactly who's nerdy - Ghettosocks has punchlines about sitcoms and zoology and raps over the warp whistle music from Mario 3 on his last record, but he also wears allover print hoodies and probably bones every chick plus doesn't care about the internet, does that still count? Buck 65 probably hasn't played a video game since VIC-20 but he's really into film and literature and did a whole concept album around the year 1957, is that nerdy? The whole Wu-Tang Clan went from kung-fu movie names to Marvel Comics alter-egos. KRS-ONE does lecture tours, Rhymefest and J-Live and Defari are all teachers... I'm getting off the point, I don't even like Defari. I just can't decide to put more emphasis on whether I like a rapper or whether they're nerdy enough. Birdapres is a font of classic hip-hop knowledge and I think he's one of the best rappers in Canada ever but he'll bust your melon. Sage Francis is intellectual but played football in high school and I think he has a black belt in something. Having a black belt is pretty nerdy, though. Which brings me back to the fact that anything which takes discipline and perseverance is a nerdy pursuit, which definitely includes rap, which means that my answer is Big Daddy Kane.

Sorry to all my friends whose raps I like and whose names I didn't say. It probably just means I think you've kissed too many people to qualify as all that nerdy.

Has your connection with nerdcore, and, in turn, the media's recent minor fascination with burgeoning nerd culture, served to further your career in any way? Has it opened up any doors?

Like I said, I'm ambivalent! For example, it's been great being homies with Frontalot and other dudes who are serious (if hilarious) artists and serious (if gregarious) people and it certainly helped U.S. and international sales of Inter Alia when I was on Front's first record because he's so in touch with the devoted on-line fanbase he's courted and cultivated... but I wonder sometimes if just as many people don't decide I'm not worth it when they see the way I look, which is already not super compelling to the hip-hop aficionado, and take it in context with the vast majority of attention-getters within what calls itself Nerdcore, which is basically all the same people who made me start to feel like an idiot for going to anime conventions. Just... you know, goofy and whiny and self-absorbed assholes. It's disappointing that those dudes basically get to set the tone for the whole scene, because there are lots of kids involved who would otherwise be really interesting. I wind up having to make an effort to distance myself from these dudes who've enshrined themselves in a concentrated microcosm of all the things that made me feel like a misfit in REAL high school.. and then *I'm* the one who's picking on the poor nerds! Maybe I'm just negative, but it seems to me at this point that I have more to lose than to gain from the association. But... it exists.

Before I fall into the aforementioned trap myself, just let me ask one more nerdcore-related question: Is there a place for the genuine nerd in hip-hop?

Yeah, but only one. His name is Lupe Fiasco and when he dies or retires at a ripe old age, a successor will be crowned.

What's the bigger threat to rap as a whole: The classic sucker MC, the modern player hater, or the return of the Roland TR-808?

Well first of all, I think the player tends to BE the classic sucker MC, and the modern player hater can only improve hip-hop by discouraging that scourge. Players are wack! The whole point of being a player is running some kind of a hustle, whether it gets him boned or paid or whatever. They don't give a shit about art. Their continued presence in rap can only hurt it. The 808 on the other hand has potential for great good - those big, beefy sine wave kicks are essential to fattening up a reedy break, and the analog imitation cowbell and claps have a hypnotic effect on well... me. I love the 808, I think it's sucker producers who use it wrong that are the problem.

So the closest answer is (A), the sucker MC. Except he's not always an MC, there's suckers in every walk of life. They must be eliminated through examples of freshness!

Better Alpha Flight: The hip-hop clique or the comic book (the classic John Byrne line-up, not the shitty remakes)?

This question is carefully crafted to demolish my nerd cred! Not only did I never read that title, and not only do I think the rap crew kicks ass, but they're my FRIENDS and NERDS DON'T HAVE FRIENDS. Seriously though they boast two of the tightest DJs east of Montreal, they all make amazing beats and Ghettosocks and Bix can rap their asses off. Socks is the most recent Backburner inductee, and I'm really looking forward to kickin' it with Bix when I move back to Ottawa later this month. Oh and also there's Apt, the boy wonder, who I guess retired from rhyming but collected an amazing stash of old samplers and drum machines and was already killing it with FruityLoops and who I've always been afraid would take over rap one day since I met him five years ago.

Who's even in Alpha Flight the comic group? Puck? I have like one issue of Wolverine with him in it, that's my whole experience with them. I'm saying the rap crew.

In the greater overall scope of the community, do you feel Canadian hip-hop artists get the respect they deserve?

I'm not sure what you mean by "the greater overall scope of the community". Some Canadian rappers get all kinds of love from our mainstream media or industry institutions, although it's rarely the ones I would have picked. I run in Canadian rap circles, so a lot of people I know love Canadian rap disproportionately and pay way more attention to what we have going on up here than anything else. I have no idea how we're perceived outside of Canada by hip-hop heads, except that I'm pretty sure it's pretty much not at all? Except Kardinal Offishal and maybe Saukrates if anyone reads liner notes? As far as I know, even though Swollen Members were as big as Nickelback up here for a few years, in the states people just knew about their underground shit because it had Del, Son Doobie, Everlast and Aceyalone on it and then thought they disappeared? I genuinely don't know. I do know that the particular artists I think are the most respectable aren't always the ones who appear to get the most respect, but that's probably true for everyone who has strong opinions about art, right? I mean, I think MC Shan served KRS-ONE in the Bridge exchange and that Snoop Dogg is almost as bad of a rapper as he is a person, so I'm in the minority on a lot of things when it comes to art.

I don't think *MY* Canadian friends get all the respect we deserve though, because if we did there wouldn't be enough left for anyone else! We'd take it ALL!!!

You go out of your way to rep Backburner in verse, but you seldom get to talk about them in interviews. What do fans, new and old, need to know about the crew?

Just that it's the best crew. Or maybe the worst crew made up of all the best people, I guess we're pretty poorly organized overall. But there isn't anyone involved in the posse who I think isn't exceptional in their field. I feel so fortunate to be associated with these dudes, you have no idea. Every time I hear what one of my people is working on, I get a surge of pride and I'm certain the whole world is juuuuuust about to realize that they're as dope as I think they are. But like I said, our organization is from hunger so it hasn't exactly happened yet. All that I can really tell people about Backburner is that it's a mark of quality and they really mustn't sleep. I mean we had humble beginnings and missteps in the early days sure but as of the last few years and for the rest of the future... if you get a chance to hear music by Toolshed, Wordburglar, Thesis Sahib, ginzuintriplicate, More or Les, Ghettosocks, Timbuktu, Johnny Hardcore, Rez Villain, Jay Bizzy, or anything with beats by Fresh Kils or Dexter Doolittle or Beat Mason or Uncle Fester or for that matter ME, you are only prolonging your own suffering if you pass it up. You won't love every song and you won't love every one of us, but if you like any rap at all and there isn't a member of Backburner that impresses you, then I'll eat my hat. And yours, so watch it.

What's on the horizon for Jesse Dangerously?

I'm moving with my girlfriend to Ottawa in two weeks, and going to college for Professional Writing in September. Between the move and commencing studies, I'm taking part in a last minute mini-tour with Toolshed that should carry me from Ontario to Halifax, where I'll be recording all the vocals for the new record at the exciting new official Backburner studio, The Vault, which is totally pro and not in anyone's bedroom closet or anything. Then my best friend is getting married but that's not really rap news. Then hopefully I'll get the record all polished up with scratches and artwork and everything in time to release the vinyl-only first run around... Christmas? You know how it is, though, maybe it'll take way longer, especially since I'll be in school. I think the new record is going to blow everything else I've ever done away. That's how I feel about it right now, anyway. Maybe it'll just get me sued and beat up!

And lastly, you once suggested that Weird Al do a stripped down, accordion-centered album helmed by Rick Rubin. What can we do to make that happen?

I think the first order of business is to either subvert the fundraising model of the people who have raised nearly $25,000 to cover the fee required to submit Al's name for immortalization in a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame or to mug them for their stash outright. Those people are crazy - who cares about some hokey tourist trap? You could feed thousands with that money! Or... you could use it to buy a second-hand van and some ski masks, and kidnap Messrs Yankovic and Rubin, and take them to a cabin somewhere remote and make sure they have a good range of accordions, a decent home studio rig, plenty of non-perishable food and no way to escape until they've earned their freedom by laying down enough tracks for at least three volumes of American Polka, to be released over the next five or six years. I can't imagine anyone raising any sensible complaints over a plan like that, it's only natural. Oh you know what else they'd need to be supplied with in their captivity? An FM receiver, so Al could keep up with the latest hits for parody-fodder. I think also maybe some kind of electric shock device to dissuade him in case he starts writing another song about how inane daytime TV is, or anything about farts. Plus maybe Rick Rubin should be in shackles, just in case he gets any ideas.

This is the best idea ever.

--------------

This interview was a lot of fun for me for a few reasons.

Obviously, I am a long-time fan of Jesse D, and I've always found his socio-political musings fascinating. But mostly, it's just nice to have my own observations and theories about the very nerdy nature of traditional hip-hop corroborated by someone in the know. (I am, after all, merely a fake Internet journalist.)

Hip-hop is both a passion and a lifestyle, but it is also a discipline. It is a field of study, a peculiar shade of academia all it's own. And there's nothing fundamentally geekier than school.

Jesse Dangerously is known as a bit of a ball-buster around nerdcore haunts, and with good reason. Jesse is a life-long student of hip-hop, and he expects a level of respect for the spirit and history of the artform of which some nerdy MCs are wholly bereft.

Jesse holds hip-hop in high regard, and thus it is only fitting that he demands a fairly robust level of musical perfection from any track (or artist) that attaches itself to that proud mantle. This is observable in Jesse's own work, as well as that of his companions and frequent collaborators. In short, Jesse gives it his all and expects no less from others. And while you may question his attitudes, his braggadocio, or even his motives, one thing that can not be called into question is his talent.

Jesse Dangerously is a nerd. Jesse Dangerously is a dedicated head. But most importantly Jesse Dangerously is an artist.

Everyone's Okay!

Earlier today, MC Lars, YTCracker, and MC Frontalot were involved in a fairly severe van accident while on tour in the Minneapolis area. Luckily no one was hurt, but their merch/gear trailer was totaled.

YT tossed up this YouTube vid shortly thereafter to show the damage and to thank the Spam gods.

As a result, tonight's scheduled show at Knickerbockers, in Lincoln, NE, has been canceled. Yook, the law over at Front's site, states that the tour will (hopefully) resume tomorrow in Denver.

If you haven't already, please give a shout out to the guys to let them know you're thinking about 'em.

EDIT: Pics up at Lars's MySpace blog.

Mmm Drop!

Morning, folks.

A project I've been kicking around for a while now finally came to fruition this morning.

(Don't bother to brace yourself or anything; it ain't exactly groundbreaking.)

I now have a dedicated Drop.io account set up to help me share songs with likeminded listeners. Essentially, it's set to be a repository of some of my current favorites, cool rarities, and random shit such as that. I'll toss up songs now and again, and you are all encouraged to check them out.

Some may be new, some may be new to you, and some might simply be forgotten relics of a bygone era. It's just another fun way for me to throw some music into the Intenet ether inbetween your regularly scheduled podcasts.

If you're currently following me through Twitter, you'll receive a tweet each time the drop is updated. If not, you can subscribe via a link in said drop's sidebar to get email updates.

To kick things off, I chose an old track from my good friend Beefy. Take a look, and lemme know your thoughts.

Nerd News in Brief

Yes we did!

Okay, that's admittedly not the most original of sentiments by this time, but it still rings true.

Obama won. I'm pretty pleased with that.

My more conservative friends and family members? Not so much.

They seem to believe that his impending presidency will somehow trigger the downfall of the western world. Seriously.

Let's be honest here; we talk about the presidency being the highest office in the land, but it's not like the guy at the big desk wields the full power of the nation. There are checks and there are balances and, even if you have similarly leaning majorities in the House and Senate, our system is such that real change, whether good or bad, is slow going.

Will Obama magically make the world a better place by simple virtue of his election? Nope. Likewise, will he drag America and its beloved "traditional family values" – whatever the fuck that means – to hell in a plume of smoke and brimstone? I'm afraid not.

Let's just give the guy a chance, okay. What's that thing that right-wingers have been spouting for the last 8 year? Something about supporting your president whether you agree with him or not.

Yeah, maybe you could try and do that.

I, for one, am just tired of being scared. I realize that fear has become an integral part of our national identity, but I'm pretty much done with it. The world is a dangerous place, of course, and there are threats at every turn, but letting your prime motivator be fear – be it on a personal or national level – is never a good idea.

• You Know the Rules: MTV Europe, you have been RickRolled. Yes, Rick Astley was voted the Best Act Ever. I, for one, am never gonna give him up.
• Game(wave) On!: In podcasting news, my friends Anthony and MisterB – hosts of Letters vs. Numbers – sit in on the latest edition of the Gamewave Podcast. With regular co-host Joe in Japan for a year, there is a standing offer for guest hosts on this always amazing VGM 'cast. The line forms to the left.
• Ooooooooooohhh… On the VDiP Tip: In a related story, there's a new edition of Vagina Deep in Podcast. What kind of craziness do Nina and Sanny unleash on us this time around? Wouldn't you like to know!
• Around the Corner: Have you seen the video for funky49's new single "Milk & Doo Doo?" It features attractive ladies, laughable lyrics, and funky mugging for the camera. In a word: delightful!
• It's-a Me!: Justin, of J-rockers Hidari, recently sent me a link to this lovingly crafted musical tribute to Super Mario World. It is by Louie Armstrong. Or not.
• I'd Like to Thank the Academy: Word from Devo Spice himself is that Sudden Death's Fatal Error is being considered for a Grammy nomination for Best Comedy Album. As even being nominated to be nominated is an honor, please join me in preemptively congratulating him.
• Front the Most: My friend and constant Twitter companion Snipeyhead made the dangerous trek into New Jersey this Tuesday to catch the MC Frontalot/YTCracker/MC Lars gig featuring Jersey's own Sudden Death. This historic show marked the last time Front will ever perform "Special Delivery," and Snipe got tons of great pictures.
• Fully Unembarrassing: MC Frontalot received a favorable review from the Onion AV Club, saying of his new release Final Boss "To a non-English-speaker, it would sound like a completely legit hip-hop package."
• Elevation: The Frontalot documentary Nerdcore Rising was likewise positively reviewed by The Nerdiest Kids, going so far as to give it "a 5/5, two thumbs up, and maybe a loud wookie roar." Truly everything is coming up Milhouse.
• Nontraditional, But in a Good Way: The Grammar Club is Digital Freedom artist of the month for November! Sure, the touted biographical information is a little dated, but this does nothing to diminish the utter coolness of seeing the Club get some press.
• Random Videos: Johnie Tidwell (of Cartoon Mogul) sent me links to a ton of new vids featuring our boy Random. The first is a cleaner version of the video for "Fly," and the others are a freestyle, "One," and "Raze the Bar" from a recent in-store that Ran did in Vegas. JT also let slip that he is currently talking with Maja about working up a new video, so we all have that to look forward to.
• County House: Snake Eyes recently reworked his Crate Digger Deathmatch submission into a proper release dubbed Golden Country Greats. It's a really thematic and slickly produced collection of reworked country that certainly warrants your attention.
• Round 2: The next time you find yourself taking in the sights, sounds, and smells of the RT BBS, swing by the Game Music 4 All section of the forums to get the scoop on the next GM4A compilation. It's going to be a sequel to the Here Comes a New Challenger comp, so it's sure to boast a ton of great nerdcore/VGM collabs.
• Nose-picking and Thatcherism: Taking us out this week is a new entry into Front's "Wallflowers" video contest. It was skillfully edited by my good friend Church and it features my son Li'l X. There be cuteness. Beware.

Gimme a Beat!

Okay, technically, you’d be giving my pal Beefy a beat, so I imagine that title is somewhat misleading.

The quandary is this: Mr. Thompson needs a beat for a song he’s written for an awesome compilation, and, as he so eloquently put it, his beats well has run dry. Would anyone care to help nerdcore’s foremost Whitesican by providing a little instrumental backing?

3 Albums You Need. Right Now.

It's a wonderful time to be a nerd!

The last few days have seen three very high profile music releases, each in a distinctly geeky vein. Moreover, each is also what you might term "affordable."

Oh, and they fuckin' rock too. Though I guess that went without saying.

The first is another compilation from my friends at Game Music 4 All. The GM4A crew cranks out these discs at a clip that, honestly, puts my meager efforts to shame, and I'm glad to say that this release is even better than the superlative efforts that have come before it.

LOSER: A Sega Genesis Tribute celebrates the music of those 16-bit masterpieces that graced so many of our dens/bedrooms in a 39 track monolith of Grade-A VGM. It features some fantastic work from old favorites like Spheres of Chaos, Videogame Orchestra, Elfonso, This Place is Haunted, Doctor Octoroc, Temp Sound Solutions, and many more. Of course, the highlights are many, with my early favorites being the smooth Jazz of The Runaway Five in their live reinterpretation of "Casino Night" from Sonic The Hedgehog 2, 8-Bit Duane (of The Adventures of Duane and Brondo) belting out a chippy cover of "Billie Jean" from Moonwalker, and NESMetal's blistering take on "Idaten" from the Shinobi III soundtrack. But in the end it's The Red Wing's punked up cover of the "Wilderness" theme from Golden Axe and Big Head Mode's unlikely "Here’s Johnny (John Madden Football)" that take the cake. And you can have all these amazing selections for free!

Sure, I would've like to have heard some tracks from favorites licensed games like Shadowrun and The Pirates of Dark Water, but, all things considered, it's an amazing effort from 32 fascinating artists with only one drawback: a relative dearth of nerdcore. With only a handful of MCs – MisterB, MC Cheshire Grin, HipHopMcDougal, and the aforementioned Duane and Brando – it's a little light on the hip-hop. Thankfully, there's an easy solution.

Inspired by YTCracker's pivotal Nerdrap Entertainment System, Entity created the 8Bit Boys: a perfect marriage of contemporary rap and classic NES-era chiptunes. In a community quickly filling up with supergroups, the Boys manage to hold their own by boasting an all-star lineup comprised of YT, T.y.T., The Ranger, and Entity himself. Their long-awaited debut 8-Bit Diagrams proves itself a near-perfect example of the all-too frequent and, sadly, often miscalculated nerdcore/VGM crossover. For those with the intention to launch a similar gamer rap concept album, this title joins N.E.S. and Mega Ran as an example of the right way to proceed.

Classic 8-bit fare like the infectious hook from Bad Dudes (in the song of the same name) has never sounded better, but it's on more understated joints like "1 Life" and the title track that the listener can't help but really fall into 8-Bit Diagrams. And even atypical tracks like "Gangster Gamers," which looks forward to the literal console wars of the future, prove that the 8Bit Boys can bring ample aggression without losing their clever edge. Hell, even a song like "Controller Hog," which I didn't feel at first, easily grew on me on a second listen.

The album excels on many levels, but it's easily at its best when it truly connects gaming nostalgia with sharp but relatable lyricism. "8-Bit Blisters," which aptly displays T.y.T.'s ever-improving and always distinct flow, is an easy high point that describes the folly of the non-ergonomic controllers of yore. "Faulty Controller" does the same by recalling the great lengths we sometimes had to go to keep our old cartridge-based systems functional, and tosses in an almost System of a Down-style chorus that both surprises and delights.

There's a 10-track freebie version of this album floating around that you simply must check-out, and I'd go so far as to say that dropping 10 bucks on the full version would be a wise investment.

And for those of you not yet content with the recent volley of other high-profile YTCRacker collaborations, the YT/MC Lars project The Digital Gangster LP is currently available for download. Released under the pay-what-you-like model, this album can be purchased for as little as $1, and uses a sliding scale of awesome for increments thereafter. Ten bucks nets you high quality .wavs, and $15 gets you the physical CD to boot. Thirty dollars scores you the disc, downloads, and a t-shirt; $50 bumps that up to three shirts; and $100 lands you the entire commercial catalog from both artists. Oh, and for $1200 they'll perform the LP live in your house.

Yes, that's a real offer.

The only thing more interesting than the manner in which the album is sold is its actual contents, as it's already proven itself a shoo-in for one of my top albums of 2008. From the opening bars of "We Have Arrived" to the closing strains of "Paul is Dead," The Digital Gangster LP represents what could accurately be described as the finest output thus far from both artists. It's fun, topical, and loaded with special guests like Beefy, int eighty, Schaffer the Darklord, and ZeaLouS1. It also formally introduced me to Oakland area rapper K.Flay, who punctuates some of the album's most amazing material.

But perhaps more important than its superlative cast of players and inspiring musical selections is the simple fact that The Digital Gangster LP is a perfectly constructed album; it starts gingerly enough, builds to and rolling boil, and then cools itself down without ever losing (or boring) the listener.

"Manifest Destiny," which I'm sure you've already checked out, serves as a perfect example of the project's straight-forward charms, but it's the tracks of the album's robust middle third that make this a must-own. The smoothed out "Nerdcore Players," which is the geeky lover's anthem the genre's been missing, and it's follow-up "Guinevere," in which YTCracker raps with an accent, represent the epitome of its subtle strengths.

The powerful "911 AM (Rudy Giuliani)" featuring the incomparable Doctor Popular, however, is the single to beat. An outright damnation of American fear-culture, it seems all the more poignant after last night's political housecleaning.

Album of the Year? Probably. Song of the Year? Definitely.

In short: Buy The Digital Gangster LP now. Or the terrorists win.

The Week in Swag

We all have a lot of shit on our minds today. Specifically election shit.

There' just no changing that. But at least I can get my mind off the forthcoming results by showing off some of my latest acquisitions. Behold.

Dan of Nerdcore For Life was nice enough to hit me up with this t-shirt for submitting one of the winning entries into his recent sticker contest, and Dan Plus Add sent me this personalized copy of his latest release Matters of Great Importance all the way from t'other side of the pond. The other t-shirt is one of the limited run of beige Protoman shirts that Michigan metal mavens Year 200X are selling to celebrate the release of their new album We Are Error, and it was so fucking cool that I did the unthinable; I actually paid for it!!! Tim did hook me up with a free copy of the album, though, and you'll be hearing a lot of it on upcoming editions of the podcast.