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.

Radio Free Hipster Ep. 55: Z. for Vendetta

Asking who wants to be president at this point in our nation's history is akin to saying "Alright, folks, the Titanic needs a new captain. Any takers?"

And yet still we have no shortage of folks vying for the post. The allure of the big desk is that strong.

Yes, this is an Election Day episode. Therefore the songs are of a political nature. This will turn some of you off, but such is the nature of the beast.

I can all but guarantee that you won't agree with the content within some of these tracks. You may find the ideas espoused and the positions assumed by the featured artists to be objectionable, incendiary, or just plain ridiculous.

Consequently, you might just find them amusing.

We walk a thin line.

Download Radio Free Hipster Ep. 55: Z. for Vendetta [hosting provided by Antisocial] Size: 34.6 MB Running Time: 50:27

Show Notes:

Intro: Baddd Spellah – "Radio Free Hipster Theme (feat. Beefy)"
Spellah/Thompson '08!

Track 1: V for Vendetta dialog / Uncle Monsterface – "Derockracy"
"It's totally wicked hard to run our nation."

Z's 1st interlude: "Remember, remember the 4th of November."
How else was I gonna start this ep?

Track 2: MC Frontalot – "Black Box (feat. Random)"
It's not everyday you come across a nerdcore track about voting scandal.

Track 3: Jonathan Coulton – "The Presidents"
This is the type of song that the magic of Wikipedia affords!

Track 4: Category – "Adventures in Paranoia"
Cat fulfils the vital role of this episode's raving conspiracy hound. It's a post he takes very seriously.

Track 5: V for Vendetta dialog / Lemon Demon – "123456 Pokemon"
"Don’t worry. Bill Murray."

Track 6: AJP Productions – "Bomb Iran (Ron Paul 2008 Mix)"
Poor Ron Paul.

Track 7: John Brown – "Sarah Palin (I Wanna Lay Pipe)"
For all of you Palin lovers out there, here's some advice: go to the supermarket on a weekday afternoon. Road-worn 40-something ex-beauty queens as far as the eye can see.

Track 8: Rhett and Link – "Economy Bailout Song"
Is "Internet comedian" a real job?

Z's 2nd interlude: "Maybe that’s just my preference talking."
Part of me really expected a McCain/Palin song from Former Fat Boys.

Track 9: Obamatat – "We Can not Walk Alone"
Should any diehard Obama supporters be in the market for some free music, check out this mixtape.

Track 10: MC Lars and YTCracker – "Manifest Destiny"
As I mentioned previously, The Digital Gangster LP is the shit.

Track 11: Zombies! Organize!! – "Zombie Manifesto"
This marks the third consecutive episode to prominently feature Z!O!! Just thought I'd point that out.

Track 12: V for Vendetta dialog / Frazier Chorus – "Anarchy in the UK"
Yes, Tim Freeman is Martin Freeman's brother. I reckon that's exactly the type of quasi-geeky trivia that you turn to RFH for.

Z's final interlude: "Mostly, I just support the power of thought, the power of words."
Of course it's words that got us into this mess, as it seems like we no longer concern ourselves with who is right and who is wrong: only with who can express his or her blustery indignation the loudest.

Track 13: Rx – "Imagine/Walk on the Wild Side"
I am a card carrying member of The Party Party.

Just to be clear, I do not recommend blowing up the Houses of Parliament. Given all the Fawkes-ery of this edition, I just figured that needed to be said.

Keen ears may notice that this episode sounds a bit different than those that came before. This is because I tried a little experiment this time around. This ep. is encoded at 96 kbps as opposed to my regular 128.

Honestly, I find the sound quality to be noticeably shittier, but let me know what you think. While I have every intention of returning to the original bitrate with episode 56, if you guys don't notice a difference I may reconsider.

Brobee Pumpkin Says Happy Halloween!

Nerd News in Brief

I’m trying to keep my Happy Halloween mojo working, but the truth is it’s hard.
Having just discovered that David Tennant is leaving Doctor Who, I’m a little bummed. I mean, he didn’t have a sweet cravat or a crazy-ass scarf, but he was a great Doctor and I’m sad to see him go.

That being said, I think it’s time for a new direction. Time for a new Doctor unlike all those that came before. Someone short and thin with a delightful accent and floppy hair. Someone truly different. Maybe, y’know, Franco-American.

Yes, I am throwing my hat into the ring to be the new Doctor. I need your support. We can make a difference in sci-fi television.

Yes we can!

• Cross-Culture Make You Jump!: This edition of nerd ink comes complete with an impromptu history lesson. Thanks, Church! That takes care of today’s requisite book-learnin’!
• Sneak(y) Preview: Though I am forbidden from discussing the specifics for a couple more days – that is, until it’s official release – I am beholden to you, faithful readers, to let slip that I received a copy of the Digital Gangster LP earlier this week. And without giving too much away, let me state that it probably features the best work from both Lars and YT to date. I’ll elaborate on my praise come November 1st.
• Excel-sior: It’s sort of telling that the geekiest video of the moment is from crusty old blues rocker’s (and harbingers of economic doom) AC/DC. Not that I have anything against AC/DC, mind you. I mean, I did grow up in a trailer park! Still, I now propose that the next Schaffer the Darklord video be done entirely in PowerPoint. I'm just sayin'.
  
• Lame, as in Duck: Church also brought to my attention that mc chris recently won an award. Sort of. Yes, the mc chris Menu Navigation widget was voted one of the 10 lamest Firefox add-ons. Matt was quick to point out, though, that mc’s site is so cumbersome that this app actually makes sense.
  
• Sweet Home Alabama: That high-toned honky known as mc chris will be playing the Zydeco in Birmingham, AL tonight with opening acts Totally Michael and Lisa's Son. He’ll also be in Huntsville tomorrow night for some Halloween festivities. Specifically catching Zak and Miri at 7:20PM at the Regal Hollywood 18 and hitting up some local haunted houses afterwards.
• Better Z.E.D. Than Dead: Also going down tonight at Orlando’s BackBooth is A Comic Shop’s Zombie Dance. Not only will this event feature such Halloween treats as a Marvel Zombies costume contest, it will also host the debut live performance of Emergency Pizza Party’s new Z.E.D. album (with stage direction and production by EPP’s own Fanatical.) Tickets are $8 at the door, and the party starts at 8:00 PM.
• Aaahh!!! Real Monsters!: And on the subject of zombies, Discover Magazine has provided me with 8 more reasons to fear the zombie apocalypse. Thanks a lot. Douche bags.
• Don Hoimicidal Maniac: And just in time for Halloween comes this monsterpiece of modern music. It is Michael Myers. Playing the ukulele. Who can ask for anything more?
  

5 Halloween Treats

As we find ourselves mere days away from Halloween, I feel it is my duty to remind you that there are sinister forces at work. Yes, there are shadowed figures in dark and furtive corners who would seek to sully this geekiest of holidays, to bend it to their own will. Our enemy is varied, they represent a veritable hodgepodge of social, religious, and political elements with but one common goal: to ruin our fun.

While some prefer to subscribe spiritual significance to October 31st, I, personally, like to see it as the last great bastion of immaturity. You see, each of our other major Western holidays – your Thanksgivings and Christmases, your Valentine's and Independence Days – are resplendent with responsibility. You are expected to buy gifts, cook food, visit family, etc. Halloween, comparatively, asks for very little. You simply need to buy some candy and cut some eye-holes in a sheet.

Shit, you can even avoid that by simply putting off your porch light and refusing to open your door!

What I'm getting at is that Halloween is about tricks and treats, candy and booze, silly costumes and scary movies. It is, in short, dedicated to the things we already hold dear in our glorious state of retarded adolescence. All it takes is a little motivation to get your average nerd into the swing of things. And perhaps the best motivator is music.

To that end, here are my picks for your seasonal soundtrack. Each is delightfully dorky and hot off the press. Check the out. If you dare!

The Triple Six Mixtape:
The Triple Six Mixtape isn't without its rough spots, but it gets extra credit for being the first nerdcore Halloween album out of the gate. The brainchild of Rhyme Torrents regular Mad DPS, this project boasts some fun, creepy, and just plain weird work from YTCracker (who celebrates the dastardly pastime of candy snatching in "Bag Snatcher"), T.y.T. (whose "Hypmotized" is a disturbingly chipper recount of fratricide), and Epic 1 (who takes us on a supernatural killing spree in "Talk 2 The Reaper"). Also of note is Ham-STAR's "Nevermore," which helps to reinvent the artist as well as much of Poe's best source material. Probably the comp's best work comes in the form of DPS's own "Vicious Attack" that features 3rror and The Ranger. It's a Halloween anthem that combines great rhymes and a totally seasonal-appropriate beat.

This one is still available for free download over at RT.

Invasion of the Mic Snatchers:
While not exactly Halloween-themed, The Sinister Six's Invasion of the Mic Snatchers weaves a plot of terror and otherworldly domination amidst a number of epic cuts from this nerdcore supergroup. The thematic elements – in this case spoken-word or sample-based bumpers that tie together the overall narrative arc of the album – seem almost overly abundant, but the polished production and unique musicality of each lends itself well to the cohesion of the work.

The real meat of Invasion of the Mic Snatchers is, of course, the songs themselves. From the skillful blending of Ben's frantic braying and the amazing scratches that punctuate "Break Down" to YTCracker's motor-mouthed musings in "Rise Up," this is an album that's nothing short of inspired. The lyrical wealth is equally spread amongst YT, BBear, ZeaLouS1, MadHatter, Chester, and Loki, as well as a few high-profile guest MCs. And on subjects as varied as gaming ("Roll the Dice") and the power of the underground ("Deeper"), the Six take things to another level in the most Sinister manner possible.

Pledge your allegiance to the Six at the Scrub Club Records site and snag this one for the meager price of your immortal soul.

Before It's Too Late:
Zombies! Organize!! easily won me over at this summer's Nerdapalooza festival, and their demo has been in heavy rotation ever since. Thankfully, this month saw the release of the final product: Before It's Too Late. Including everything I loved about the demo plus a handful of fresh cuts, it's an album not to be missed (even if some of the newer material isn't quite as inspired as I'd hoped). Tracks like "Trioxin" and "Sycophantic Drudgery" are still as creepily charming as they ever were, and a few even feature a little added polish. Blending politics with pop culture, Z!O!! paints a world where zombies are both brave iconoclasts and mindless political pawns, heroes and villains. It's a world where the mall is cast as the high temple of the church of consumerism and the Nike Swoosh is the exploitative angel on your shoulder. In a word: brilliant.

This is album is for sale via the Zombies! Organize!! MySpace. It's also available for free at the Zombies! Organize!! MySpace. The choice is yours.

Halloween 3.0:
The Rhyme Torrents compilations are, by nature, a mixed bag, and this one is no exception. Still, it offers an amazing selection of styles for every taste. Antisocial blends hip-hop and futurepop in "Emergency Evacuation," Sudden Death brings the funny in "PC Halloween," and Wholemilk's "Colonel in the Study with a Pipe" manages to make Clue fun again. There are a couple of interesting covers (MC D20's take on "Sleepwalker" and High-C's spoken-word retelling of "Mind of a Lunatic)," but it's new originals by the likes of Myf and MC Loki that make this an easy sell. It's noteworthy that The Ranger also has a song on this comp called "Trioxin" which is not a Zombies! Organize!! cover. Trust me. Just as well, it's hard to bitch about more great songs thematically centered on Return of the Living Dead.

Like those that came before, Halloween 3.0 is a free release from your friends at Rhyme Torrents.

Zombie Emergency Defense:
Perhaps the most surprising of this year's crop of Halloween releases is this zombie-themed project from Orlando's Emergency Pizza Party. Though EPP made no secret that it had something big planned for 2008, they were fairly tight-lipped about the specifics, and Z.E.D. comes through as an interesting blend of disparate elements. Part concept album, part radio play, part b-movie, and part promotional tie-in for A Comic Shop's proactive zombie response program of the same name, it manages to inject some much need charm into the undead apocalypse. By blending good music with (intentionally) bad acting, Z.E.D. stalks the line between the frightening and the fun, the sublime and the silly, and along the way it boasts some of Emergency Pizza Party's best work to date.

While it opens with a pair of retreads ("Lost in the Woods" and "Necronomicon Ex Robotis" from RT's original Halloween EP), it quickly blossoms into "Safety Cabin," an early highpoint that features some great rhymes from Fanatical and guest rapper funk49 Dr. BassWave. Speaking of, this album marks the return of both Fanatical and Benjamin Bear to the EPP fold, which helps to take the sting out of the fact that Betty Rebel is missing from much of the action. MC Wreckshin and Sir-Up, who act as hero and villain respectively, are in abundance, and really help to power the story on, all the while redefining the zombie epic.

Touching on everything from zombie preparedness ("The Escape") to undead homophobia ("Phone Frantic Panic") to surprise guest stars ("Journey Ongoing!!!!"), Zombie Emergency Defense is a fun ride that succeeds more often than it flounders. Sure, the dialog and narration can get a little cheesy, but that's sort of the genius of it.

For a very limited time you can check this one out for free, so grab it while it's hot… or cold… or whatever sort of clever corpse reference floats your proverbial boat.

Bob Hope is a Vampire (and Other Simple Truths)

I am a lazy, lazy man. In fact, it could be argued that this is my defining characteristic. In all honesty, it is from this rather unfortunate trait that things like my Nerd News in Brief segment arose. I get lots of tips and leaks and links in an average week, and rather than ration them out to you in bite-sized chunks, I simply elected to slap 'em all together and give you a whole meal. mostly 'cause it was easier for me.

But some things can't wait. Some things are time sensitive.

Such is the case with the new Tom Riddle and Friends single currently being featured at the Wizrocklopedia. "Nagini's Lullaby," from their forthcoming Wizard Rock EP of the Month Club release Bob Hope is a Vampire is available for free download compliments of your friends at the 'Pedia, but only for a few more hours.

So head over there forthwith and get to WRockin'!

Radio Free Hipster Ep. 54: Super Nature

Can you feel it? There is something in the air. The wall between dimensions, that fragile curtain between the world of the living and the land of the dead, grows thin.

I mean, if you believe that type o' shit.

Regardless, Halloween is almost upon us. I have candy, a fresh jack-o-lantern, and a couple costumes for the kids. I'm all set.

The only thing missing is the second installment of this year's Halloween Crap-tacular.

Oh wait. Here it comes now!

Download Radio Free Hipster Ep. 54: Super Nature [hosting provided by Antisocial] Size: 44.6 MB Running Time: 48:47

Show Notes:

Intro: Baddd Spellah – "Radio Free Hipster Theme (feat. Beefy)"

Can you carve a Beef Thompson pumpkin? I can.

Track 1: Cheekyboy – "This is Halloween"
Halloween is a totally danceable holiday.

Z's 1st interlude: "Good afternoon boils and ghouls."
Okay, where the fuck did that come from? Oh yeah.

Track 2: Little Shop of Horrors Soundtrack – "Little Shop of Horrors (Prologue)"
"And this terrifying enemy surfaced, as such enemies often do, in the seemingly most innocent and unlikely of places."

Track 3: The Rocky Horror Picture Show soundtrack – "Time Warp"
I resisted for years, but finally caved and played this one.

Track 4: Cast of Buffy the Vampire Slayer – "I’ve Got a Theory"
It could be bunnies. Really it could.

Track 5: Young Zombies in Love soundtrack – "Zombie King"
Gaby's actually done a number of other cool musicals in addition to YziL. Check 'em out.

Track 6: Blacula trailer / Pimpdaddy Supreme – "Snap Yo Specials"
The jump from Blacula to Lil Jon wasn't that far. I mean, you've seen his grill.

Track 7: Mustin – "Super Mario 64 Haunted Hell (IncuCujoKondoD.Bros Mix)"
Mustin is a goddamn genius.

Z's 2nd interlude: "That lengthy set of musical tunes."
I'm doing more and more selections from musicals these days. They represent a widely untapped vein of nerdy music.

Track 8: Zombies! Organize!! – "Trioxin"
Z!O!! have just released a proper album, so you can add this jewel to your collection.

Track 9: Luzid – "Greater Evil" / Night of the Creeps dialog
My greatest fear concerning Resident Evil 5 is that it can't surpass the glory of RE4, one of the greatest games of all time.

Track 10: YTCracker – "Bag Snatcher"
Check out the Triple Six Mixtape for more seasonal tracks.

Track 11: Christopher Walken – "The Raven" / Bloodhag – "Edgar Allen Poe"
I love Bloodhag, but I seldom get the chance to play them. This seemed like a great opportunity.

Track 12: Wednesday 13 – "House by the Cemetery"
Horror rock is gloriously geeky simply left to its own devices.

Z's final interlude: "I hope it provides an ample soundtrack to your Halloween festivities."
I often wonder when you folks actually listen to the podcast. I generally listen to my preferred 'casts during my commute or while doing housework. I am oddly domestic.

Track 13: Cripple Camp – "Ghosts n’ Goblins (La Dulce Mix)"
Looks like Power Up! Mutations and Mutilations of 8 Bit Hits is now available via the Amazon MP3 store, so put those Pepsi points to good use.

I've only got 4 more podcasts left in 2008, and I think I've got them pretty much planned out.

Early in November you'll get a politically-themed Election Day special ep., and December will see the annual Holiday edition as well as my year-end round-up. I'm also kicking around the idea of doing and all-WRock show in late November. That is assuming, of course, that Lizz is willing to come and guest host it with me.

Time will tell.