The Dueling Nerdcore Documentaries

Colin Reuter writes "There are not one but two feature-length documentary films in the works about the burgeoning nerdcore hip-hop scene. Nerdcore Rising from indie company Vaguely Qualified Productions in NY focuses on the founder of the "movement," MC Frontalot, and features MC Hawking, mc chris, Weird Al Yankovic, Brian Posehn, Daily Show personnel, and dozens of aspiring nerdcore rappers from around the country. The competing movie, Nerdcore For Life from Chicago's Crapbot Productions covers many of the same personalities, getting the backstory on more than twenty young nerd rappers including ytcracker, MC++, and Lords of the Rhymes. With two movies duking it out, the print edition of Wired profiling the rappers, and the Associated Press getting onboard, is nerdcore going to turn into a legitimate subgenre? Or will this always be our dirty little secret?"

Anyone else remember...

[Lord Agni]

the ON [Original Nerd (C)] Netmaster 10baseT [packetstormsecurity.org]?

Founder?!??

[Buddy_Gilapagos]

What about MC Paul Barman, Infesticons (and their alter egos the Majesticons), even El-P and Company Flow have been delving in these realms for years. Check them out if you never heard of them, you may like them even if you are not a fan of hip-hop.

Re:Is nerdcore going to become a legitimate subgen

[Darthmalt]

Some like Weird Al are already popular and others like MC Lars [mclars.com] are getting there. Their songs have mainstream appeal and do talk about other things than technology. They also don't get too overly technical with their songs that are more tech driven. However, others like ytcracker [ytcracker.com] who raps in java during one song are simply too geeky to be mainstream

Re:Is nerdcore going to become a legitimate subgen

[morgan_greywolf]

But the question is, has Weird Al gotten laid yet?

Actually, Al and his wife Suzanne have a daughter named Nina [weirdal.com].

Re:On his own throne, the boss like King Koopa

[The-Bus]

I think MF Doom does sort-of deserve to be on that list. I mean he did an entire album as King Geedorah [wikipedia.org] (spelling slight altered). He's also do an album with Danger Mouse as "Danger Doom" which included samples from Adult Swim cartoons like Space Ghost: Coast to Coast and Aqua Teen Hunger Force (on which mc chris, mentioned in TFA, has appeared).

But nerdcore, to some extent, has been around for a while. There was a band called Commodore 64 that released a "nerdcore" album in 1999 called The K-Minus Initiative that had titles like "Straight Outta CompUSA" and "Proof of the Reimann Mapping Theorem." I think the bandmembers included a mathematician and an economist.

The height of nerdcore, both in obtuse, intelligent/stupid rhymes and actual skill(?) in delivery, has to be MC Paul Barman. It's hard to describe his music: it's equally really funny bawdy sex jokes with very intelligent references. For example, when a woman refuses him sex, he sings, "My pissed of Jabrowski turned three colors like Krzysztof Kieslowski."

There's many others too, so this genre may have been coined recently, but that does not indicate its arrival.

Re:Is nerdcore going to become a legitimate subgen

[Woldry]

Sorry, as head cheerleader for the Latin grammar nazi team, I'd like to point out that it translates better as "What you are, I was. What I am, you will be."

So there.