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?"

Is nerdcore going to become a legitimate subgenre?

[daveschroeder]

No, and yes.

Seriously, ANYTHING can be a "subgenre" of something, and you'll always be able to find someone or group out there who likes anything. The answer is, it's already a "subgenre".

If the question is, "Will nerdcore ever be popular beyond my really small group of friends and I who never get laid?" then the answer is, "No."

Re:Is nerdcore going to become a legitimate subgen

[morgan_greywolf]

If the question is, "Will nerdcore ever be popular beyond my really small group of friends and I who never get laid?" then the answer is, "No."

I don't know about that. The article mentions Weird Al Yankovich, who was nerdcore before there was name for it. He's made himself quite a living doing what he does and has gotten a whole lot of airplay. Will all nerdcore go as mainstream as Weird Al? No, but neither did all gangsta rap or all goth rock. But some of it snuck through, and I expect nerdcore will continue to grow in popularity. Do you know how many people I've heard with a fhqwgaads ringtone?

Re:Stuff That Matters

[revlayle]

like what? Wii vs. PS3? Linux better than Microsoft? Microsoft bashing? book reviews on programming subject we have seen 100s of times? more crap about Stallman? your right and net neutrality or some other "web [VIRTUAL] atrocity" etc... etc...

None of it really matters, it's all just interesting to read. Not all of it, but there is something for all nerds here. Also, If I had mod points and this was not an AC post (as I just realized as I get to this point in my response), I would mod down.

Competing?

[Ripley29]

Why do these movies 'dueling' and 'competing'? Sounds like they're different takes on the same subject. Can't we watch both?

Idiots

[Anonymous Coward]

It only take a room full of idiots and a music exec. I suspect that we already have enough idiots and now all we need to do is wait for a music exec before we're stuck with another genre of crappy music. All hail the music industry for taking so many small time fads and turning them into massive trends for the masses. /optimism off

MC Lars?

[InfoVore]

While not strictly Nerdcore, I'd say MC Lars [wikipedia.org] should be included. He's more of a literature geek, but his stuff is definitely White & Nerdy rap. He bills his work as "post-punk laptop rap". A few of his songs:

- Download This Song [youtube.com]
- iGeneration
- Space Game
- If I Had a Time Machine
- Mr. Raven (based on Poe's "The Raven")
- Internet Relationships
- Ahab
- Signing Emo

Give him a try. His stuff is fun.

I.V.

Re:Shudder

[Reality Master 101]

you're right. he's an ESTABLISHED nerdcore rapper. and if you don't think that "white and nerdy" or "all about the pentiums" do not qualify as nerdcore, then wtf does?

A "nerdcore" rapper does music (to use the term loosely) in the style of rap -- that's their particular style. Weird Al does parody of music using the style of the original music. That he happens to do parodies of some rap songs does not making him an "aspiring" nerdcore rapper.

Re:Shudder

[Jerf]

Well, if having three or four good "nerdcore" songs makes Weird Al a "nerdcore artist", then he's also a gangsta rapper and a pop musician and swing singer (or whatever you'd call that) and folk singer and apolka singer and a hip-hop artist and a Grunge artist and... you get the point.

I question the utility of labeling him that way. "Parodist" covers it best.

Re:MC++??

[Stefanwulf]

Of course - a smart crowd with large vocabularies could never be interested in a form of expression which relies heavily on the quality of the lyrics, rhymes, and meter. That's also why smart people generally avoid such primitive forms of non-art as poetry.