Review Summary: This album is gimmicky, and isn’t very good, but a mention of listening to it is redeemable for two (2) elitist points.
Experimental/conceptual rap isn’t anything new. It’s been around for quite awhile, and we’ve seen quite a few gimmicks come and go, regardless of whether they were good or bad. So when novelty rap’s subgenre of nerdcore first popped up on the radar in the early 2000’s, it was seen as just a flame – that a few artists caught on to – that would become extinct quickly. But with nerdcore still lurking around today, driven by the genre’s apparent classic
Nerdcore Rising, it’s quite obvious nerdcore is here to say at least a little longer than originally thought. Possibly representative of the cheesiest of all gimmicks, the more I think about this album, the more I hate it.
First and foremost, I’m well aware that MC Frontalot is implementing the funny-because-it’s-bad ploy. But it doesn’t work. The electronic and rock influenced beats exhibit terrible percussion, and the encompassing elements (arcade game bloops, laser noises, you name it) try way too hard to be conjure up the image of being geeky. Thus, the beats on the album sound hilariously amateur and homemade, and the only good thing about them is that they compliment MC Frontalot’s rapping style. That is, talking in a white, monotone IT guy’s voice at a blasé tempo. Moreover, Frontalot is completely literate in his discussion of all things nerdy – stuff like being unattractive, hairy, and gross; referencing video games and Star Wars; being “indie”; and oddly lauding pornography – using words like “obfuscate” and “juxtapose” all the while not mispronouncing a single word.
The main problem with this act is that it’s overbearing. Rather than being funny and believable, it’s blatantly forced and therefore, loses any comedic value it once retained. I have no idea why I thought this would be any good. The track list and casual description of the concept (a 40-year old virgin rapping about nerdy things) will easily deceive you into believing this is hilarious. But, you
can claim to be 1337 if you listen to this.
|_ 0 |_ + h 1 $ $ u x.
