At the forefront of the Nerdcore scene are Frontalot, mc chris, MC Lars, and YTCracker. Front is the godfather of the scene, coining the term and embracing all that is nerdy, dorky, dweeby, or geeky; you all know him and love him… and if you don’t, you should. mc chris doesn’t like to call himself Nerdcore, but due is a nerd rapper extraordinaire; you know him as MC Pee Pants and Hesh, or perhaps the dude who did that funny track about Boba Fett driving a Corvette. MC Lars is fun and enjoyable; he’s likely you’re friend on Facebook already, having nearly as many friends as Tom has on MySpace. YTC is a cracker and hacker turned emcee; Nerdrap Entertainment System still stands as a unique and groundbreaking work.

Beyond the big four, this illustrious site has covered the likes of Beefy, Shael Riley, Dual Core, and The ThoughtCriminals/Mikal kHill, as well as nerdy acts that don’t identify specifically with the subgenre like Pigeon John. However, today presents a great time to give the readers a brief primer of some other things the world of Nerdcore has to offer. Here are 10 more nerds that you need to know:

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Free music from my boys Shael Riley and Beefy… yes, you read right. The Grammar Club’s 2007 album is available for the price of free. Check it out!

Download The Grammar Club’s Bremelanotide

I just listened to the first 8 tracks of MC Frontalot’s Zero Day while doing the 30 Day Shred workout video. It’s an intense 20 minute workout (that my fat ass struggled with a lot, possibly due to 2 days of not doing it, possibly due to eating 3 slices of Sicilian pizza for dinner, or possibly due to drinking half a pint of Troeg’s Java Stout just prior to working out). Sick of Jillian Michaels’s annoying voice and the bad dance music on the DVD, lately I have been muting it and playing music from one of the 3 iTunes libraries on our home network… tonight it was working out with the Front.

As a brief synopsis, I must say I dig the album a lot. I listened to it once through yesterday and this is my second time through (well half of it this time). Here are some observations…

First, it was fun and upbeat, which made it a good alum to workout to. The songs were all highly danceable and very much Frontalot. I couldn’t help but think of him dancing and working out along side me as I powered through my tough workout.

Second, the album includes a few awesome guest, but for me the tops of this list is Mr. Beef Thompson. Beefy is one of my favorite nerdcore fixtures and I was very happy to hear him spitting on a track with Front and the rappist known as STD. Not to mention that the song they do together is entertaining, clever, and thoroughly enjoyable in every way.

Finally, there is very little about this album I can complain about. Perhaps I’ll have a gripe or two with more listens, but I doubt it. As per usual, MC Frontalot is awesome and surrounds himself with awesomeness. I’d guess that at least 2 to 3 tracks from this become heavy rotation on the iPod in no time.

thepaintedman rates this:

Thought Criminals was an influential Australian punk band that formed in 1977… oh wait… wrong Thought Criminals…

The Thought Criminals is a British electro… no that’s not it…

The ThoughtCriminals is not a punk band that formed in 1977. In fact, they are not Australian or British, are not punk or electro, and did not form in 1977. Rather, The ThoughtCriminals are a hip hop crew that sent me their CD a few weeks back after I saw them advertised as an opening act for MC Frontalot on a Facebook invite. When I messaged Mikal kHill, he immediately responded and asked my shirt size. When I responded, he apologized that they were out of stock on my t-shirt size, but he sent me the music to check out and continues to keep in touch with me promising that a shirt is on the way.

Well, first off, the shirt is unnecessary, as the album speaks for itself (though I am still welcoming the free swag, I’ll even post a pic of my fat ass rocking it once I get it). The 16 track self-title CD is chock full of intelligent lyrics, catchy hooks, good flow, and an overall fantastically constructed hip hop aesthetic. Sub-genre defying, the ThoughtCriminals are not a typical nerdcore act, despite having some ties to that scene; their sound is often very reminiscent of classic hip hop like A Tribe Called Quest and Boogie Down Productions, with some subtle and not-so-sublte influences from other hip hop artists ranging from Wu-Tang Clan to Frontalot himself.

Lyrically, some tracks are fun and uplifting, others are politically and social minded, and others yet are educational. Here are my notes on a few of my favorite tracks, taken directly from the notes I made on a back page of my planner while driving to and from work over the past few weeks. In no particular order:

Track 2 “Falling Apart”

Not what I expected… guess I was expecting something more obviously nerdy due to being an opener for Front. Great beat, talented band. Very Roots-esque, but fronted by a rapper more like Q-Tip or KRS rather than Thought.

Track 13 “Loud Enough”

Part Cornell West, part KRS, part Saul Williams… educational and entertaining, thoroughly enjoyable. Nice acoustic guitar work in the background. Homage to Leon Scott’s influence over 100 years ago. Works well enough on it’s own, but is perfect as the introductory track to “Corporate Sellout”

Track 5 “Pocket Full of Trouble”

Love the “Gin & Juice” references. In fact, the song sounds like it has a bit of that Chronic-era Dre feel besides just the lyrical references.

Track 3 “Things Change”

Synth reminds me of Double Ice Backfire, though that’s likely just because I’ve been obsessed with Songs from the Pit lately. Flow and synth together also bring to mind some of Beefy’s stuff on Rolling Doubles. The guy singing the line “just stay the same” in the chorus sounds very “radio rap”, can’t put my finger on who he is reminding me of, though.

Track 12 “Mile After Mile”

This track makes me feel happy from the door. Fun and happy music. Uplifting lyrics, references to everyday life, paying bills, and reading comics. All in all, the track most likely to be repeated over and over on my iPod. One last note… something about this track makes me think of Abdominal, not sure why though.

Track 4 “Pledge”

Beat is very Frontalot. I half expected Front to start rapping as the verse broke.

Track 8 “Economic Downturn”

Sounds like a video game as the song opens… so much so that it brought to mind Nerdrap Entertainment System. Lyrically, strong social conscience. Is it us or them? Our choices in life or the system? Interesting stuff.

A great album front to back, beginning to end, The ThoughtCriminals is a fantastic debut that this hip hop band can be proud of. Their page on cdbaby describes the CD as “Part live band, part hip hop crew, this group deftly hops across genres, mixing hip hop with a variety of styles and lyrical density unparalleled by anything you’ll hear in the mainstream.” This accurate description still does not do them justice, but it’s a start. If you like old school hip hop, bands like The Roots, underground hip hop like Sage Francis, The Coup, and Abdominal, or are a big fan of the nerdcore standouts like Front, YTC, and Beefy, then this is a must for your collection.

Shael Riley, Beefy, and a bunch of other cool cats have this group called The Grammar Club. Here’s a great older track of that they put up on their site for free: Download “Underbeard” here. These are the nerds that created the kickass backing music to Zangief’s stage in Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, which is also available for download on their website.

Last week I asked what song you’d sing on an American Idol audition, to which I received some great answers, including Skot’s CD-winning-worthy tune from Les Miserables (Hit me up for your choices, Skotty). This week, I think the question is easily as awesome… or even awesomer!

In light of the review I posted earlier today, I thought to myself,

Self, if you were a dope master of the ceremonies like Kevin “Kwalified” Richie, what would your name be?

A truly interesting question, I found myself with many options, some that were quite fly and others that would not fly at all. I mean, think of all the great names that my favorite MCs go by: Beefy, Mos Def, Pigeon John, Uno Mas, Blackthought, CookBook, MC Frontalot, thekeenone… but what to name myself?

First, I thought,

What about “MCJC”, I mean Justin Charles… JC… ah, I guess that sucks. Oh, I know, I could make it a play on one of my favorite MCs, like I could “Dos Mas” or even better yet “Whitethought”… no wait, that sounds like a white supremacist rapper, if there is such a thing.

I realized that as creative as I thought I was, I wasn’t. In fact, the name I chose was the easiest of all… and a name that my wife’s grandpop came up with to begin with… so here it is (stand in awe of my wit and wisdom!): “thepaintedman”.

HA! I am awesome. So, now it’s your turn. What would your rap name be?

My favorite answer gets a Hip Hop prizepack. Word?

Word.

thepaintedman rates this:

Kevin Richie, aka Kwalified Emcee, is indeed a qualified MC. Like my boy CookBook (who has a new joint releasing on the 26th with Uno Mas), Kwalified’s newest release is a concept album based on 80’s culture… though Kwalified is a bit more focused, specifically on the classic TV show The Wonder Years. If you are not familiar with the adolescent drama that ran from 1988 through the early to mid 90’s, then you need not read on, because you are not the target audience. If you, however, didn’t live under a rock during this time (or through the late 90’s and early 2000’s when it hit a second audience in syndication), then you should be able to appreciate Kwal’s Kevin Arnold EP.

Each track has its own flavor, some with a very blatant nod to the show and some that seem only vaguely connected, but the EP flows very well and makes this Wonder Years fan very nostalgic. Interwoven clips from the show and lyrics about Kevin’s big brother Wayne and his love interest Winnie Cooper (who is still quite hot, by the way) capture Kwalified desire to pay homage to a show that was ever present in the adolescent lives of many 20-somethings like myself.

The opening track sets the tone with a great clip, a little bit of the Joe Cocker theme, and a great intro song to the EP that features a chorus that quotes the famed lyrics originally sung by Ringo Starr. The seventh track concludes the homage to the show with Kwalified relating Kevin Arnold’s life to his own.

After these 7 tracks, Kwal includes 3 additional tracks that continue to highlight his talents (even though it seems that the right people have yet to discover him, as he declares in “Exit the Wonder Years” that he has yet to “make a dime” from “writing a rhyme”). My favorite track on the album, perhaps due to my own nerdiness as much as anything, is one of these 3 tracks. It is entitled “I Like She Like” and features the chorus, “I like Batman, she likes Superman.” Of course, I side with him and am not quite sure I could dig on a gal who prefers Superman (my wife much prefers Bruce Wayne’s alter-ego to Clark Kent’s, so I’m all good on that tip).

My other favorite tracks on this EP are “Winnie Cooper” (included on the January mixtape) and another of the 3 post-Wonder Years tracks entitled “Ohdee!” The old school WWF references hook me early on the latter track. Worth mentioning here, one of the sweet things about indie hip hop vs. indie rock is that self-produced hip hop doesn’t hurt the experience the way it can cripple a band trying to use Pro Tools on their laptop in a basement studio.

All in all, a fantastic effort by a nerdy MC that is likely to join the ranks of Pigeon John, Wyclef Jean, CookBook, Uno Mas, Int80, Beefy, and Mos Def in my personal pantheon of the dopest in the biz.

This particular session is almost completely as-is… Facebook lag and all!

Yo

So, get this, I got a notice today from my ISP that I got busted for downloading copyrighted material.

Damn

Sucky.

I didn’t know they still did that shit.

I had to promise I deleted the material or my Internet would be suspended.

hahaha

Honor system.

OK. Let’s do this.

Yeah.

Let’s start with that whole healthcare reform hoopla. What’s Mr. Riley’s take?

Ideally, we’d have single payer health care like every other fully developed nation in the world, but that’s off the table.

A distant but still vastly improving second would be the public option, though that seems to have been severely compromised at this point and likely won’t even go through at all.

But isn’t that socialism? (rolls eyes)

Just like the police and fire departments. Sure.

Ooops, I forgot to start with, “So, I heard you are a Libertarian.“

I was, but I stopped being one when I left my first wife.

Haha. Anyway… so I am basically on the same page with you there. Public option would have been a good step, let’s hope it still works out.

I give it 1 in 20 odds at this point.

Ok, so what else is hot in the political/social forum right now? Any opinions you want to share with me?

I’m not as informed as I should be, in all honesty. I take the issues as they come. I’ve paid more attention to health care than most because it would effect me directly. Generally speaking, I side with the far left liberals the vast majority of the time.

I tend not to fall on the American political spectrum a lot of the times, so I feel ya.

Yeah! Me too.

How about the Kanye West debacle?

I’m all about salary caps, the legalization of all drugs and culturally unacceptable stuff like that. I don’t even use any illegal drugs but it’s a massive waste of our resources to criminalize them. It’s wholly ineffective; it also puts a lot of people in prison unjustifiably.

Oh. Yeah. I hear Kanye said some shit at the VMAs. Homie, I could not care less. I don’t get celebrity obsession. It just doesn’t resonate with me.

It’s like that Mike Vick thing you asked me about.

Why is this important?

I think he’s funny sometimes and he taught me valuable lessons, like that George Bush doesn’t care about white people.

Why is this part of our public discourse? It’s absolutely trivial; it’s taking the place of something really important we could be talking about instead.

I do like that Kanye brought back shutter shades. They’ve always been cool.

True, true. Isn’t that always the case though?

Shutter shades?

Yes. They’ve always been cool.

I meant on the public discourse thing, but… yeah, that too.

So… I am running a remix contest. I was kinda hoping you’d take a whack at it.

I saw. Haven’t checked the track out yet, but I’m gonna have to decline. Busy with my own stuff. Thanks for thinking of me, though.

It’s ok. I don’t hate you or anything, but check out the song. CookBook is dope.

I like his name.

Indeed.

Oops.

Oops?

Sorry about that.

Still with me?

I might have missed your last question.

Navigated away from this page accidentally.

Hello?

Yes, I’m here.

Any more questions?

I think I am gonna be lame and make this session a bit short. I feel so old, I have a hard time staying up too late. We’ll have to have next week’s final chat be grandiose.

OK. lol

Any subject you want to focus on for next time?

Let’s conclude with something interesting, at least. How is Nerdcore Rising? I saw on your Twitter that you were watching it on your XBOX.

We ended up not watching it because Beefy had technical issues. We’re gonna reschedule.

Damn. Beefy! You should have yelled Beefy in the way that supervillians do when their plans are foiled by their nemeses.

I can’t stay mad at Beefy.

Well, anyway… next time let’s focus on pop culture that has changed your life in some way, like music, movies, tv, books, whatever.

If you’d ever met him in person, you’d understand. He’s like a giant cherub.

That’s a good subject!

Thanks.

I’m rad like that.

You omitted a key medium, though.

Which?

Video games!

That too.

Right on.

So, that said. In addition to my questions for you, I want you to pose at least two interesting questions to me as well.

Yeah? OK. I’ll do that.

I want to say something worthwhile on my site for once.

I gotta get you something for your mix tapes soon, huh?

We’re working on more stuff. Haven’t just forgotten about you or anything.

Ok, so… the wife and bed beckon. Take care of your wife and your fellow Libertarians… and yes, I want a track. Hell, an EXCLUSIVE one!

We’ll get you something.

Word. Tell Beefy I love him.

Night.

Night.

Another Facebook chat session with the one and only Shael of the Rileys.

How’s a little chat tonight for you?

Let’s do it.

Word.

So, how’ve ya been since we last talked. I read that you were sick on your Twitter.

Still having some health problems. I’ve been light headed and fainting, and have a chronic muscle spasm in my neck and shoulders. I’ve had a lot of MRIs and other tests, but still haven’t been diagnosed.

That sucks!

It’s OK, man.

I’m not mad or anything.

So, what are you working on musically?

Anything new?

I’ve been trying to write new songs for the full length Double Ice Backfire release, primarily. Working on a little bit of Grammar Club on the side.

Doing one-hour music writing contests every other week or so.

That’s been fun.

Cool. One-hour music writing?

Never heard of such a thing.

Yeah!

You’d never think of it, right?

It’s cool. What websites do contests like that?

It started, in so far as I know, with the video game music arranging crowd, but I’m sure its roots are older.

ThaSauce.net does the ones I participate in right now.

Everyone gets together in a chat room; we’re all given a theme and an hour to compose, then we all listen to each other’s work and vote on our favorites.

While I’m not much a musician, I’ll have to try sometime.

You should! Everyone’s welcome. #ThaSauce on the Enter The Game IRC network.

It’s a lot of fun. It’s super nerdy, though, because you’re hanging with all your friends in a chatroom while you’re sitting by yourself on a computer.

So, I reviewed Dual Core. They got my name from you. I absolutely loved their album. Have a favorite track of theirs?

“Here to Help” right now.

Rad. Have you ever done a track with them?

Not under the Dual Core name, though C64, the producer of Dual Core, is producing the new Grammar Club album right now.

Int 80 might make a guest appearance.

That’s awesome. As a big fan of you, them, and Beefy, I will have to rock that as soon as it’s ready… which will be…

I don’t know, man.

We’ve had three or four false starts with this album, and a lot of personnel changes. I think everything’s finally rolling now, but at this point I’m just not gonna give a date until it’s done and being processed by CD Baby.

You’re only as fast as the slowest band member when you’re working virtually, over the Internet.

Who exactly is in this incarnation of Grammar Club?

Oh man!

Check this out:

Me on sequencing and vocals;

Beefy on vocals;

Kabuto the Python replacing Glenn Case as our third vocalist;

And C64 doing final production and engineering. He’s also doing a lot of drum loop and synth arrangement stuff, and some awesome turntablism too.

Nice!

Facebook tells me you didn’t get half of that

Kabuto the Python on vocals

Ailsean on guitar

Mustin on bass for half of the album

Adam!, the producer of our first album, on bass for the other half of the album

DJ Snyder doing some table work and some drum loop stuff

So that’s 8 guys.

I think….

Awesome. I did miss like half of that.

Yeah.

8 different artists.

Double Ice Backfire, by contrast, is only three.

Ok, well, most of those cats are new to me. Who are they (minus you and the Beefster)?

Snyder did all the scratching on our first record, and did some production.

C64 is, as I mentioned, the producer of Dual Core. He creates all of the instrumentals that Eighty raps over.

Mustin is the front man of TheOneUps, a jazz fusion video game cover band with a good bit of a following. (www.oneupstudios.com)

I’ll have to check that out, for sure.

Ailsean is an old school overclocked remixer whose guitar work I’ve been a fan of for a very long time. It’s amazing to be on a project with him since I was a big fanboy of his video game music arrangement stuff. Still am, actually.

I’ve heard mad good stuff about Kabuto, but I’ve never heard anything myself.

Kabuto the Python is a really good rapper. I’m stoked about the addition of a second rapper. The new album takes a more hip-hop direction than our last.

You should check out his mix tape Parseltongue.

I will, where can I get it?

Lemme check….

http://www.scrubclubrecords.com/music/parsel.html

SCHWEEEEET!

Did I mention I got a free Touch?

No.

My sis bought a MacBook and already had an iPod Touch. It came free, so I got an early B-day gift.

Sounds good.

I am digging on it. So anyway… I am watching Greek (an ABC Family show that is basically a college sitcom/dramedy) with the wife.

You are married, right?

Where did you get that idea?

I don’t know. I thought it said so on your Facebook.

It’s never that on my Facebook.

Then, I’m crazy. Not sure why I thought so.

No wife, then I guess.

I like these interviews. lol

Haha. Me too.

Any lady friend? or man friend? or…

I’m straight and single.

To the point.

I always find it easier to write music, though, when I’m not in a relationship.

A girlfriend takes a lot of emotional energy. You know what I mean?

And making the relationship work takes a time investment, too.

Agreed. Am I at least right on the fact that you live in NYC?

Kind of. I’m a little ways North of the city right now, dealing with this health issue.

Ahhh. I’m originally from Northern NJ, so I am familiar with NY.

Yeah. So I’ve been really happy with the stuff I’ve been writing recently, since I’ve spent most of my adult life in relationships and haven’t had much of an opportunity to write music while single until now. I think the stuff I’ve just recently written is my best stuff yet.

Interesting.

So, I think I’m gonna bounce. Next week, we’ll have to hit up some controversy, like politics and uhh… stuff.

lol

Oh man.

That’s gonna be great.

You’re gonna be like

“I hear you’re a Libertarian.”

Hmmm…

lol

I’m not.

I’m very Liberal.

I’m just ribbing you, man.

We’ll be ok.

Anyhoo, I’m out like trout, homie. Keep it real.

Peace out.