thepaintedman rates this:

K. Flay, Hip Hop’s best kept secret, just released a hot FREE mixtape (available at her website) to wet our proverbial whistles for her debut full-length album. Frequent Nerdcore collaborator who has also worked with Del and Zion-I (among others) uses this release to demonstrate her production, rapping, and singing chops. Taking popular songs from all types of genres, K. Flay put together 11 tracks and a 12th bonus track where she intertwines great beats with familiar hooks and showcases her vocals for all the folks who are new to the Suburban Rap Queen.

I first got diggin’ on Ms. Flay when I heard “Other People’s Property” from The Digital Gangster LP, then I hear her on other Lars tracks, and I got my first full taste just a few weeks ago when I picked up the Single and Famous EP. Then a last week I was clicking through my On Demand music videos and saw a Zion-I video featuring K. Flay called “Coastin’”. After this, I was hooked, just in time to see MC Lars tweet about her mixtape… I immediately downloaded it.

The mixtape, as all good mixtapes do, works best as a complete product, but I do have a few favorite tracks.

The opener, “ON the bridge” immediately catches me with the RHCP sample it utilizes as the primary backing track. Flay’s flow on top of the track demonstrates her ability to chill out the listener with a sing-song rap delivery, almost like a female version of my favorite MC, Pigeon John. “boom boom pow KUNG FU” uses a cool sample of a kid saying just that with a well crafted computer drum loop to set up a perfect backdrop for her to crank up her showing of her MC skills. On “paper planes & SPITBALLS”, K. Flay chops ups MIA’s “Paper Planes” and brings MC Lars on board for a verse. Solid track, which is no surprise when considering how solid the entire tape is and that Lars is the best post-punk laptop rapper ever (he told me on Twitter that he was not Nerdcore!).

Flay samples tracks from Kanye, Missy Elliot, and a whole bunch of others. It’s well worth it’s price… and quite a bit more. So do yourself a favor, in fact, two favors:

1. Download the mixtape.

2. Watch this video of Zion-I featuring the Suburban Rap Queen.

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.

So, politics… that what I promised…

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.

Stupid Facebook lag.

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.

Pictured below is Beefy w/ his buddies in Optimus Rhyme. Who is Beefy? Let’s find out.

Beefy? What’s up with the name?

I’m a big guy. Someone was trying to make fun of me on a message board once and called me MC Beefy Bee and I liked the Beefy part, so I used it. Then it just kinda morphed into Beef Thompson over the years. I likes it. How about you?

I appreciate that, I am also quite a large fellow… So, besides your name, tell the readers a little bit about you.

I’m a nerdcore hip-hop artist from Southeast Washington. I’m very much into my Xbox and iPhone and have been a comic book nerd for years. I’ve put out 2 full albums and a bunch of free EPs that you can get at my website and I’ve done shows with people like MC Lars and YTCracker in Seattle, Portland, and even Amsterdam. I’m also very sexy. Don’t deny me. You’ll just look foolish.

I have a couple of your albums, personally my favorite song is your cover of Frontalot’s “Nerdcore Hip-Hop”… not sure why exactly, I just dig it a lot. In fact, I like it a lot more than the original. Is Frontalot an influence on you, who else in the Nerdcore scene do you consider an influence on what you do?

Front is definitely an influence. I can’t write like him at all, but he’s cleaver with his concepts and is an amazing performer. I look up to the big acts in Nerdcore like Lars, mc chris, and YTCracker. I’m also a fan SJ the Wordburglar for his wordplay and punchlines. My favorite band and biggest influence is Optimus Rhyme, a Nerdcore Seattle act that sadly broke up recently. It sucks. Hard.

Nerdcore aside, who are some you you favorite hip hop artists?

I grew up on Notorious BIG and Jay-Z so that was my base. I’m a big fan of the first few Gym Class Heroes albums before it got really radio-friendly. Big fan of Lupe Fiasco and early Kanye West and Eminem. That’s honestly about it.

How about other music?

I’m a White Stripes fan. I don’t know if it makes me less manly but I dig Regina Spektor. Tenacious D is the greatest band in the world, but everyone already knows that. I’ve listened to Sublime’s 40oz to Freedom a million times and was in love with the first Gnarls Barkley album. I don’t know if that last one counts as hip-hop or not though.

Good stuff, Sublime is likely my favorite band of all-time and that is their best album, hands down. On the topic of other musical styles, what type of music is the scariest? I just re-read Lords of Chaos, about the Black Metal scene, but I find myself still most afraid of most Country music.

I don’t like music that seems like it’s pissed off at me. I don’t want my music to scream at me. I don’t get that whole scene. If it works for some people that’s cool, just not my cup of tea. I don’t know if I’m really afraid of it since it’s all just a big act when their on stage. I think balls deep Christian music scares me the most. Those people really really believe.

Christian music can indeed be a bit frightening. So let’s move beyond music for a minute, shall we? As a Nerdcore artist, I thinks it’s safe to assume that you are a self-proclaimed nerd (as am I). What are your nerdiest traits and tendencies?

Like a lot of nerds I can carry entire conversations using nothing but movie and TV quotes. It’s like speaking a different language. Besides that I don’t think there’s really one particular thing that is my nerdiest quality. I have a <3 and a Bullet Bill tattoo, so I'm clearly hardcore. Oh, I know, I've made albums worth of songs about things like Street Fighter and board games. That's pretty nerdy.

I actually got a Star Wars Father’s Day card from my 7th month old son, how awesome is that? You have any kids?

My girlfriend has a year and a half old daughter we call Nugget and she gave me a Batman chocolate box for Valentine’s Day. It might have been the greatest day ever. I’ve been involved with the little one since she was 5 months old so I get all the joys of changing diapers and cleaning up after her but lack the ability to make decisions or call her a daughter, so it sucks a little but I loves her so I allow it.

That’s really cool, great V-Day gift… so back to music… or rather, hip hop feuds. I believe the reason Nerdcore isn’t more prominent in the national scene is that there are no publicizedhardcore beefs and feuds like in every other sub-genre of hip hop. I am requesting that you start one now, by dropping me a short freestyle about a Nerdcore artist of your choice.

How out of the loop you are sir. Nerdcore started with nothing but beefs and fighting. I should know because it seems like I started 90% of them. It’s actually just finally calmed down. And I already made a diss song called “Diss Missed” that was on my Private Dick EP. People dug it. Not so much the people dissed in the song though.

Well, I guess I’m a late bloom in the Nerdcore scene… care to start a feud with me?

Fuck you. I hate you! Feud Status: IT’S ON!

Well, that’s just too much for me sir! This interview is over! By the way, take care and keep in touch.

I change my mind. I love you. Let’s be BFFs. Feud Status: BFFs!