"This song goes out to those with coke bottle glasses, to all you lonely kids who were the last picked in gym classes. We got your back, detract your malefactors - all you up in the back, unite like Thundercats!" - 2 Skinee J's
Throughout the early 90's, the alternative rock bars and clubs of the Pacific-Northwest and the bedrooms and back alley mixing studios of South-East L.A. both gave birth to new forms of stylistic music, progressive hip-hop and and grunge. Both genres reached mainstream success despite the disinterest by major record labels and radio stations. However, in the ten years since their respective inceptions, gangster rap and hip-hop and grunge rock have become over-saturated and cliche. The true angst and social-disappointment which the original artists held no longer exists, making music like hip-hop, more about "bitches", "smack" and "glocks" and less about the results of government marginalization and neglect.
What new, imaginative and original form of music has reared its head in the recent past? What stylistic genre can we look towards for genuineness and candid lyrics? Like Luke Skywalker sneaking into Jabba's pleasure palace in Return of the Jedi, Nerdcore Hip-Hop has crawled unnoticed into the periphery of the music mainstream. Nerdcore rap and hip-hop is music by nerds for nerds. Like its predecessors in Washington and Compton, L.A., Nerdcore is all self-produced and distributed, its artists (for the most part) release their work for free on the internet. Like its predecessors it speaks to the interests and concerns of its audience. And, like its predecessors, Nerdcore is widely experimental and its capacities are still undiscovered. Despite this, the genre and its notable artists possess a loyal and stalwart fan-base.
Above all, Nerdcore should not be confused with a parody genre. The music is not meant as a "witty twist" on mainstream rap. Nerdcore hip-hop and rap would exist irrelevant of the progression of mainstream music. Its origins lie with New York and San Francisco-based scenes, whose most notable artists include Deltron 3030, Dr. Octagon and MF Doom. These rappers wrote music before the term "Nerdcore hip hop" was coined in 2000 by MC Frontalot, yet explored themes outside traditional rap culture, rhyming about science-fiction, comic books and video games.
"I'm in the hood you know, I keep a fully loaded AWP, Pwnin' n00bs for EXP, I gotta get that gwap." - EZ Mac
What Nerdcore hip hop represents is this: the death of wide-stream and watered-down music. The mentality that a single style of music can catch the permanent interest of the globe may be the dream (once realised throughout the 90's in the form of Pop music) of a marketing executive, but is not what the future holds. In an era where anyone, like these nerdcore artists, can mix, blend and create their own unique form of music, more and more niches will erupt, giving rise to more personal and specialised forms of musical art. While the nerds and geeks of the world may have been the first to exploit the available technology, artists from every walk of life will be sure to follow. Say good bye to Britney Spears and Backstreet Boys and say hello to ZeaLous1 and Optimus Rhyme.
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