MC Frontalot
As Chuck D of Public Enemy memorably put it, "Hip-hop is the CNN of the ghetto." While it serves that purpose, hip-hop started as a much broader genre and eventually, after emerging from the wasteland of gangsta, regained part of that potential. Hip-hop can be about anything, as proven and embodied by MC Frontalot, a proud nerd who takes the stage in glasses, tie, and pocket protector to rap about webcomics, computer games, blogs, and picking up girls at Star Wars conventions.
MC Frontalot was born Damian Hess in San Francisco. He grew up in Berkeley where, as a teenage rap wannabe, he secretly four-tracked his own songs on tape. While working as a web designer in 1999, he resurrected his rap hobby by creating a website for MP3s of his homemade music, the beats credited to the imaginary DJ CPU. In a song of the same name he coined the phrase "nerdcore hip-hop" to describe his music about the geeky subject matter closest to his heart. Other artists like Dream Warriors, MF Doom, and Deltron 3030 had explored geek-related themes previously in their music, but by naming it, MC Frontalot made it a subgenre of its own. Other nerdcore rappers would later follow in his footsteps, including MC Lars, Optimus Rhyme, MC Hawking, and YTCracker. Several of his early songs were entries in the weekly Song Fight! competitions at songfight.org, in which amateur musicians would write songs with the same title and listeners would then vote for the best of them. Each time he entered as MC Frontalot, he won. In 2002 the extremely popular webcomic Penny Arcade also gave him their seal of approval, declaring MC Frontalot to be their official rapper and giving his popularity a boost. He recorded the song "Penny Arcade Theme" as a tribute to them, which later appeared in the video game In the Groove.
After moving to New York, where a musical he had written for Emerald Rain Productions called Young Zombies in Love was featured at the International Fringe Festival in 2004, he recorded his first MC Frontalot album. Nerdcore Rising was released independently -- ascribed to Level Up Records & Tapes -- in 2005 at the Penny Arcade Expo. The post-album concerts were his first tour, an experience caught on film by Negin Farsad. Sales of CDs and merchandise as well as guest appearances like his role as TP Factory Rapper on the Elmo's Potty Time DVD enabled Hess to leave his day job behind and focus on creating music, including his 2007 album, Secrets from the Future. Negin Farsad's documentary Nerdcore Rising: The Movie, which also featured MC Chris, Prince Paul, J-Live, Jello Biafra, and Weird Al Yankovic, premiered at the SXSW festival in 2008.
© Jody Macgregor /TiVo
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Discografía
10 álbum(es) • Ordenado por Mejores ventas
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Secrets From The Future
Hip-Hop/Rap - Editado por Level up Records & Tapes el 1 ene. 2007
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Zero Day
Hip-Hop/Rap - Editado por Level up Records & Tapes el 6 abr. 2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Solved
Hip-Hop/Rap - Editado por Level up Records & Tapes el 23 ago. 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Nerdcore Rising
Hip-Hop/Rap - Editado por Level up Records & Tapes el 1 ene. 2005
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Final Boss
Hip-Hop/Rap - Editado por Level up Records & Tapes el 1 ene. 2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Question Bedtime
Hip-Hop/Rap - Editado por Level up Records & Tapes el 26 ago. 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Net Split, or the Fathomless Heartbreak of Online Itself
Hip-Hop/Rap - Editado por Level up Records & Tapes el 8 mar. 2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Revenge of the Nerds II
MC Lars, Mega Ran, MC Frontalot
Hip-Hop/Rap - Editado por Horris Records el 29 may. 2020
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Apocalypse Bards
MC Frontalot, Mega Ran, Coolzey
Hip-Hop/Rap - Editado por Four Finger Distro el 6 nov. 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Watchmen
Mega Ran, MC Lars, MC Frontalot
Rock - Editado por Horris Records - Random Beats Music el 15 mar. 2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo