One of the things that vexes me deeply about the advent of CD technology is the guy in the office at the record company who said something to the effect of “we’ve got a lot more time that we can fill on this thing… why not have a comedy bit?”
And so my music CD, which I bought because I wanted to listen to music (I assure you), has people talking and trying, and usually failing, to be funny. Sure, Dr. Dre’s The Chronic had The $20 Sack Pyramid (likely the best example that you’re able to find) but, seriously, most of these things inspire little more than car accidents as drivers swerve as they hurry to fast forward past these unlistenable skits.
Recently (as the result of stumbling across them), I picked up a couple of albums by Handsome Boy Modeling School.
The first thing I suppose I have to tell you is that, yes, these albums also suffer from the pestilence of comedy skits. The second, however, is that you can fast forward past them and that it’s worth doing so.
They have two albums: So How’s Your Girl
Now some backstory: this album is not the lovechild of a band as much as the lovechild of a couple of producers: Dan The Automator (The Gorillaz, among many others) and Prince Paul (De La Soul, among many others). They, apparently, called in every single favor they had. You’ve got artists from Miho Hatori to Jack Johnson showing up. Every song is a song that blew my mind. There’s one speech on White People (in Rock And Roll (Could Never Hip Hop Like This) Part 2) that makes the point that you don’t know whether a song is hip hop or rock until you hear either the guitar or the rapper. “Rock influenced Hip Hop, Hip Hop influenced the world.” The song meanders, seemingly aimlessly, through free verse, hip hop, classical, rock, and finishes (at 5:00) with a clinic on scratching. And everything makes absolutely perfect sense.
While it’s true that there’s a non-zero amount of comedy (sigh) on the album, the fusion of rock and hip-hop is brain-meltingly awesome. Seriously, if you’ve never explored some of the weirder corners of stuff producers do when they have a lot of favors to call in? You *NEED* to get these albums.
You can totally fast forward past the comedy bits.
And that’s my recommendation for you this week.
I think I have about a thousand CDs, and I did not know that this was a thing. Is it pretty much exclusively a hip-hop thing?
Not 100% – Queens of The Stone Age’s Songs for the Deaf had “radio DJ” interstices – but yeah, mostly hip-hop. It’s the bane, because they are mostly just not funny (or, funny once, then never again).
But HBMS’s “So, How’s Your Girl?” has FATHER FREAKIN’ GUIDO SARDUCCI. So that is pretty cool. And I like the “advertisement” for the doctor’s office on Dr. Octagon (“I’m in your corner”).
I’ve been listening to a HBMC Pandora station since you shared a video here a few weeks back. Some really interesting stuff they’re doing. For whatever reason, Pandora offers a lot of instrumental versions of their tracks, which are still really good, but the full versions really are something special. The range of songs is what impresses me… the move in and out of so many different styles and genres without suffering for quality. That’s not easy to do. Thanks again for that rec.
you can blame prince paul for skits, among other things.
Hey, what’s this “among other things” business? Prince Paul is awesome!
mc paul barman.
enough said.
he’s a very good producer when he puts his mind to it and is blunted har har har by the input of others to keep his innate corniness at bay but god damn it nerdcore is some vile stuff.
Heh, I have a MC Paul Barman album (“It’s Very Stimulating”). And I liked MC Hawking.
I forget who did it and can’t find it, but I had a pretty funny track called “My Hard Drive Crashed” ( follow-up lyric: “Man, that’s where all my good porn was stashed.”)
Why do you hate fun, dhex?
i am all about fun. at least 79% of every bit of each day is dedicated to wringing fun out of tight scenarios instead of wringing necks.
but that stuff feels like minstrelry. it’s like listening to tom waits sing. i can’t do it.
Was the recent Nick Offerman/Megan Mullally rap cover also problematic for you (I won’t link it, but it can be found easily enough)? I know it caused a stir in some corners of the internet, for similar reasons.
Minstrelry might be a tough topic for MD; but I don’t see why rap should inherently be any more immune than metal, or indie rock, or folk, or any genre with known tropes that lend themselves to parody. What makes nerdcore any more problematic than Spinal Tap, or NWH, or “Amish Paradise” (or “Weird” Al in general), or Dethklok?
i don’t know who those people are so i can’t comment on that.
nerdcore, to me, is someone saying “man, if only rap spoke to my interests, like star wars or not being able to find adequate parking at shopping centers!” it’s not parody; it’s somehow able to be more asinine than the collected works of lil jon. which should be scientifically impossible, and yet manages to be.
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.