MC Frontalot

Rep your inner nerdcore

By CHRIS FARAONE

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If there's one thing that blacktop hip-hop purists hate more than condoms, gun control and Bill O'Reilly, it's nerdcore rap-dweebs like MC Frontalot. He rocks suspenders, built his rep online, and sells more discs than most backpack battlecats and roughneck gat-clappers combined. The problem is-in a world of chat rooms, avatars and MySpace-all those bitch made hardcore players can't risk getting punked on Frontalot's turf.

"This all started on the internet," Frontalot says, surreptitiously implying that any agitators who crash his gigs are bound to get their websites served. "For a long time, way before I started doing shows, I thought my rapping was no good and that nobody wanted to see me rap, so I kept it anonymous."

In one of hip-hop's all-time great ironies, a lot of so-called underground MCs have brought their operations digital while nerdcore rappers have transcended from the web to live venues. Socially retarded acts such as Frontalot and MC Chris are using multimedia resources to sell out shows, and they're making progress outside the herb section of hip-hop's metaphorical lunchroom.

"The nerd crowd is definitely coming to my shows more than the indie rap kids, but I hope that I'm making stuff that's a little bit accessible to the hipsters," Frontalot snorts. "I can't survive with just having fans who download my music for free. I have to buy food. For the price of a cup of coffee a day, you can help a nerdcore rapper."

Life's a bitch for geek MCs. It's not easy managing three blogs, finding affordable wireless access and protecting your pocket on the road; not that Frontalot claims to be the first to endure this hustle.

"I would think of Kool Keith and MF Doom as being the forefathers of nerdcore," Frontalot says. "Some alternative rappers are still trying to be cool. Kool Keith doesn't give a damn if he's a giant dork."

Neither does Frontalot. He tours with a dude named Schäffer the Dark Lord, has fake Noam Chomsky testimonials on his home page, and performs at the annual Penny Arcade gamer expo. If that's not lame enough, homeboy claims Red Bull is his fans' intoxicant of choice. Sure, he might have a few subterranean predecessors who punched lines about spaceships, video games and breakfast cereal before him, but if there's one dude to resent for nerdcore, it's Frontalot.

"I'm not sure if anybody will have heard about nerdcore 30 years from now," he says. "But if it's still around, then I should hope they have some sort of statue of me."

MC Frontalot

Friday, 11.9.07

Harpers Ferry

156 Brighton Ave., Allston

800.594.8499

8pm/18+/$8adv/$10dos

harpersferryboston.com

frontalot.com