I’m on the road now, so just a blast of news updates. FIRST, scheduled a last minute booking for Friday, May 18 in Brooklyn, NY at Grand Victory 245 Grand St. It is with the homies Schaffer the Darklord and Mikal kHill, and I promise, this show will not disappoint. RSVP and info here (link).
[Top 100 Geeks You Should Be Following on Twitter - WIRED.com]
Wired.com’s GeekDad blog named me one of the top 100 geeks to follow on twitter, along with friends like MC Lars, Marian Call, MC Frontalot, and tons more! Check out the list (link)
[Interview with Hipster, Please!]
I did an interview with Hipster Please a little earlier in the year. Z. is one of my favorite long-form interviewers, so if you want to read about how my newest album came out about, you should check it out (link).
[Neo-Tokyo and Akira Guest Blog]
Thanks to everyone who downloaded the Neo-Tokyo EP this week, which you can still get here. I wrote a guest blog for You Offend Me You Offend My Family, talking about why I did an album based on the anime film, Akira, and a bit about the end of the world. It’s more funny than that, though (link).
Finally, my friend and associate, Mikal kHill, released a new single to fund-raise for replacing his busted computer and other general expenses. This is mildly important, as he’s the guy I’m doing The Slytherin Mixtape with, and he makes the beats and produces it, which necessitates a computer. But you can also read what friend Jesse Dangerously wrote about Mikal and this song on his tumblr (link). Anyway, the single is below, and you can donate what you want:
Click the cover art above to watch the first video, or purchase the album. Or go here to buy it directly. Special thanks to DicepticoN for the production, and Kevin Church for the cover and webpage design.
Adam WarRock “Sex Bob-Omb” (MP3) Beat used: “Sex Bob-Omb” by Sex Bob-Omb – remixed by Joules
What’s this? Two free tracks in one week? Hasn’t happened in a while. I had Joules remix the “Sex Bob-Omb” song from the Scott Pilgrim soundtrack as a set opener, and I performed it with aplomb at SXSW and at most tour spots. People have been asking me for an MP3 download, so I recorded it and made you this nice video! Because I was bored!
It’s really impossible to fully describe how much affection I have for Scott Pilgrim, both the graphic novels and the film. Even more completely stoked that Oni has announced the full-color hardcovers that are coming out, starting later this year!! AHHHHH ZOMG WHAT?
You should pre-order it, and while you’re at it buy the movie, and the soundtrack, and AHHH ZOMG SO AWESOME. Anyway, thanks to Bryan Lee O’Malley and Edgar Wright for such awesome things. That’s probably all the new free music you’ll get from me for a while, but remember!
Beat: Jadakiss “Without You”
Single cover designed by Kevin Church
I always wondered why bad guys in Disney Movies went after the Belles or whatever. If I was a bad guy, you’d think I’d just get with one of those villainesses. Is that a word? I’ve always thought Maleficent was pretty hot, and I don’t know what that says about me.
TWO DAYS LEFT!! To get older tshirt designs (while sizes last) at the merch store for $8-$10 per shirt. Go check it out.
May 12 – EGA w/ Soup or Villainz – Indianapolis, IN (info)
May 14 – Ruby Tuesday w/ Soup Or Villainz, MC Cool Whip – Columbus, OH (inf0)
May 16 – Pittsburgh Comics – Pittsburgh, PA (info)
May 19 – Super Art Fight Charity Show! – Baltimore, MD (info)
May 25 – The Milestone w/ Mikal kHill, Tribe One – Charlotte, NC
July 9 – Littlefield’s w/ Michael Kupperman and Guests TBA – NYC
Adam WarRock “When the Winter Comes” (MP3 |Lyrics)
Beat: Block McCloud “Crazy Man (Straitjacket Remix)”
Single cover designed by Chris Haley
As seen on:
I finally watched ALL OF Game of Thrones this past weekend, after getting countless emails from people saying “Hey, why don’t you do a Game of Thrones track?” or “Why not a Game of Thrones rap?” or “Hey, why are you so stupid, do a Game of Thrones song.” It’s not that I had anything against the show, I just hadn’t gotten around to it. It took Curt Franklin talking about it incessantly, and Chris Haley actually putting DVDs in my hands for me to finally sit down and watch it. And guess what? It was awesome! I mean, obviously.
So here’s the song everyone wanted. So stop emailing me about it.
I’ve got a massive sale on old tshirt designs (while sizes last) at the merch store. $8-$10 per shirt. Go check it out.
Or hey, buy some music! I’ll have a new EP coming out 5.14.12. More on that soon, but it’s going to be $5 for 7 tracks, and takes aim at a pretty huge, historic geek property.
Live Shows
May 12 – EGA w/ Soup or Villainz – Indianapolis, IN (info)
May 14 – Ruby Tuesday w/ Soup Or Villainz, MC Cool Whip – Columbus, OH (inf0)
May 16 – Pittsburgh Comics – Pittsburgh, PA (info)
May 19 – Super Art Fight Charity Show! – Baltimore, MD (info)
May 25 – The Milestone w/ Mikal kHill, Tribe One – Charlotte, NC
July 9 – Littlefield’s w/ Michael Kupperman and Guests TBA – NYC
To say I’m busy would be an understatement. I’m hoping to be able to have a new EP out for sale in mid-May, as well as tons of new free music. I’ll also have a new album out called NOIR sometime in the late fall, that I’m plugging away on. Announcements on those are comin’…
In the meantime, I’m going to be performing at a bunch of places. So check the tour page.
As for the Slytherin Mixtape, we’re going to have to push back the release date. I’ll make a more formal announcement about that probably next week, but kHill’s computer died on him, and he was without a computer for the weeks I was home, able to get a ton of stuff finished. He’ll be back up and running soon, but without his computer and all the fixin’s, we can’t really make songs like we usually do.
In the meantime, check out the merch store, where I am doing a huge spring/summer sale. All older design tshirts are $8-10 each!
It’s been a while since I talked about what I do here, in between songs about racism, TV, and cartoons. So I figured it was as good a time as any to make a song about it.
I can’t remember where it was, but I once read that someone called me the “Rap Chuck Klosterman.” I take that as a pretty big compliment, so I made a song about that. I remember when I first read Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs [1]. I must’ve read that book at least 10 times, and in some strange ways, the book’s spirit and manifesto aesthetic has informed a lot about what I do now.
There’s this idea in society that we aren’t allowed to hold “low brow” elements of media as important and meaningful. I run into that conflict a lot when people find out that I basically rap about pop culture, along with a certain sense of thinking I do shit like that to troll for hits. Let’s be honest, I’m a creature of the web, and so yeah, I need things that people are going to actually give a shit about [2]. So there will always be a certain element of that in my songs. But I make tracks about things I genuinely am a fan of, things I am enthusiastic about. I didn’t like The Hunger Games movie [3], so I didn’t make a Hunger Games song. I have never watched Game of Thrones [4], so no GOT rap (even though I get more emails about that than anything). I love Parks & Rec, Mass Effect, Justified, etc. etc. Music is my celebration of things I not only love, but also are important to me.
One of the things that I took away from reading Klosterman’s writing was that you can be well-informed about foreign cinema and literature and foreign policy [5] and all the kind of things that we view as “high brow culture,” while also holding up these elements of pop culture as truly meaningful and important, personal and powerful. You can pull emotion and meaning out of sitcoms and comics, and I try to do that every time I make something. When me and kHill made The Browncoats Mixtape about Firefy, we ran into so many people thinking we were making weird filk-fan shit. And as people started to listen to it, they discovered it was way more than that, because the show actually has all of that emotion and meaning in it. I love that people still discover the mixtape, and find out it’s more than what they thought it was. We are really proud of that.
I make music about pop culture, geek culture, or whatever you want to call it. I aim this rap laser [6] at whatever I care about, and in the end, I hope the songs that come out are not only shake-your-ass-bob-ya-yead-dope, but also at least a tiny bit more, for some reason or another. That’s what I try to do every time I make a song.
So anyway, that’s what I do around here. And oh, to those people who complain that I give away too much free music: eat my shorts.
And if Chuck Klosterman finds this page thru the magics of the Internet and enjoys this song, believe me, it would mean the world to me. But if no one ever found any of these songs, I’d still make them. It’s just what I do, hits or no hits.
Enjoy. Done with my two and a half months of travel, I have 3 weeks off. Time to make the rap donuts.
[1] Almost 8 years ago, which both seems like incredibly long ago, but also just yesterday that Klosterman first burst onto the scene. If you don’t read him at Grantland, you are missing out.
[2] One could argue that no one except a very tiny population truly cares about Peter David 1990s X-Factor, so y’know, I don’t think getting accused for trolling for hits is always fair. I mean, c’mon, I doubt anyone except Sean, a friend of Curt, Chris and mine in Memphis, really cares about Havok as much as I do.
[3] Never read the books, didn’t know what the movie was about. I thought the movie was bad, I’m sorry.
[4] Nothing against GOT, I just missed the train, and now it seems like SO MUCH TO GET BACK INTO. Also I’m not really a swords and sorcery dude.
[5] And I mean, this coming from someone who loves, what are those things called, books? I mean, I love a lot of “high brow” stuff too, but I don’t think anyone really wants to hear me rap about tax reform or Melville. I mean, maybe they would, but it’s not nearly as fun to make rap songs about them.
[6] Make a note, self. “Rap Laser.” Good song title.
May 12 – EGA w/ Soup or Villainz – Indianapolis, IN (info)
May 14 – Ruby Tuesday w/ Soup Or Villainz, MC Cool Whip – Columbus, OH (inf0)
May 16 – Pittsburgh Comics – Pittsburgh, PA (info)
May 19 – Super Art Fight Charity Show! – Baltimore, MD (info)
May 25 – The Milestone w/ Mikal kHill, Tribe One – Charlotte, NC
July 9 – Littlefield’s w/ Michael Kupperman and Guests TBA – NYC
Adam WarRock “Ta-Nehisi” (MP3 | Lyrics) Beat: Sabzi “On the Couch”
Not a geeky song this week. Sorry. We are going to get sort of serious.
For those that don’t know, Ta-Nehisi Coates is a blogger for The Atlantic, who writes about culture, race, and politics. He’s one of my favorite bloggers on the web, and you should definitely read his blog (he’s also a geek, as his twitter bio would prove). If he ever happens to hear this song, I hope he knows that I used his name because, well a) it’s an awesome name, and b) I think he’s come to stand for, at least to me, a welcome and comforting voice when it comes to speaking on race and America, specifically America’s complex relationship when it comes to race in all elements of our culture and ethics.
That being said, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about race lately. When you grow up and live in Memphis, TN, a city with a large black population kind of surrounded by a region that is for the most part heavily conservative with the reputation, whether fair or not, for being somewhat more cognizant and vocal about its own racial divide. I really have been to Pulaski, when I was an intern working in the Southeast region in college, for some reason my boss thought it was “cool” (?!?!) to take me to the founding place of the KKK. I saw the plaque. I was like, “uh, cool” and just felt uncomfortable. I mean, how are you supposed to react to that?
Growing up, I never thought of myself as much of a minority being Asian-American, seeing as there was already a huge “minority” population all around me. White was never dominant in numbers, though it always has been in a lot of ways, at least in terms of perceived status.
Maybe it has to do with the Trayvon case, and the expected reaction of news and government officials. Maybe it had to do with all the Derbyshire kerfluffle, and the requisite amount of anger and indignation that had to exist, given that the thing he wrote was so facially stupid, that it’s hard to really get up in arms, though you’re saddened if all you do is shrug and say whatever. I don’t think of myself qualified to speak on the plight of young black men because, well, I’m not black. Plus, there are others who have done so already, in a poignant, meaningful and impactful manner. Maybe it has to do with the 2012 Presidential election, and immersing myself, mostly by some sick, perverse choice, in the coverage of the GOP primaries, where race has always been, and will always be a major factor, even further highlighted by the presence of Obama as the incumbent opponent.
At the same time, I’ve just been having my own personal crisis of identity in terms of where my music, and much more than that, my own place as an Asian-American in the media should factor into my direction in life. This, on the heels of the whole Jeremy Lin thing, on the heels of coming back from KollaborationATL, an Asian-American talent showcase, and seeing the community that is built around being Asian, an identity that I never could fully own growing up and still struggle with to this day. Having grown up as a nerdy kid who never acted wannabe-thuggish, who still wore mecca jeans and enyce hoodies and talked incessantly about the Wu-Tang Clan and Public Enemy while doing my extra credit and working hard in school. There’s no question I’ve always felt different, though I don’t know how much that has to do with being a minority, or even being nerdy. Maybe it has to do with the fact that I was just… different.
Memphis is a weird place, a place where the whitest suburban kids love rap music, even the racist, country ass folk. Memphis is a city where people literally do stand in front of MLK’s wreath at his place of murder and smile and pose for the camera. It’s a place where no one really cares about race, even though everyone cares about race, if that makes any sense.
Maybe I, like the rest of the country, will always be sort of obsessed with race, for better or for worse. And that’s fine, it’s something we all have to decide how to deal with. I’m just glad that I have people like Ta-Nehisi Coates to read while that conversation, both internal and public, keeps going on.
If you’re around Rutgers University, they are throwing an incredible Geek Week from April 13 through April 21. I’m going to be performing at a Costume Dance Party there on 4/20. RSVP here!
More Shows
May 12 – EGA w/ Soup or Villainz – Indianapolis, IN
May 14 – Ruby Tuesday w/ Soup Or Villainz, MC Cool Whip – Columbus, OH (inf0)
May 16 – Pittsburgh Comics – Pittsburgh, PA
May 18 – Philadelphia, PA – Details TBA
May 19 – Super Art Fight Charity Show! – Baltimore, MD (info)
May 25 – The Milestone w/ Mikal kHill, Tribe One – Charlotte, NC
July 9 – Littlefield’s w/ Michael Kupperman and Guests TBA – NYC
Funny things happen when you do a press photo shoot with Joey Miller. Like you take your pants off. Anyway, I’ve been fairly busy, so maybe you’ve missed some of my recent stuff with the blast of posts?
This weekend I’ll be in Atlanta, performing a short set at Kollaboration 5 on Saturday. I won the grand prize last year, and I’m sure there will be amazing performers this year. Come on out, and come to the after-party! (info)
I’ll be at Rutgers Geek Week on 4/20, performing at the Costume Dance Party. Students get in free, costumed people get in free, I believe tix for others are $5, but don’t quote me on that. You want to come out, right? (info)
I also did a theme song for my buddies at the Slashfilmcast. It was a huge honor, seeing as the /Filmcast was one of the first podcasts I ever listened to regularly, and it’s regularly the best movie podcast around. Go check out their most recent ep.
Also, shows shows shows. Some of these cities, it’s my first time out! Come and say hi, rock with us!
May 12 – EGA w/ Soup or Villainz – Indianapolis, IN
May 14 – Ruby Tuesday w/ Soup Or Villainz, MC Cool Whip – Columbus, OH (inf0)
May 16 – Pittsburgh Comics – Pittsburgh, PA
May 18 – Philadelphia, PA – Details TBA
May 19 – Super Art Fight Charity Show! – Baltimore, MD (info)
May 25 – The Milestone w/ Mikal kHill, Tribe One – Charlotte, NC
July 9 – Littlefield’s w/ Michael Kupperman and Guests TBA – NYC
Pop culture hip hop about the things you love. Comics, TV, movies, video games, or whatever I feel like making music about. Creator of The Browncoats Mixtape, Parks & Rec EP, that Downton Abbey rap song, and other things you may have heard of. Reader's Digest once linked to me.
All music is property of the original copyright holders. In no way is this site an attempt to sell or distribute music that is the copyright of others' unassociated with this site without their permission.
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