On the surface the concepts behind nerdcore rap are decidedly un-hip-hop. The beats sound like a 1980s-era Atari, the rhymes tend to revolve around MMORPGs or computer programming and it’s not uncommon for the MCs to perform in some sort of cosplay getup.
That’s the point. But in director Dan Lamoureux’s documentary Nerdcore For Life the scene proves to be just as rife with drama as a 50 Cent/Ja Rule beef.
Doing his anthropology through interviews with nerdcore rappers like MC Router, MC Lars, Beefy, mc chris, YTCracker, Monzy, MC Plus+ and High-C, Lamoureux traces the genre from its origins on laptops coast-to-coast to full-on movement trying to find its identity (and then try to explain it to everyone else).
Yet the true moments of brilliance in Lamoureux’s film revolve around the (sometimes good-natured, sometimes not) in-fighting between rival MCs through flamewars and dis tracks. The battle for computer science rap domination between MC Plus+ and Monzy alone makes the film worth its weight in iPhones, if for no other reason than to watch the two reconcile Jay-Z and Nas-style at an CES event in 2007.
And while some of the documentary’s stars like rapper/producer Doctor Popular (above right, with Lamoureux at a performance following the film’s screening at the San Francisco Frozen Film Festival), wish the beefs hadn’t been given so much screen time, others like San Diego MC Nomad think they can only help elevate the genre.
“Beef progresses the art form, no matter what it may be,” says the rapper. “If Picasso had battled Leonardo da Vinci there would’ve been really awesome paintings.”
True to form, Nomad subsequently announced a fresh rivalry with MC Router, mostly in an attempt to defend Wired from comments theMC made in the documentary expressing her displeasure with the magazine’s story on nerdcore in 2006. [Eds Note: For what it’s worth, her dis track in response to the magazine’s story titled “UnWired” is 20 kinds of awesome.]
MC Router wasn’t alone, many in the film wereupset with the article and felt that their time was wasted byparticipating. But the controversy within the scene over the piece also sets the pattern for future skirmishes between those involved and those who felt they didn’t get their props.
Lamoureux himself got foisted in to a similar melee.
“I got so far in –- up to my neck –- in nerdcore beef and drama,” the director says. “I got on [a nerdcore] message board to promote thefilm and people responded with ‘Screw that movie, you didn’t ask me tobe in it.’ It’s just absurd.”
Lamoureux’s film will be shown at the 2008 Penny Arcade Expo inSeattle next month. Wired.com chatted with the director following his San Francisco debut to find out how he handled the static.
Wired.com: So did you come at this from a nerdcore fan perspective or from a documentary filmmaker perspective?
Lamoureux: It’s funny, mc chris from Aqua Teen Hunger Force came to Chicago, and somebodysaid, “We should go see him.” My response was, “That’s stupid, whywould I want to see the guy from Aqua Teen Hunger Force? And I went. And it was like a geek power rally. It was all these nerds in aclub, having a good time. Everyone is like, “This is nerdcore, man, it’s a thing and it’s real!” And I just stood in the audience with ahundred questions. And I thought, “Someone should make a documentaryabout this. {snaps fingers} Oh yeah, I know someone with a camera I canborrow.”
Wired.com: So how long have you been working on the film?
Dan Lamoureux: So that was 2005 when I first found out about nerdcore. For five months or so it was kind of stuck in my mind and I just kept Googling it and trying to find out more about it. Finally, I found enough people where it would warrant at least a short [film]. We started filming in March 2006.
Wired.com: Have you made documentaries previously?
Lamoureux: It’s my first one. I always made comedies, just general shorts and weird stuff.
Wired.com: Did you go to film school?
Lamoureux: I did a year of film school and it was terrible and horrible and pretentious and jerky and expensive. Columbia College Chicago. I was an “A” student. They asked me not to return because my techniques were too… I taught myself so they were very guerilla-style and it freaked everyone out I guess. They said, “We can’t un-teach you, so please leave.” I was very angry about that. So I spent less than a year’s tuition and made a movie.
Wired.com: What’s your day job?
Lamoureux: I’m an A/V technician, the king of dork jobs.
Wired.com: What would you want to do next?
Lamoureux: There are many choices. I might just want to do a short to cleanse my palette, or something. So, now, I’m looking for girls who have gone wild. Because I’m fascinated by girls who have gone wild. You never hear about why they go wild. What caused them to go wild? It’s just a question that deserves to be answered. But I’m afraid the answer might just be “Because I was drunk.” I’m looking for people who’s lives were ruined by Girls Gone Wild more so than Joe Francis’ life was. But other than that there’s just a million little things. Every time I come across a little group of people I think “That could be a movie right there.”
Nomad leaves the theater following Nerdcore For Life‘s San Francisco debut.
Wired.com: So the film kind of delves into some of the beefs in the nerdcore scene, did you end up embroiled in any of that?
Lamoureux: I got so far in -– up to my neck –- in nerdcore beef and drama. It was a slippery slope. I got on a message board to promote the film and then people responded “Screw that movie, you didn’t ask me to be in it.” And that snowballed. So in the nerdcore world there are people who are so excited about it, because they’re in it, and then people who are just furious enemies of it because they felt like they’ve been denied their chance. Actually, and this was like my crowning achievement, there was a rapper who wrote a dis track about me and my documentary skills. The first time I heard it my heart was just swelling with joy because I made a guy so angry about the movie that he wrote rhymes about me! It’s just absurd.
Even tonight, there are just nerdcore haters who hate the film and the whole thing. I was really worried there were going to be fights. Literally, people have been harassing me online. People looking me up on WHOIS for my we in the middle of the night. It’s weird. It gets borderline harassing sometimes, but most folks are cool.
MC Lars (left) performs after a screening of Nerdcore For Life.
Wired.com: So, your next screening is at Penny Arcade Expo, which is also where Nerdcore Rising is also supposed to be screening, right?
Lamoureux: As far as I know they’re going to be there. The Expo people were like “We don’t want to step on anyone’s toes, so just so you know they’re probably going to screen here.” But, you know, MC Frontalot, the main guy in that movie, he’s super nice and very friendly to me behind the scenes, so I’m sure he’s excited to see the other side of nerdcore [that’s on Nerdcore for Life], just to see the kind of people who want to be like him.
Wired.com: Yeah, and it’ll probably cause a beef.
Lamoureux: It’s funny, I just read a blog post today where this guy named the Dark Prince, who is a nerdcore show promoter, was saying “Yeah, um, I go to Valleywag to keep up with what’s going on in the Valley and what do I see but a big post about Nerdcore for Life’s big screening in San Francisco and just, so you know, we’re in Nerdcore for Life, but we support Nerdcore Rising.” [Eds: That post is here.] It’s because the star of their online record label, they felt that I asked him too late to be in the movie and didn’t give him enough attention and stuff. They felt very dissed by it. Rappers. [Sighs.]
Wired.com: Ultimately what would you like to do with the film?
Lamoureux: We’d like to get it in a few more festivals, hopefully. Then get a few more screenings around the country. Then focus on distribution. Trying to find someone to put it on DVD. With the web stuff that’s happened with it we’ve gotten a good steady stream of attention, so we’ve had a lot of requests from film companies to see it. So I’m hoping we get picked up somewhere.
Photos: Jonathan Snyder/Wired.com
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