Tuesday, April 4, 2006

1337 G33k B3at Rolls a 8d12 of Rock

By Todd Maternowski

Revenge of the Nerds from 1984.

Monday night, the Bar of Soap hosted a nerd rap night featuring Dallas' own 1337 G33k B3at, as well as Florida-based nerdcore duo Mad Happy.

Punctuated by nerd-friendly standup comedy, the crowd was treated to a great show when 1337 G33k B3at's MC Router took the stage and delivered her powerful anti-Microsoft rant, “Bill Gates Revolution”. She followed with an stage-rocking energetic rendition of the band’s signature rap "1-800-n00bie" and showed her considerable rhyming skills in a rap about Warcraft that instantly hit home with the crowd.

For decades, nerds have been the kicking boy of popular culture, the butt of countless jokes regarding their social awkwardness and quirky pastimes. To be sure, the those stereotypical activities – whether they involve hitting each other with foam swords, neatly organizing their action figures, or leaving mysterious clues at the crime scene for beautiful female detectives – seem almost specifically engineered to result in easy jokes at their expense.

But as every fan of great cinema knows from the seminal film Revenge of the Nerds, when nerds take their skillz in hacking mainframes and paying attention in chemistry class, and apply them to the real world, the jokes stop.

Or they get more clever. A new segment of the hip-hop community called Nerdcore, or nerd rap, is quickly growing in popularity. Replacing old and busted hip hop standards of bling, street living and hoes with chocolate milk-fueled rhymes about hobbits and C++ coding has struck a nerd-nerve among fans of the genre.

Of course, the on-board humor inherent in the rap doesn't hurt.

Internet-based nerdcore artists such as ytcracker, Aesop Rock and Optimus Rhyme (and even mainstream national acts like Eminem and KRS-One) have been leading the way, a welcome voice for those passion is costuming themselves for Star Trek conventions or talking smack at online chess tournaments.

A documentary on nerdcore was being filmed at the Bar of Soap on Monday night, you can check it's progress out here.

After 1337 G33k B3at's abbreviated set was cut criminally short by a restroom break, the colorful duo Mike and Rivka of Mad Happy took to the stage, rapping about a range of topics including world peace, the benefits of gay marriage and how sexy dancing can solve all of the world's ills. Just as the increasingly diverse hip hop community supports a wide variety of styles, Mad Happy's set was considerably softer around the edges than the raw, angry nerdrage expression of 1337 G33k B3at's MC Router.

1337 G33k B3at's intelligent lyrics and catchy bass beats will make a fan of nearly anyone, whether or not they've ever cast a high-level magic missle spell at a rampaging orc.

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