MC Frontalot is keeping it real by fronting the most. His eclectic mix of hip-hop and nerd-dom make him an internet sensation. Front took some time to school us.


Instant Interview: You've defined "Nerdcore" more than enough, but like the ideas it embraces, I imagine the definition is constantly evolving. What would you say the current definition of nerdcore is?

MC Frontalot: Uh... well it's still just the word hardcore with "nerd" instead of "hard." Do you need to know what a nerd is? I pulled it out in part to make fun of everything being whatever-core, and to mock the outrageous inflation of music subgenre designations, but now it's catching on a little bit so I should pretend that the word's definition is a very serious thing. So anyway, if you're nerdy on purpose, or proud instead of ashamed, then you're nerdcore. Probably doesn't deserve any finer shades of meaning than that.

Instant Interview: Still, how does it feel to be at the front (no pun intended) of a phenomenon, even if it's just based around a single word?

MC Frontalot: I like it! People want to interview me, people want to download my songs, I don't feel like I have to stop playing video games when I have company... the benefits are tangible.

Instant Interview: Fair enough. With the internet in a constant state of flux, where do you see the future of internet music and musicians like yourself?

MC Frontalot: I think there's something really neat happening, where more or less anyone with a thousand dollars worth of computer and recording equipment can have a project studio in his or her house. That plus dialup means every amateur in the western world has a crack at sharing output with potential listeners. It used to be, a band would blow a few grand on a demo recording and mailing fees, so nobody would do that unless they thought there was going to be some return on the investment. It was only for aspiring career musicians. Now it's for almost anyone. So that I think is a permanent change. The listenership will continue to grow, and it will never be anything like the huge crowd of people who only want to hear top-notch studio music, but it will be substantial, and it will grow as the mechanisms for wheat/chaff separation are better developed and more widely used.

Instant Interview: Then, since your product is free to all, do you think the lack of "competition" has freed up more "true" music? Like, people doing it because they feel it, rather than thinking they can make a buck?

MC Frontalot:Not really. People have always wanted to be rock stars, but I don't think the industry has ever had a majority of people who were just in it for the money. They all start out thinking their music is the important thing. Even Britney, whose mom basically whored her out to the record companies, must have been doing her performances because she loves singing and being onstage.

Instant Interview: Which begs the question: How often do you make stage performances? Is there a market for live nerdcore?

MC Frontalot: I've only done four or five, and only one of those was a full-length set. I'm working on getting it together this year to play more shows because it's big fun.

Instant Interview: Many hip hop stars have gone on in an intellectual/geeky manner, proving you don't have to be a thug to make it. Does it ever bother you that there are people like Sage Francis and Aesop Rock pressing albums while you remain, as you put it, in obscurity land?

MC Frontalot: No, it inspires me. I am still hoping that someone decides they want to pay me an advance for an album. Anyone who has any success doing the kind of material I do makes that more possible.

Instant Interview: So, unlike a lot of hip hop, your music is basically devoid of racial tones, or even hints thereof. Is this intentional, or just a function of nerdcore itself?

MC Frontalot: I don't know why I don't bring it up. I kind of enjoy getting email from 12-yr-olds who ask "SO R U BLACK OR WHITE OR WHAT????" I figure anyone who's listened to rap for more than a couple months can tell from my voice that I'm a honkey. Maybe they can't! I don't know. There's nothing nerdy or not-nerdy about addressing race issues, I don't think.

Instant Interview: On the subject of labeling, how do you feel about the term "hipster" being bandied about more and more in mainstream media and advertising? Do you feel being a hipster is losing its prestige?

MC Frontalot: Did it have some before? I am deeply conflicted about hipsterism. I do not like snobbishness. I do like thrift store clothes. I am caught in the middle. I think I did learn at some point in my youth that one should not get so wrapped up in one's cultural artifact or affectations that one's heart is broken after the national media's innevitable co-opting and then abandonment. If your identity shows up in the "so five minutes ago" column of what's hot/not in entertainment weekly, it's going to hurt, sure. But it's ultimately your fault for taking yourself so seriously.

Instant Interview: Geeks as a whole are often seen by the mainstream audience as being over-opinioned elitists or bad-spelling wierdos. Any words for the critics?

MC Frontalot: Yeah, they should keep talking like that when they need their TCP/IP stack debugged and see what happens.

Instant Interview: Between Songfight, the Outside the Inbox collaboration, and frequent nods from Penny-Arcade, have more people been tuning into the front lately? And does their appreciation spell more work in the future?

MC Frontalot: The page visits have very slowly been building. They get big spikes from PA linkage. I will keep making songs so long as anyone pays any attention at all.

Instant Interview: Does your bandwidth reflect a lot of people downloading your music without a proportional number giving you money/comments? And how do you feel about that?

MC Frontalot: I think maybe half or a quarter of a percent of people who have heard my songs have sent some money or a fan mail. That's plenty gratifying.

Instant Interview: Do you find it hard to gain respect as an artist when telling people you're strictly internet-based?

MC Frontalot: That's funny. Yeah, probably. I don't seek much respect offline, so I don't notice really. Most people who know me in person think of me as a writer more than a musician, and if they know about MC Frontalot it's because they spend a lot of time online, in which case they think it's cool.

Instant Interview: Have you expanded your music-making paraphernalia beyond CoolEdit, as mentioned in previous interviews?

MC Frontalot: Nope. Still on the old software.

Instant Interview: Having the unique ability to front, a lot, are you often commanded to front for people? Like, do your friends say, "You should write a song about this funny thing I did", etc.?

MC Frontalot: Not yet. People on my secret BBS do that all the time. Sometimes they have good ideas so I do it.

Instant Interview: And finally, for good or ill, the internet influences us all. Do you feel that any major portions of your life (Political leanings, relationships, shopping agenda) have been drastically changed by your involvement in the online community?

MC Frontalot: Only my interest in rapping, which went from almost nil to gigantic supergoal.

MC Frontalot: Oh, and my relationship with hardcore pornography.

Instant Interview: Of course.

---

MC Frontalot was born Maurice Cedric Frontsuko in a Yreka flood sewer in 1973. The fronting has increased exponentially since. Sixteen years of rap stardom, nineteen world tours, and thirty-eight platinum albums find MC Frontalot threatening retirement. His legion of fans will sob quietly to themselves.