YouTube Friday...

...comes a little early this week. Since it's an odd time of year, here's some oddity. I came across this yesterday - a documentary about the burgeoning trend of Nerdcore:



(PS - the mini-rant at 2:07 or so is particularily priceless)

Who knew? Well I remember hearing about MC Paul Barman awhile ago. Who can resist lyrics like "Make like a whirlybird and graduate early, word" or basing the song "Enter Pan-Man" on the Fibonacci sequence. I did see 2 Skinnie J's play "Riot Nrrd" in 1999 or so, and of course there's Dr. Octagon and Deltron, respectively:





Hell while we're on that theme Andre 3000's a bit wierd too, and the Beastie's have been throwing in smart kid references since day one ala "Sounds of Science" or "Intergalactic."

But that doesn't nerdcore make. It's a whole subculture apparently. Whoa. Here's a genre classic by YTcracker, who apparently was (and/or still is) a hardcore hacker in his day, famous for breaking into NASA's servers when he was still a teenager.



It's all out there. There's a group based on the Transformers (Generation 1 of course) called Optimus Rhyme, MC Hawking, and more, much of it featured on the now-six-CD-filling Nerdcore Compilation Project. Time to add a section to the iPod.

But I guess I should hardly be surprised. As I was finishing this post it suddenly clicked. Nerd rap is a NEW trend? Hardly! How could I possibly have forgotten the all time classic, the touchstone, the immaculate conception. This was shot before Rick Rubin and Russell Simmons ran into each other for the first time at danceteria, and two years before "Walk This Way" blew the thing open. I guess the nerds have old skool street cred too.