5 on Friday: 5 Songs to Introduce You to Nerdcore

Nerdcore, in a nutshell, is hip hop with nerdy lyrical content. I’m calling these songs all nerdcore, although some of the artists mentioned don’t identify as such (or don’t anymore). Some of them prefer to be called indie hip hop.

It’s a very niche genre  but if you’re reading this there’s a chance you fit into that particular niche. Here’s a few songs to introduce you to the genre. One thing that is awesome about all these artists, is that they know their market. All the songs can be streamed for free off of bandcamp, and then you can buy the songs in whatever DRM free format you choose.

1. Magnificent 7 – Dual Core featuring MC Frontalot, MC Lars Schaffer the Darklord, Beefy, Random, YTCracker – This song has every major artist in the genre, and there was a lot of colaboration on Twitter to make it happen.
2. Dangerous Ways – Dual Core – Dual Core is, in my humble opinion, the most serious artist on this list. “Dangerous Ways, ” a song protesting the regulations that have been proposed against the internet lately, is a good example of how they use their art to spread a message.
3. The Tell-Tale <3 – MC Lars feat Random –  MC Lars has a degree in literature from Stanford and has used that background to create rap songs around classic litreature. This is from his album based on Edgar Allen Poe. He also did a TEDx Talk on the topic, that is worth checking out when you have the time.
4. Commando – Random (aka Mega Ran) – Random does a lot of sampling from 8-bit games. But here’s the trick, he does it well. There’s plenty of bad examples of this technique, but precious few where it’s done well.
5. Inhuman – Adam Warrock –  I really don’t have much to say about this. I just like it.