MC Lars: This Gigantic Robot Kills
By Jay Hathaway
Feb 25, 2009
You'd be hard-pressed to find even a handful of rappers who can mention Kobe Bryant and Rene Descartes in the same verse, but that's all in a day's work for MC Lars. Probably best known for his anti-consumerist anthem, "Hot Topic is Not Punk Rock," Lars is back with a collection of new songs that are just as opinionated and just as catchy. On This Gigantic Robot Kills, he criticizes trends like greenwashing, anarchist posers, and stereotypical Brooklyn hipsters.
He's backed up by a veritable army of guest artists, including his childhood idol, Weird Al Yankovic. Lars has been a part of the nerdcore rap scene for years, and some of nerdcore's best MCs show up to contribute verses: you'll hear MC Frontalot, Jesse Dangerously and YTCracker, among others. Hip-hop is only part of what MC Lars' post-punk laptop rap is about, though. He's also enlisted some friends from Simple Plan, The Aquabats, Nerf Herder, The Donnas, and Cobra Starship to add rock to the mix.
Lyrically, This Gigantic Robot Kills is a crash course in Lars' unique blend of pop culture and academia. The Stanford grad name-checks everything from Naomi Klein's No Logo to Shakespeare to Halo. Despite touching on some serious issues, he manages to come off as more fun than preachy. This album has been almost three years in the making, and it shows.
Jay Hathaway: What made you decide to become a rapper, instead of just being in a rock band?
MC Lars: That's a good question. When I went to college, freshman year, I broke away from my band, 'cause they were all still at home or in LA for school. So, I wanted to keep making music, but I didn't have my band. Stanford has this station, KZSU, and this DJ, Kevvy Kev, has a show called The Drum that's been on the air since the '80s. There's a giant wall of vinyl at the station that goes back to the '70s. So I spent all my free weekends -- cause I had trouble fitting in with all the jock and fraternity kids -- I spent a lot of time reorganizing the vinyl. Making sure the records were in the right sleeves, and listening to them. It wasn't that hard, because I had this knowledge of music, to set up shows where I started writing hi-hop songs and, even without my band, just performing with my laptop.
JH:
You're really into the social movement of hip-hop. Did you set out to do more social commentary on this album?
MCL:
Yeah, The Graduate's more pop-culture and fun, more simple laptop beats. The reason this record took longer than The Graduate is because it had so many live guests. Also, I wanted to see how I could dive into being serious without being annoying. Like that song, "No Logo," with my Canadian friend Jesse Dangerously, is making fun of people who try to be serious activists but miss the whole point. The green song I did with Simple Plan ["It's Not Easy (Being Green)"] is about how you can do conscious hip-hop in a well-meaning way, but also make fun of the shortcomings of ecological trends, or people wearing Che Guevara shirts just because it's trendy.
JH:
Are your songs meant to be funny?
MCL:
Humor is a very good tool for making people pay attention, but you can't just do a fart joke or talk about your penis. I think humor is important, but I never want to be a novelty. That's a hard tightrope to walk.
JH:
While you're skewering a lot of lame or phony trends, what about the positive side? What would you encourage people to support or be into?
MCL:
Well, that song with the Mr. Big and Nerf Herder guys, that's kind of admonishing to kids that you can get really good at Guitar Hero, but it's not going to mean anything in five years. Kids can get into Guitar Hero because it's a great way to listen to music and practice your timing, but it's a bad waste of time if you're doing it more than a real instrument. You know what would be awesome? If there were a bigger, more beautiful world beyond the laptop. Maybe that's the theme of this album.
JH:
If you had a number one hit all of a sudden, what would it take to keep your outlook and your philosophy from being corrupted?
MCL:
It's very easy for people who have something to say, people who want people to look outside the mainstream, to be co-opted by the mainstream. I think for me the trick is staying plugged in with subgenres like nerdcore, because nerdcore is very limited, but it's painfully DIY. I like to record in studios with good engineers who know how to help me get the right sound, but some people might think that's selling out. So for me, it's just keeping in touch with scenes that are supportive of me, but also help me stay real.
JH:
Do you think nerdcore is going to last? What sort of future do you see for it right now?
MCL:
I think hip-hop's going to last. I think hip-hop has to last, because it's the only real, original music that kids are passionate about. Nerdcore is often an excuse for kids on the Internet to put out lo-fi, Nintendo-sample records where they talk about Dungeons & Dragons, as an example, to legitimize that complete alienation from hip-hop culture. But it's also showing that hip-hop has become completely universal, international, and it's a language that we all identify with. Nerdcore could easily burn out, because it's essentially a novelty, but MCs who come out of the genre, who want to dedicate themselves to hip-hop, learn about it, teach it, and try to create future success, those people will stick around and be part of the hip-hop canon. It won't reach the mainstream popularity of crunk or hyphy, but it will have a place in the hip-hop encyclopedia. I hope! You were at the show, right?
JH:
Yeah.
MCL:
What did you think of the show?
JH:
I mean, it was a lot like a regular hip-hop show, except that everyone in the crowd was a nerd.
MCL:
Yeah, you've got people who wouldn't go see KRS-One, but after seeing our show, they might want to go find out who KRS-One or Eric B. & Rakim are. That is really positive. Then some people might start thinking about social inequality...Class disparity in American is really ugly, true thing, and we cover up that painful truth with the mask of race being the issue. But really it's a class issue, and kids need to get educated. Nerdcore has the potential to be in the bubble of complacency and fantasy, but the hip-hop language it ties into is so much more than that. That's why I think it's positive.
JH:
And the rap they're going to hear on the radio has really gotten away from any kind of relevant social commentary...
MCL:
I think that Frontalot's "I Heart Fags" is so much more hip-hop than anything 50 Cent would drop [laughs] in terms of keeping it real and being inclusive, and being intelligent. Old-school hip-hop was about knowledge and truth, and mainstream hip-hop is this disgusting display of consumerism. Nerdcore is a little more true to the old school than anything you'll hear on the radio.
JH:
Could you ever imagine a nerdcore rapper getting incredibly rich and rapping about wealth? Like the Bill Gates of nerdcore?
MCL:
YTCracker is kind of that guy. [laughs] He raps about how much money he made from hacking. But he doesn't rap about what he buys, he raps about how he hacked to get it. I think that's kind of cool.
JH:
If This Gigantic Robot Kills were a meal, what meal would it be?
MCL:
It would be macaroni, tofu and organic salad. And coffee, 'cause it speeds up your mind a little bit.
JH:
What's the biggest thing that's changed for you in the past three years?
MCL:
I've learned that even if you think your business team is pretty solid, the music industry is so fickle that if you really want to survive in any genre, you have to be on point with what you're trying to do creatively. [Think about] how you can be self-sustaining, and not rely on other people to help you create your art. If you're willing to be on the road in a band for five months of the year, it's really possible to be independent and DIY and not need a major label and a huge management company to live your dreams and have people hear what you have to say. It's been two or three years of being on the road, being on my grind in the studio and trying to tap into whatever's happening. I've really proved to myself and my fans and my friends that it's possible to be self-sustaining in an uncertain economy and a messed-up music industry. I've gotten to the point where I could do this ten more years if I wanted.
JH:
What's the eventual goal with your own label?
MCL:
Horris Records is my label, and the goal there is to keep signing other electronic, punk, hip-hop acts who are pushing boundaries and creating really good art. I signed a two-label partnership with Jaret from Bowling for Soup, started a label called Crappy Records, and they're helping me distribute that record. So for the next two records, we're going to use that great distribution to get the album into stores, and as the medium of the CD dies, have the next two albums be some of the last physical records they put out. Then we'll switch to Horris as a digital entertainment company and really push the boundary of electronic, punk, indie hip-hop with multimedia. I eventually want to get into producing and help younger artists get their foot in the door, and teach them what I've learned on my own: how to keep creative and happy in a world that tells you you need to conform and be quiet, and be happy with mediocrity if you want to survive.
JH:
How much longer do you think CDs will be around?
MCL:
I have a two-album deal, so hopefully it will last until I drop the second record! None of my friends buy CDs. I think by the end of 2009 places like Best Buy are going to stop selling CDs and start selling media cards with MP3s and the art from the albums. I think the majors are getting into that, too. I saw Bjork was putting stuff out on those, and it's got the potential for a lot of cool stuff. And then labels are selling vinyl with a code to get the MP3s. So I think a year, two years at most.
JH:
Is that something you want to do?
MCL:
I'm doing a 7" for this album, for the street team and the fan club. YTCracker and I are working on more records, and we're going to start doing vinyl and getting that to the college DJs. Nothing compares to the first time you play a record. Nothing sounds better.
JH:
Who are some of the people you hope to work with in the future?
MCL:
I met Jello Biafra at a Leftover Crack show in Santa Cruz. Ian MacKaye and I have been emailing each other. He let me use the Fugazi riff for the "No Logo" song for free, so he's down with it. He respects the movement, the nerdcore rap and indie hip-hop movement, and we've talked about how this is the next step in DIY that Fugazi and these other bands laid the groundwork for. I'd love to write with that guy. I'd love to do a verse with KRS-One –– somehow, someday –– that would be a very beautiful thing.
JH:
Have you had trouble getting anyone to let you sample their music?
MCL:
When I dealt with Iggy Pop for "Download This Song," he approved it, but I had to give his label seven grand to use the master recording. That was painful. I had to pay Supergrass three grand to use the "Moving" sample for the "Moby Dick" song. So what I learned for this record is that if you don't want ten grand of your budget to go toward clearing samples, there's this thing called an interpolation, where you can have your friends play the music, and sample your friends playing it. Then you just have to pay publishing. It's cheaper, and you have more control over the tempo. It's a way to sample without going broke.
JH:
You talk about postmodernism a lot. What role does it play on this record?
MCL:
Well, hip-hop is a distinctly postmodern art form, because it's a reflection of a cut and paste culture. It's the first genre that's based on postmodern tools of recording and digitally manipulating records. The postmodern identity stems from a response to the modern movement, where T.S. Eliot would reference stuff from classical antiquity and reference all this "high art." Postmodernism is the realization and the coming to terms with the fact that you can't make that distinction between high art and low art. My record does that when it has a song about Hamlet and a song about Guitar Hero, and they both have the same cultural legitimacy.
JH:
Right, and you were talking about how you studied Shakespeare ...
MCL:
I'm the only rapper I know of that has an English degree from Stanford. Not that it really matters, but it helps a little bit when I play with the distinction between high art and low art, because of my education -- my overpriced education -- I can delve into the regular low culture, or whatever you'd call it, and then I have all these references that are unique. It's cool to have that kind of access, to play with that line in that way. That's what makes the album a fun, postmodern listening experience.
JH:
So, Stanford. Do you have regrets about doing that? Looking back now, what would you have done?
MCL:
All through high school and college, I was obsessed with getting good grades because there was this goal of going to grad school, getting my Ph.D and becoming a professor. My whole life, my goal has been to become an academic expert in a field, and teach, inspire people and connect thoughts. If music hadn't happened so early, when I was twenty, if I hadn't gotten signed, I would have stayed the course and spent even more time studying, gone on to grad school and gotten a Ph.D in American Literature or American Studies. Now my goal has become to keep doing records and eventually go back to school and get my PhD in media studies, and then teach hip-hop culture and postmodern culture at a university, drawing on my experience as someone who's practiced in the field. A lot of academics do their fieldwork after they're finishing their PhD. I'm kind of doing my fieldwork now. [laughs]
JH:
What happens as your audience grows up with you? What will you be rapping about when you're 30?
MCL:
The trick is to keep rapping about your emotional growth, and world events. I think as rappers get older, they have to let go of the slang and the quirky lexical tics of a certain generation. If people keep saying "hyphy," it'll be like people still seriously quoting MC Hammer right now. I have to accept the fact that I'm getting older. I like the Beastie Boys, but the 5 Boroughs record was just more of them doing the same thing. I wanted to hear about what it feels like to have grey hair and kids growing up. If the Beastie Boys rap about being 40 as they are 40, I think that will be more interesting, creatively. I think rappers need to address that, that's how you stay relevant and real.
JH:
What will music even sound like in 10 years? What new genres will pop up?
MCL:
The last art form of the 20th century is hip-hop. It's the definition of postmodern. There's this attitude of 'everything's been done, so let's just cut and paste what's been said.' What do you do next? I think there has to be another world war, and then people will be banging pipes rhythmically in a certain way and recording it with a certain microphone. That'll be a new genre.
JH:
Do you think hip-hop will eventually be absorbed into a mainstream, modern grand narrative?
MCL:
I don't think there are going to be any more of these grand sweeping movements. It's like The Long Tail, Chris Anderson, that guy who works for Wired. He writes about the splintering of movements, and how there's all these micromovements, and I think that's the future. We'll see what micromovements become more relevant than others, and that's where it's all going to go. I think the age of these sweeping, grandiose paradigm shifts is over, and hip-hop was the last example of that. So when Nas says hip-hop is dead, he doesn't mean hip-hop is dead. He means that the way the world can be tweaked by a single scratch on a record is gone, because we're in such a postcolonial, postmodern, electronic age. For artists, it means ultimate freedom, and not having to obsess over every choice. I'm excited, I think it's a good time to be creating art.
JH:
What's your attitude toward fame?
MCL:
I would want that exposure to happen only so far as it would provide economic fuel for me to fund other projects and help other artists. Fame is really boring to me. It just means that people will bother you, and give you simple, uninspired advice about life and art. I'm not really trying to find that. I'm just trying to create something for people who are in tune with the world I'm in tune with, and if it becomes popular, then I can fund other people's similar dreams. My dad is a poet and a photographer, and he likes to use this metaphor where artists are trying to hold the light. Art has this entropy, where things decay and become depressing and sad, but art holds the light. If things spread beyond your control, then you're no longer holding the light. It's about keeping that balance, and owning what you create, instead of giving up your babies for adoption.
JH:
What was your favorite album of 2008?
MCL:
Tech N9ne is always really exciting and he put out a record called Killer. That's my favorite record from 2008. And Paul Barman's been doing more stuff this year, that he's released on his website, which is pretty awesome.
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