Musicians - MC Frontalot

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	Musicians - MC Frontalot

MC Frontalot is the stage name of Damian Hess, a hip hop musician and self-proclaimed "world's 579th-greatest rapper." He is also known as "Frontalot" or simply "Front."

Career

Early days

Hess began releasing music as "MC Frontalot" in 1999. His first successes came through Song Fight! where he was known to roll over the competition almost at will. Throughout his history at MC Frontalot has never lost a single competition. He even went on to make a song specifically about his winning ways in a competition entitled "Romantic Cheapskate"; that song went on to get four times the votes of the rest of the competitors combined.

Nerdcore

In 2000 he released the song "Nerdcore Hiphop". From the first words spoken ("Initiating startup sequence") to the countless references to a proud geekish lifestyle and nerdly leanings ("Pish posh, man, I come as whack as I like!"), the song became an immediate hit in the geek and nerd communities. The rap subgenre of nerdcore hip hop, which had been around though unnamed beforehand, embraced the name and since has been expanding rapidly.

Many consider Frontalot, if not the founder of nerdcore, certainly the man who shone the torch on it. Front himself though is quick to point out the many artists who came before him and those which he considers his peers on his .

Spotlight

In 2002, popular webcomic Penny Arcade declared Frontalot their official rapper and linked to him on their main site. Since that day he's been acknowledging that that singular act may have made his popularity truly skyrocket. In thanks, he wrote and recorded the "Penny Arcade Theme" a few months later which was, in his own (tongue-in-cheek) words, "an attempt to cash in on their huge and devoted audience."

He has appeared at the Penny Arcade Expo in 2004 and 2005, and his album is now sold through the .

Music Style

Much of his earlier music features samples from other artists' works, many times using music acquired from famous (and notably unrelated to hip hop) artists such as Paul Simon, They Might Be Giants, James Brown, Fiona Apple, and many others. He addresses his borrowing of various drum beats in the song "Good Old Clyde," a song commenting on and using the popular "funky drummer" drum break by Clyde Stubblefield.

A lot of his non-sampled beats were created by electronic music artist Baddd Spellah, who has also remixed several of his earlier songs and gone on to work with him on his debut album Nerdcore Rising.

Not being a man to always stand on his own, Front is always glad to get in with a collaboration. The Nerdcore Rising disc features a song with MC Hawking and Canadian rapper Jesse Dangerously. He's also collaborated with German-American industrial music artist KOMPRESSOR on the song "Rappers We Crush".

Though most of his fanbase is online, he did a handful of live performances while living in San Francisco, and several more since moving to the Manhattan area. When he does, he plays with a full ensemble, including his drummer "The Categorical Imperative", his bassist "Black Lotus", his keyboardist "Gminor7" (formerly "Charisma +1"), and "DJ CPU" (actually a drum machine). He claims that his last live performance in New York City was at Crash Mansion in the Bowery on July 30, 2005, as he was moving to Boston.

"Penny Arcade Theme" and another song, "Which MC Was That?", both appeared in the dance video game In The Groove.

In August 2005 MC Frontalot released a full album called Nerdcore Rising. The album contains some old songs that were re-recorded, as well as some new songs with beats by popular online musicians from Song Fight!, including indie rock and hip hop artist Doctor Popular.

Discography

Nerdcore Hiphop (Freely available demo)
*"Which MC Was That?"
*"Mountain Kind"
*"Speed Queen"
*"Good Old Clyde"
*"Nerdcore Hiphop"
*"Front the Most"
*"Rewind"
*"Special Delivery"
*"Crime Spree"
*"Braggadocio"
*"Indier Than Thou"
Nerdcore Rising (Official debut album)

#Charity Case #Goth Girls #Pr0n S0ng #Yellow Lasers #This Old Man #Nerdcore Rising #Which MC Was That? #Penny Arcade Theme #Floating Bridge #Hassle: The Dorkening #Crime Spree #Special Delivery #Message No. 419 #I Heart Fags #Braggadocio #Indier Than Thou

Miscellaneous non-album tracks
*"A Very Unlikely Occurrence" (As "Rapper Name Redacted", With Baddd Spellah)
*"Front the Most Ultrastep Mix" (Remixed by Ultraklystron)
*"Gonna Be Your Man" (With Baddd Spellah)
*"Listen Close"
*"My Sister"
*"Nerdcore Hiphop Ye Olde Skool Mix" (Remixed by Baddd Spellah)
*"Rappers We Crush" (With Kompressor)
*"Romantic Cheapskate" (With Baddd Spellah)
*"Speed Queen Hyndai Beats Mix" (Remixed by Kid Whatever)
*"24 Hours" (abandoned demo)
Compilation Tracks
*"Start Over" (unknown/possibly unreleased)
*"Message No. 419" (from Outside the Inbox)
*"Special Delivery Mission Accomplished Mix" (Remixed by Baddd Spellah (from BushTrashers)
*"Oh, The Hilarity" (from )
In The Groove Series (1/2 and when 3 comes out).
* Penny Arcade (PA) Theme
* Which MC was that?

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for MC Frontalot ]

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