Music Monday: With Sprinkles by Beefy

With Sprinkles by Beefy

You should all know by now, if previous posts are anything to go by, that I am a fan of nerdcore.   I feel a little bad that I’ve yet to devote a full post to nerdcore rapper Beefy but, with last weeks release of his newest album With Sprinkles I’m about to change that.  Beefy’s previous album, Rolling Doubles is one of my favorite rap albums of all time.  Indeed, it still finds its way onto my iPod to this day.  So when I somehow missed the initial release of With Sprinkles last week I was certainly kicking myself.  With Sprinkles is a glorious explosion of nerdcore awesome feature guest stars, great hooks,  precision rhymes that leave you hungry for more.

Beefy injects his music with a sense of play that is in many ways quintessential to the nerdcore genre.  If nerdcore is about anything it is about enthusiasm, it is about doing what you love in spite of what others might tell you.  While other nerdcore rappers are certainly skilled at adding their own sense of play to their music none even come close to to capturing the wonder and excitement that Beefy seems to express through his music.  With Sprinkles has so far never failed to make smile and has an ineffable ability to both transport me back to my own childhood and make me feel like a kid again.  While every track on With Sprinkles is a winner here are a couple of my favorites.

Duh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh, on title alone this tracks rocks.  It is onomatopoeia for Koji Kondo’s world 1-2 theme which is used as a sample on the track and is cleverly worked into the lyrics.  Geek Out! is an anthem for the dorky masses.  A shout out to nerds of every kind.  It had me grinning hard after the following lyrics:

Got a twenty sider in my hand
Tiny dwarf figurine and it’s all at my command
Just light me a torch while I take on all the orcs
Not really an adventure, just a room full of dorks

Join My Guild samples (or could be just a variation on) the theme song from The Guild and is a sort of ode to the MMO and nice nod in the direction of the aforementioned web series.  Also, Leroy Jenkins.  Different Language is a song that every geek can relate to.  On the one hand it’s an in-your-face to the mainstream media and on the other it’s about finding your niche.  My favorite bit of lyric occurs early in the song:

Since middle school where we pass those notes
Have a whole conversation consists of quotes

Press Start [ft. Dual Core] is kind of like a walk through the world of multiplayer gaming.  Oddly enough, and maybe it’s just me, but the song reflects the shift from competitive to cooperative multiplayer that has been around for the last few years.  Last but not least is my all time favorite song on the album Uncanny (ft. MC Lars) which catapulted straight back to the autumn Saturdays of my childhood and, oddly enough, Recreational Soccer which often warred with my desperate need to watch X-Men on Fox Kids.

If you’ve ever been interested in the nerdcore scene With Sprinkles is an excellent place to start; it’s hard to argue with positive energy that pours off the album.   You can sample all the track’s over at Beefy’s Band Camp page and, honestly, I think the music speaks for itself.  If you’re so inclined you might also find Beefy at his own home on the web or tap straight into the thoughts of the man himself via twitter.  Now if only someone can get Beefy over here to the Philly or New York area to do some shows!