Years ago, of my favorite bands, The Matches, did a collaborative song with MC Lars. That’s how I discovered him and up until last year, I didn’t know anything about other than the fact he did a song with The Matches and that he was probably from California.. and that second one was a far stretched guess. (((The Matches will have their own post in the near future. When I post it, there will be a link rightttttttttt here.)))
MC Lars (and Weerd Science in the background) performing at Warped Tour last summer
Last year, I made plans to go to Warped Tour, an annual music festival that travels across North America (US and Canada) during the summer. Before I made any solid decision to attend, I wanted to take a good look at the list of bands that were playing the festival. Let’s face it, if there aren’t musical acts that you love and enjoy seeing at an all day, outdoors music festival, there’s really no much point in going… If you wanted to see a bunch of yahoos you’ve never heard of, you could go down to a local bar and save $60 (on gas, ticket, parking, and whatever else you’d spend money on during the day).
There were quite a few bands that I loved and have seen before as well as ones I liked but had never had the chance to see on the roaster. When looking at the line up, I saw Lars’ name and instantly thought of the song he did with The Matches. I knew straight away that I wanted to see what he’d be like live. What witty raps would he bring to the table, or rather stage? Being the strange person I am, I didn’t go and look up any of his music before attending Warped.
I like to do that occasionally when I go to shows. It’s a hit or miss sort of thing. Most of the time, my instinct tells me that it’s a good thing and that the band or artist won’t disappoint and usually, my instinct is right. I’ve had countless good times just going to shows with little info about an artist and with those kind of odds who’s to say I’m not onto something?
When the day for Warped actually came around, it was a bright, sunny day down in Detroit and hundreds, maybe thousands; of other sweaty music patrons were there ready for a good time. I think it was like around 2 or 3 in the afternoon when MC Lars and a fellow independent rapper, by the name of Weerd Science, took the stage to prove that once again, my instincts were right.
Photo credit is as stated on the image.
I can honestly say, that MC Lars and Weerd Science were on of the best performances I saw that day. They both took the stage with a lot of energy and proceeded to spit well-planned and witty raps for the crowd’s listening and viewing pleasures. It was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced on account of the fact I’m not big into rap or hip hop music and before that day, I have never wanted to go to see an rapper perform; I had no interest for such.
To me, the common and over-popularized rap music, you know the stuff that gets radio-play and just about everyone and their brother knows, is so generic. It all sounds vaguely similar and there’s not much content to it. The lyrics, seemingly, show traces of vulgarity, making great deals of money and the appraisal of violence, sex, and drug use. I don’t live a lifestyle like that and I certainly don’t want to listen to music that promotes that.
That was how I saw rap music before Lars. He writes about slightly more important things like politics, social issues, and problems with the current pop culture and he does it in an intelligent and cunning way. He kind of takes something serious and adds a bit of a comedic twist to it, so when you listen you kind of say to yourself, “Oh, ahhhaha I see what you did there.” His music is more about wittiness and facetiousness than big pimpin’ and his music is meant to be more than background music.
I may not be able to identify with all of his music but I can certainly respect it. After that day at Warped, I went home to look up what could about MC Lars. I was shocked to find out that he was very DIY (do-it-yourself) with his music, meaning he puts out his own records and LPs and rather than being on a major music label he started his own label, Horris Records, to put out music. He’s a pasty, white dude from the suburbs of the San Francisco area (I was right about him being from Cali) that has a passion for rap music. What I found out about Lars from his website, which is linked at the beginning of this post, was all interesting to me. The things I learned form his website bio really tells a lot more about his music…how he got into rap and where his influences came from, it really says a lot about his musical style.
…And if you couldn’t tell from my banner and now from this post, I’ll say it outright, I like MC Lars’ style.
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