Album Review: MC Chris Is The King of Nerd Rap

Mc Chris has been dubbed the King of Nerd Rap through beats and rhymes that are clearly pop-culture inspired and comical in delivery. Yet, beyond his colorful, facetious take on the genre is a serious delve into the mind’s psychology. His album MC Chris Is Dreaming proves what better than Hip Hop to become a platform for MC Chris to discuss the fears and dreams that take hold of a person’s thoughts. 

Hip Hop has long been the genre for discussion on various oppressions, i.e. poverty, race, and gender, but rare are those that go straight for one’s own personal, psychological torment. When you are your own worst enemy, no matter what mansion you live in or car you drive, your oppression can be doubled. Why? Because your oppressor is yourself, which means you can torment and make yourself feel like nothing 24/7. This terrifying fact/ordeal may explain why MC Chris used Fredy Krueger as inspiration for the album’s psychoanalysis on his own mind. Throughout the record Chris impersonates the King of Nightmares, Krueger, to battle his horrifying fears and self-deprecation. They symbolism hits you personally as Krueger is a perfect embodiment for how we all can mentally exhaust and degrade our being. Though you may laugh at a few witty interchanges between Chris and Krueger, you will also feel inspired at hearing the truth over how we can psychologically mistreat ourselves. 

Although MC Chris has made an album that is self-refelctive of himself, listeners we feel as if they are living/ confronting their own nightmare. Yet, the realism of this album comes not only in the lyrical exchanges, but the sound embodiment of Chris’s personal anguish. The dark trap beats represent the darkened alley ways where your own, inner Krueger challenges you to heed to his torture. The playful, cartoon rhythms are the brief “mental breaks” we give ourselves so as not to completely crumble under our own machinated, emotional bullying. Thus, for however fun and danceable MC Chris Is Dreaming becomes, it still remains oddly sick because its is founded in the self-loathing we carry. 

Mc Chris Is Dreaming is a strangely beautiful album, which may not be, necessarily, two word associations with critics for this record: strangely beautiful. Yet, when somebody embodies an aspect to being human that is both difficult and vulnerable to do, I find that stunning. The most riveting work an artist can create is also their simplest one: to just be yourself. Mc Chris is 100% himself throughout this record, whether you like it or not, Therefore, I cannot really say which are my favorite tracks, as I usually do, because this album is about facing one’s inner demons. Each song is a demon confronted, and listeners will find certain songs more relevant to their being because that is the demon/track they usually put to bring down their spirit. 

Before I let you go, I must  reiterate my admiration for this album. When someone puts their fear and pain before me, especially, in the format of music, I have to give them respect. It is not an easy endeavor to say, “I’m scared” or “I hate myself” out loud or to others whom we love. Thus, for Mc Christ to reveal his struggles of self-worth through the banging music of Hip Hop moves me. Click here to buy Mc Chris is Dreaming on September 30, and check out MC Chris’s performance on October 27 at Knitting Factory.