To quickly and accurately describe it? It's basically Hip Hop meets Nerd Culture. It can get a bit more varied than that, but that's the general idea here. Back to the actual item at hand...
Metal Gear Solid: The Mixtape
Doug, Can you hear me? Doug?... DOOOOUUUUUGGG!
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Artist - Doug Funnie.
Sites - Home Page. Bandcamp. Facebook.
Type of Album - Metal Gear Solid Tribute/Remix.
Genres - Nerdcore. Hip-Hop. Video Game Remix.
Favorite Song - Plisken.
Review - Here we are with another VGBA! Now, I should warn you, I'm taking a bit of a detour from the usual thing. (That's a good thing though!) As I explained above, this album is Nerdcore. It's pretty much rap but with nerdier themes. Now, you might not be the biggest rap fan... Honestly though? I'm not either. I could go so far as to say I hate it. However, Nerdcore holds a special place in my heart despite what I previously said.
Doug Funnie is a nerdcore rap person from Texas. I've met the guy a few times, and he's pretty cool. I wasn't sure about his kind of music at first, but after hearing it live, I'm a fan. It's not quite the same coming off of a CD, but I'd still say it's great stuff!
Back to the album at hand! Metal Gear Solid the Mixtape is... SURPRISE SURPRISE a Metal Gear Solid tribute. Not being the largest MGS fan (or one in general), a lot of the references are most likely lost on me. However, I still recognize a lot of the material, and a friend of mine who knows the series well enough was immediately impressed at the depth after just a short listen.
Starting from the very beginning, we're jumping right into some MGS characters talking and some remix happening. It's a good beat going here and really opens up the album. (This was done by a DJ R.O.C.K.M.A.N.) The music builds up and starts going into this orchestra bit. Makes me think I should look into the Metal Gear Solid soundtrack... I know it's got some pretty memorable pieces. This drops off into "VR Missions".
I know what VR Missions is. (Long story short? It was on the PS1 and was just virtual missions you did for performance. I don't think there was a story...) This song is pretty straightforward here. It's rapping about the game in general. It's a nice beat and flow of course, so I can dig it. The next song up was a "Plisken." Now, based off what I've heard on the track, Plisken is a character. Unfortunately, past that, I didn't glimpse much information... Then I looked it up! Turns out it's one of Snake's aliases he takes on during the games. (Look at me! I'm learning about Metal Gear Solid.) This is easily one of my favorite songs off of the entire album. As it heads on to the rest of the tracks, I'm not as much into those as previous tracks. Regardless though, it always keeps a really great beat to the album.
Probably the greatest pleasure of this album is the lyrical ability of Doug Funnie. Again, I'm not super familiar to rap, but I feel like most rappers try too hard to find words that rhyme as opposed to finding words that actually fit. As far as The Mixtape goes, I'd say he does a great job keeping the wording and lyrics on topic for each song. I don't ever feel like he's going to throw in random words to fill up the rhyming.
A nice thing about nerdcore in general? It doesn't try to just be "gangsta" or whatever. It's being realistic and nerdy. Although it's mostly video games, there's just a lot more realisticness to the genre than anything I ever glimpsed from regular rap. I guess it helps that the ideas and themes he is rapping relates to me as a person. I figure that's the same for your other kinds of rap and rappers. ANYWAYS!
Just when I thought the album was slowing down? Then in drops "Konami" that's listing off and talking about all the great Konami games that came out before. The classic "Konami sound" is just... so much nostalgia up in here. The song before that "Arcade" is talking about how Konami used to make all these great arcade games. But... what happened to that? (I miss those great old Konami games, but Lords of Shadow 1 was pretty great too!)
Well, I've gone on for long enough here. So basically? This is a great album. It focuses pretty highly on Metal Gear Solid, so if you don't know that, you will miss out. However, for Nerdcore in general, it's a nice album to start off on. Throughout the album, Doug Funnie brings in a great set of lyrics to an epic beat and flow. The mixture of Metal Gear Solid's epic setting and fantastic music meets a man with a vision... and rap-bility. Looks like I might need to go out and explore more nerdcore soon...
Pros - A fantastic Metal Gear Solid tribute. Really great sound, beat, and flow. The lyrics are quite dope. Unlike rap, I can relate to nerdcore, so this stuff just sounds and feels right.
Cons - It's a lot of Metal Gear Solid reference, which I don't really get. (Not so much a Con for the album as a Con for me in general.) The album feels a bit short.
~May the Crystals Guide Me~
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