And they all lived rap-pily ever after.
Hip-hop musician MC Frontalot is best known as the godfather of nerdcore rap — a genre that mixes hip-hop with geeky topics such as video games and good grammar. But in his new album “Question Bedtime,” the Lefferts Gardens resident mines subject matter more fantastical than “Voltron” or Dungeons & Dragons: children’s fairy tales.
“I generated a list of fairy tales that I wanted to explore,” said Frontalot, whose real name is Damian Hess. “I wanted to write some really familiar ones so that I could stray from the stories in interesting ways, and then there are some other stories that my English-speaking, Western audience might not have caught wind of.”
For example, on the album’s third track “Gold Locks,” Goldilocks does more than just break into houses because she is hungry and tired — she also terrorizes and murders kids in the woods. Other familiar tales that get the Frontalot twist include “Little Red Riding Hood” and “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” as well as lesser-known fables such as Japanese folk tale “The Ugly Son.”
Frontalot calls “Question Bedtime” “liminally a children’s record,” and for that reason, he nixed any foul language. But the album still has the same frenetic appeal as his five other adult-aimed records.
The concept album is a new direction for Frontalot, but the poindexter performer said he does not feel limited by the “nerdcore” label.
“I came up with the term, so anything I do will be nerdcore,” he said. “I have always written about whatever I wanted to write about.”
The title does make some for some awkward fan encounters, though.
“People come up to me and talk about astrophysics and my eyes turn opaque and they are very disappointed to learn that I am not versed in all areas of nerddom,” he said.
Frontalot will play a hometown gig at Littlefield in Gowanus on Sept. 20. He said he is still plotting the stage show, but expects that it will include pajamas.
MC Frontalot, Dr. Awkward, and Corn Mo at Littlefield [622 Degraw St. between Third and Fourth avenues in Gowanus, (718) 855–3388, www.littlefieldnyc.com]. Sept. 20 at 10:30 pm. $12.
