MC CHRIS ON THE MIC… I MEAN, HORN

Thursday, October 26


I wrote about this in the print edition of New Times, but here’s the rest of my interview with MC Chris, America’s favorite “nerdcore” rapper. He's playing the Culture Room next Wednesday.

D: Do you have a few minutes?
Chris: I have so many minutes for you, it’s ridiculous.

D: Where are you and what are you up to?
Chris: Right now, I’m walking through Manhattan. I got a week off in the middfe of my tour – so I can play Splinter Cell: Double Agent. That’s not the real reason, but that’s what I’ve been doing. And we just toured pretty much the whole country – but we left out the Southeast for last, cause Florida is crazy about us and we love Florida, too. And we’ll be hittin’ my old hometown, Atlanta, Georgia. We’re gonna have big party – with old friends from the Cartoon Network. We’ve done a lot of shows. I took the audience to a screening of Temple of Doom in Austin, Texas. We were at the Alamo draft house and sold out a whole big movie theatre. And Tom Morello of Audioslave – oh, hang on a second?

[to someone else]: Hot tea – with two sugars and milk.

D: You drink tea?
Chris: Yeah, it’s a little nippy in New York City.

D: Where are you? Starbucks?
Chris: Fuck, no – fuck Starbucks! So, what were we saying?

D: You were telling me that Tom Morello from Audioslave…
Chris: Tom Morello from Audioslave – he came to see in LA. We’re both from the same hometown and he went to my high school and so it’s just cool. He always talked about other people’s racism, and I was made fun of there, too… It’s cool to see someone who’s so successful. He came up to me afterward and congratulated me.

D: Do you guys fight over who’s more successful, like “I’m gonna speak at alumni weekend/!” “No, I’m going to!”
Chris: No, it was very amicable. He was wearing his Cubs hat, and I was wearing my Chicago Cubs hat….

D: So which of you is going to speak at the high school reunion?
Chris: Well, he wasn’t in my class. He’s way older than I am. Plus, I would never go to a high school reunion – I have too much to be proud of.

D: But isn’t that exactly why you should go? To rub it in?
Chris: I know, that’s what everyone else says.

D: So what were you like in high school?
Chris: I was really handsome.

D: Really handsome?
Chris: No, I had a lot of zits. I was the kid who drew all the time. I loved being in the plays. I loved making out with chicks and cruising parking lots.

D: No way – You were a drama nerd ?
Chris: Oh yeah. Big time. People who see my life now say, “You have stage presence. Well, I was in the chorus in Fiddler. Actually, I wasn’t. I was in the chorus in My Fair lady if you wanna be factual about it.

D: Where do you live now?
Chris: Williamsburg, Brooklyn. I’m the one cool guy there. Everyone there looks like a Stroke.

D: ha ha. Hey, a lot of artists get labeled and they say they hate to be labeled, but it seems like you’ve taken this “nerdcore” label and run with it.
Chris: I haven’t run with it; journalists have. I just talk about nerdy stuff sometimes because I am kind of a nerd. But not a hardcore nerd – I don’t know that much about everything.
I’m easily challenged and trumped. But I found out who my audience was, and I will throw them out like stuff that we’re both into. … I’m not part of any big posse or anything. There’s a lot of kids who make their own rap music now on their computers, and that’s really cool… I’ve been doing this for 10 years, for a long time before everyone started making rap songs and stuff.

D: So you don’t actually have an identification card that shows you’ve paid your dues and you’re actually in the nerdcore club?
When I was younger I wanted to be in a big club but now…

D: Your new album is called Dungeon Master of Ceremonies. Do you actually play D&D?
Chris: No, I don’t. When I was younger, my brothers used to play, and I would watch them play. A lot of the nerdy stuff that I reference, a lot of it is stuff that my brothers liked. I would be more into drawing maps and making characters. That was my favorite part. The more creative part. The part where you’re actually building the character and putting time in – that I didn’t really have the patience for. I couldn’t get through a game of Trivial Pursuit.

D: So you’re not really a nerd! You just stole all the nerdy ideas from your brothers!
Chris: Well, I am kind of a nerd. I like Star Wars. I almost cried when I read the last Harry Potter book. I like Lost a lot. I read comic books voluntarily. There’s nerdy stuff that I do, I just – I’m not an all-encompassing nerd. I don’t really know everything about a computer or about Dr. Who or about Star Trek. I think being a nerd is all about picking up stuff that you like and focusing on it.

D: I read an interview with you where you came out saying that you loved the show Everybody Loves Raymond. I though that was more edgy and gutsy and nerdy than saying you love Star Wars. Cause in reality, everybody doesn’t really love Raymond, but everybody does love Star Wars.
Chris: I’d rather be surprising. If I was too nerdy, then really it would be really boring. You can’t please everybody all the time. I made a lot of nerd references on the new album, but some people were like, ‘It’s not nerdy at all.’ So, you know. What can do? I just try not to force it in any one direction. Just try to be the free-flowing piece that it is.

D: I like the skit where you have the agent telling you that you have to write more songs about Star Wars characters in vehicles [because of Chris’s first hit, “Fett’s Vette.”]
Chris: Yeah, he says I need to write more.

D: I was also looking you up on Wikipedia –
Chris: Not very factual.

D: No?
Chris: I guess it is.

D: It’s weird, the trivia that people post there: “He appeared at GameSpot's "After Hours" gaming event on October 14.”
Chris: I did.

D: Do you have to compete in stuff like that to keep your street cred as a nerd?
Chris: I like doing events like that whenever possible. It breaks up the monotony of going to shows and bars and venues all the time. I like doing signings at comic book stores and taking the audience to the movies. Or taking everybody to GameWorks. Sometimes I’ll go to a house party after a show – if I’ve, you know, if I’ve been drugged.

D: Will it be advertised beforehand, like Buy a concert ticket and then come with MC Chris to a free movie?
Chris: With temple of doom, it was. But like in Minneapolis,, I took everyone to GameWorks and then went to house party afterwards and nobody knew about that. But it was such a fun show. Sometimes you just don’t want the show to end.

D: But it’s not like you announce onstage, “Hey, everybody, let’s meet up over at Gameworks.”
Chris: No, but until I get in the van and drive away, people kind of hanging out. They want to see where I go and what happens. There are always people who wantto hang out with me after the show and discuss politics.

D: Are you getting ready for Halloween? Do have a costume going?
Chris: I do not have a Halloween costume going. Maybe I should look into that. That’s a good idea. We’re doing a show in Delaware, I think. That should be a hoot. I think my next album’s going to be Halloween flavored. So I’m excited.

D: What’s your favorite candy?
Chris: I like bottlecaps. I like Razzles, cause it starts out a candy and turns into a gum.

D: How many people do you bring with you on tour? Whos’s in your entourage?
Chris: I do not have an entouarge – I can’t afford a Turtle. But I have a DJ and a roadie – and they do all the work, pretty much. They basically pour money into the back of the van and I sleep on it.

D: Still a van? You don’t have a big old tricked-out tour bus?
Chris: No, we do not waste money. We’re an independent act. We’re not signed to a label so we don’t have any big ducats – big ducats coming in. So we’re very cheap.

D: After a show, do you trash hotel rooms and stuff, or like, play Cranium?
Chris: Never – I never trash hotel rooms. In fact., I clean it up before the maids come in. To make sure I’m not forgetting anything. And what am I always forgetting? My phone charger.

D: Do you have a merch table? I was at Guns n Roses last night and I was outraged that they were selling denim jackets – for $150.
Chris: We don’t do nothing like that. We have t-shirts and pins hoodies – nothing more than $30. But I will take advantage of my fans – as soon as I figure out the best way to do it.