MC Lars

The Graduate

[3/5] Not to hip-hop connoisseurs: If you want to appreciate MC Lars, don’t take him so seriously. True, he’s not the best lyricist on the planet; in fact, he’s not even close. But that hopelessly nerdy quality is what makes him so genuine–and on the long-playing follow-up to 2004’s The Laptop EP, Lars proves himself the hip-hop novelty act for people who hate hip-hop novelty acts. Accompanied by the Matches on “Hot Topic Is Not Punk Rock,” he runs off a litany of gimmicky products and blasts the company for exploiting underground culture. “Generic Crunk Rap” is just that: a send-up that pokes fun at artists like Lil’ Jon for having absolutely nothing to say. (It’s also probably the only song where you’ll hear the words “Fox News” and “crunk” in the same line.) It’s a mixture of satire and pop-culture commentary, a formula that appears many times throughout The Graduate. Sure, it’s not the best rap record of all time, but what’s refreshing is that it was never intended to be.
(HORRIS/NETTWERK) Eddie Fleisher