Straight Outta Console: The Nintendo Thumb Mixtape is a fresh as hell nerdcore album by rapper Heath McNease that sounds like what was born after your Nintendo banged a hip hop CD.
No, really–it does! Have a listen:
%CODE11%
“I did it all for Tanuki?” Come on now, that’s some clever shit.
Actually, the whole album is full of nerdtastic Nintendo wordplay and McNease raps the hell out of it. The rhymes come at you fast and furious and are ridiculously smart and witty. What’s also striking is how surprisingly clean they are–you know, for hip hop. In fact I’m pretty sure there’s more profanity in this paragraph than there is in the entire album.
And of course, because its nerdcore there’s plenty of gamer in-jokes (Konami Kode!) and pop culture references (The Wizard!) layered over those familiar 8-bit themes from your favorite Nintendo games (Castlevania! Mega Man! Paperboy!).
Among the 19 (yes, 19!) tight tracks you’ll hear:
- Sick hip hop beats by ForBeatsSake
- Sound bytes from the movie The Wizard
- Turtle Van Damme, a whole song dedicated to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles complete with Ninja Rap samples and nods to the ’80s cartoon theme song
- Lots of familiar Nintendo sound effects
Though the album was released back in July of last year, it somehow managed to escape my ever expanding web of awesome* ’till I randomly saw this post over at Ghetto Manga.
McNease is pretty fly for a white guy and clearly a gifted rapper and lyricist. I was surprised to learn from his bio page that he’s also an emphatic live performer who does over 250 shows a year.
Besides rap, his eclectic background includes musical theater, improv, and folk music, which sounds like it would make for quite an entertaining evening. If he ever comes to my neck of the woods I’ll definitely be buying tickets.
*Yes, I’m well aware of the fact that I overuse the word “awesome.” I’ll try to work on that.
