StarF Raps

Oh boy this is a fun one. At a glance this might be the most ridiculous song on the album because if you’re completely unaware of the story nothing about it makes sense. Sure, on the surface you can glean a few key details: there is some sort of villain who’s primary form of menace is punching people in the dick, this is the second in some sort of installment of stories involving this monster, and StarF is moderate to decent at cramming a plethora of dick jokes into a mere two minutes.

I can’t imagine that there are any people out there who have heard Dickpuncher II and aren’t aware of at least what the song is referencing, but the entire point of this explanation post series is to assume that the reader is starting at zero. So let me tell you a tale of where this song comes from.

For the uninitiated it may seem as though this song follows off the steps of another song called The Dickpuncher, Dickpuncher 1, or something of the like. Well, you’d actually be incorrect! See Dickpuncher II is, in fact, a prequel. See, back in 2013 an artist by the name of Marc With A C released an album called Popular Music, and on that album there is a song entitled “Dickpuncher III: The Dickening.” This is the true musical origin of the Dickpuncher character as we all know it. The story behind that song is incredible, amusing, and can be heard right here!

I am a huge fan of Marc’s music (and am honored to be able to call him a friend of mine!), and so of course one day in the midst of... well, I don’t remember exactly when I had the idea, but I assume I was in the midst of delivering pizzas, it just suddenly clicked in my head that obviously if there are three Dickpuncher movies out there... then it stands to reason that the previous two are up for grabs as far as their theme songs go. An idea was born and I knew that I had to take it upon myself to create Dickpuncher II: Return of the Dickpunch.

The rest is pretty straightforward, the lyrics themselves came together pretty quickly once I sat down to write it and got going. I wasn’t entirely sure how to approach it at first, whether it should directly reference the third song or not in any way, but at a certain point I figured the concept was connection enough and just ran with it in the best way I knew how to do. In the end I’m happy with the sequel/prequel I created!

What I can tell you about the song is that the vocals you hear on the album are the first take of the vocals. I wrote it and recorded it incredibly fast and was happy with it as a demo. When it came time to start putting the album together I went back to re-record the song with the “real” vocals, but for some reason no matter what I did, no matter how I did it, it always just sounded weird and wrong. I can’t entirely explain it. But I tried multiple times over the course of months and no matter what I just could not make it sound the way I wanted it to. So when it came time to finish the album, this was the only song that I had left to work on and I finally figured “well... I guess I just can’t make it sound better than this.” and so the very first recording became the official version. The only difference is that in the actual demo there are a bunch of ad libs of me at the beginning yelling nonsense (mostly just “YO.. YO YO YO.. YOOO”).

 Ah yes, the first of a handful of collaborative tracks with one of my favorite human beings on the planet, the one, the only: Mattari 2600. It’s funny that this album ended up having only three collab tracks, and all of them were with Mattari, but it’s also fitting. The title is Have Some Fun! and it’s aptly titled, because the most fun I’ve ever had doing music - hands down - has been anything I’ve done with Mattari. Sorry, everybody else, but that’s just how it is.

Out of the three StarF & Mattari tracks on HSF!, however, Mode of Transport is the only song that was actually intended to be on this album. What about the other two? Well, we’ll get to their explanations eventually, but for now all you need to know is that I originally wanted to do a song in a similar vein to the last track - except all I would do is rattle off excessive amounts of nerdy vehicles from various games and movies. Not even vehicles necessarily, just ways to get around. Motion is a very important part of geek culture, it turns out, and some of the coolest properties have been based solely on the idea of fictional transportation (*ahem*...portal).

When I wrote this song I kept going back and forth on whether or not I liked it. Honestly I still sorta do. There are things about it that bug the shit out of me, mostly just things like “oh my god this beat is so excessive sometimes” or “this hook lasts just way too long,” or even just not liking the hook in general. I kind of wish I would have wrote a different hook, but for the purpose of this song it does do its job, and suffices in being catchy enough - or so I’ve been told. What I will defend to the death on this song, however, is the verses. I think all three verses are extremely solid.

Beyond the concept of simply rapping about nerdy vehicles, I sort of framed both my verses around a theme. The first verse being about flight or space travel and the second being about ground transportation. This actually happened on accident, as I was almost done wrapping up the first verse and realized I had inadvertently only mentioned stuff that keeps you, for the most part, off the ground. The outlier here is the mention of a Mario Kart go-kart, but I feel that I made up for it by specifically pointing out that it’s on everybody’s favorite level: Rainbow Road (which actually is my favorite Mario Kart level, okay? so stop judging me).

When it came time for Mattari to do his verse he actually came over to my house to write and record it, which was incredibly fun and felt like old times. The official lyrics that went out with the download still contain the fact that when we wrote his verse it was headed with “MATTARI SUX:” as a joke. The truth is that Mattari does not suck, and is in fact a much more entertaining and competent rapper than I could ever hope to be. His verse on this song is goddamn hilarious and way more clever than anything I came up with. I specifically remember us both working on some of the lines, and losing our minds laughing when we came up with the couplet “Or glide upon a dragon, high above the land // FUS ROH DUH, BITCH, I'M NEVER GONNA LAND.” Like first of all “fus roh duh, bitch” is incredibly funny, but the idea of rhyming “land” with itself, just in different contexts amused us both for some reason. Ending the final verse with the mention of fast travel was a stroke of genius. I love this man.

Similar to what I did with the previous track, I am now going to add a “read more” break and paste the full lyrics with links to each specific reference! Enjoy!

I’m making this post it’s own little thing because it would seem kind of silly to have just one of the explanations randomly start with this. So I’m going to go forward, try to do all of the posts, and just pick up where I left off as if all is normal.

HEY TUMBLR, CHECK THIS SHIT OUT!

Groupees is doing a nerdcore music bundle, FOR CHARITY! You can get a wide assortment of nerdcore albums for a minimum of only TWO DOLLARS. All of the music is pretty rad but to be honest this bundle is a total steal considering the new Wordburglar album is in it. Seriously, that’s nuts.

There was a point in my life when I was merely 16 years old and I had just started “rapping.” I put that word in quotations because what I was really doing was awkwardly mumbling into a microphone that barely qualified as a microphone and dropping it against stolen instrumentals from the internet. In many ways I’m still doing the same thing, now just with more conviction.

I haven’t recorded anything new in quite some time, and it’s not that I haven’t had any ideas, inspiration, or drive... But there’s just a block there. Something I can’t get past. Something strange. Even getting to the point where I could find the words to write this blog post were difficult.

Before I address literally anything I feel like this post has to come with something of a disclaimer. Maybe this is one of the reasons that I’ve been having trouble creating anything - because I feel such a need to explain myself. To show you that I am so self-aware. To prove that no, really, I also see what’s wrong with myself. But here we go anyway. I realize that nothing I could possible write here counts as an excuse. These are not excuses, simply explanations. I don’t like the lack of productivity either, but this is just how it’s been. I also want to point out that overall my life is pretty much amazing and anything that comes off as whiny or sounds like I’m complaining: please realize that I’m grateful for everything I have and everything I’ve gotten over the years.

All of this said, let’s rewind to last year. I finally released my third album via Scrub Club Records: Have Some Fun!, a year later than I had intended, but goddamnit, I released it! I made the album built around a certain theme, and in my opinion successfully created what I set out to make. It was quirky, it was different, it was something I was proud of. And still am. I love all of those songs, I love playing them live, and I’m super stoked that they are out there for anyone to take for free should they want them.

So then what? Time to work on a new album, I suppose! Makes sense. For awhile I was just sort of reveling in the release. Playing shows, making plans for videos. That kind of stuff. I worked on some demos on the side. Standard fare. However after awhile my productivity started to stagnate, despite the fact that I still had a wealth of ideas in my head for songs. This problem persists to this very moment. It’s not that I don’t know what I want to do next, it’s that for some reason I can’t.

For awhile I thought it was because of my living situation. I felt that my day-to-day life had become stagnant, and that it was just reflecting itself in my work ethic. At this point I was back living with my parents in the same suburbs I had been living in for years. Even when I had moved out, I stayed in that town. This was all well and fine, but it was finally starting to wear on me. What’s more I had grown sick of working the same day job for what was ultimately enough money to survive on, but so what? I finally felt a real desire and urge to go back to school and try to learn a craft. So I started on an arduous journey to go to college and move out of that town.

Eventually this all panned out, in a manner of speaking. Fall of last year saw me attending college courses back in that suburban town, on a path to move out this year, which also happened! However this came with a twist I didn’t entirely expect.

I’m not going into details, but the short of it is that I moved in with someone under certain romantic expectations that fell apart almost immediately after I moved. What I figured would be a fresh start to a new life where I could focus on school, music, and eventually a new relationship turned into a month of me inwardly falling apart and losing interest in everything around me. Of course it’s moments like these when you fall apart that you really learn who you are, and what I learned is that I fucking love music. And so in the rebuilding of myself (A process that is still ongoing, but I’m doing much better thank you) I’ve been getting really stoked on the idea of music. Both consuming and creating.

The unfortunate other side of the coin is that this apartment is now the most depressing place I can think of being, and so even attempting to work here scrambles my brain. I’ve attempted to write, I’ve managed to get a couple verses here and there done, but mostly I just get sucked into a black hole of feelings and distractions. As a result I’ve been spending most of my time consuming music rather than creating it. Which is fine, but more and more the creative forces in me have been building and screaming for an escape.

I have a plan.

I am going to truly attempt to produce as much as I can from hereon out, even in this place. I can’t promise anything. In fact I don’t know what will happen. I could wake up tomorrow and just lose all the motivation altogether. I doubt that’ll happen, and let’s hope it doesn’t, but who knows. The upswing though is that I’m going to get out of this place. Out of this state. 2015 was met with a false start, but that’s okay. It may have been a misstep, but it was a misstep in the right direction. I’ll find my footing again soon.

In July I’ll be moving to Colorado. Hopefully once again to start my new life focusing on school and music. I really hope to put some new material out soon. I’ll keep you updated, at the very least.

So this is an extremely weird track for me to be posting up right now, and before you listen to it you need to read this explanation or you're going to have no idea what the hell is going on here.

First of all: I wrote this back in 2012. I found it again while going through random beats I have and practicing songs. Upon rapping along with the lyrics and sort of re-learning it (I had never recorded it) I got really excited and decided I wanted to record this song tonight just for fun. Here's why this is super weird:

This song is one part of a large narrative story.

Yes, that's right! Back in 2012 I had big plans to make three different EPs that would all tie together in one big narrative. If I remember correctly they would be titled Chunk., Tidbit., and Piece.. Each of them would have three or four tracks, all mostly focusing on one of three prevalent characters in the story. This particular track, "Guilt," is an exception in that it's sort of a climactic piece that focuses on all three characters.

Look, I'm not going to sit here and tell you the entire story. Strangely enough I have a lot of the songs written, but none of them ever got made. Probably due to a lack of motivation or eventually convincing myself the idea was totally dumb. I couldn't tell you what happened... So this is as close as you're going to get. On that note I want you to know that the quality of this track is extremely rough. I made this relatively quick. Partly as an exercise in rapping, partly just for fun to have this piece of my past come to life, and partly just because I actually really like the story in retrospect. But yeah, this was never meant to be an amazing track or a new single or anything. This is just a newly recorded old song.

So here's the basics of the story:

God is sitting in Heaven and gets hella bored. Why? Because what else are you gonna do when you're God, right? So God says "well, I made all of this. I might as well experience it for myself, right?" God decides to manifest as a human being (...not Jesus...). Here's the catch: When he manifests into a human he loses the knowledge that he's actually God. So he grows up just like any other person. It's set up so that once he turns 21 a "switch" will go off in his head and he'll remember that he's actually God. He'll sound like a fucking crazy person, no doubt, but in this story it is actually true.

So his 21st birthday comes and suddenly... "OH WOW, I'M GOD." The experiment is thereby over. But he's learned so much growing up as a human. He's finally experienced the world he's lived in through an unbiased lens. And more importantly he's made a best friend... Brian. So when he goes back to Heaven he cuts Brian a deal. He proves to him that he's God (by doing some crazy God shit) and says "Yo, if you kill yourself (because you have to die for this to work, and I'm not gonna kill you), you can come chill with me in Heaven." Brian takes the deal, kills himself, and does indeed go to Heaven to chill with God.

However due to this and a lot of other people catching wind... They now too think that suicide will bring them to Heaven. Cults are formed, and God is now thinking to himself "no no NO, this was a ONE TIME DEAL!" But everything is out of hand, and it's all gone quite wrong.

What's a God to do?!

LYRICS:

Oh the guilt, oh the shame It all weighs so heavy on my brain The guilt, the guilt, the shame To leave the slate so stained Oh the guilt, oh the shame Was this experiment truly in vain?

So there have been some requests for the lyrics from RPG-Unit's debut EP Rock, Paper, Genocide. I've decided to post them up here for you all! :)

Vault Hunters

[Eye-Q] My name is Axton spent ten years up in the military forced my way up in the ranks i mean it literally Made my way up to sergeant i had my own force Personal gain and all of the glory that was my set course Order who compromise what this little stupid thing listen here people of power i do my own thing Like my man Frank Sinatra i did it my way leave you shot lost an lonely up in the hallway Duck an dive no can hide “please dont shoot " Don’t shoot this don’t do that bring em back alive for who? wife trippin said i was fired an were divorced too. Somethin bout a firing squad oh i should run too New world things to explore more people shooting at me New life Hunting the Vaults cause they got treasure for me Got a new woman who loves to hang around me She blasts everyone who comes to try an holla at me

[Starby] Siren here. The name's Maya -trust me I'm trained if anyone captures me then I'll incinerate your brain. I’ve been locked away for years, by the order of impending storm I fled that place, but not before they felt my scorn. Called me child one too many times and crossed the line But it's all good now because I made their lives mine. And now I'm on Pandora hunting down personal mysteries Trying to get some answers about my Siren history Why do I have these powers and where did they come from? I just know I have these sweet skills that are pretty fun My phaselock rocks, and it'll blow your fucking mind quite literally with helios and ruin combined Add more elemental damage with my Maliwan SMG GTFO or i'll bring you to their knees Man, I'm on a mission, better stay out of my way Next Gen Vault Hunters got a planet to save. [King Pheenix] Steel in my fingers, No difference to the touch Mr too much, Catching blisters in the rough, Once, Unearth the Zerker, Words, firing and such Dying in the bluff, is your flying up to snuff What! here to bring fear again to hyperion Cracked limbs, hope your torso steers you in Hey Jack-ass, slag from my dearest friends Mi abuela, El mundo, couldn't clear your sins. Hammer, drops from this mini bruce banner, Jakobs and a bandana, blood and a loose canvas, Candles, left in the wake of this 2-1 laugh while your bruise plumps, salvador is 2 much Loot runs,choose us, Marcus munitions Difference, deadly at range, waving from the distance Catching pendejos with fist visions, true joy Pushing addiction to new limits, when i christen a NEW TOY! [StarF] Your eyes deceive you, an illusion fools you all I move for the kill Lyrical mastery, unwoven tapestry shrouded in mystery and skill Class is assassin combatin' inhabitants; rampant and lambent get damaged and ravaged as a matter of habit I vanish So tell me, do you think you can stop me? Is your aim true, are you hitting a copy? A ghost in the air who's wielding a shotty Good luck if you're hostile, have fun trying to spot me These seconds are anything but sloppy A billion guns; one blade through your body You have n0thing to fear though No place for a her0? Your chances are Zer0

I Shoot People

Broken thoughts, at the end of hot lead/ Oft said, stepping in the rage lanes, not wreck- or mended with stitches and options off this, slag leaves falling off quick Whiplash,  cracking the coffins/

Strike often and silent; virtuoso of violence Logistics? Defy it; a glitch in the science Assassination is imminent; my special ability This place ain’t strong enough to hold me out the facility Putting my guns in 9motion, accelerate this bullet velocity ammo flowing like Satan’s Suckhole as I’m tearing down your HP Shoot em, Loot em, Dude Not even Dr.Zed can stitch this Bloody up this Bloodshot stronghold, better fear me bitches. Commando here lets go, get it moving bullets flow vault hunting shooting people got a problem lets go Chew em up spit em out/ hit em honey pull em out three hundred sixty degrees of rotation my lady twerk em out [Chorus] LYNCHWOOD TO SOUTHERN BAY, I SHOOT PEOPLE! HERO’S PASS TO WINDSHEAR WASTE, I SHOOT PEOPLE! FROM THE TUNDRA TO THE DUST, I SHOOT PEOPLE! ALL THE WAY TO THOUSAND CUTS, I STAB PEOPLE! ALL ACROSS THE HIGHLANDS, I SHOOT PEOPLE FROM THE ASHES TO THE DEAD SANDS, I SHOOT PEOPLE YO I’LL TAKE THIS OPPORTUNITY, TO SHOOT PEOPLE WHATCHU THINK YOU’RE GONNA DO TO ME?! I SHOOT PEOPLE Bullet formed religion, call me mr god little off the face region, burn the whiskers off Bliss will stop (stop) (stop), when the clip is gone  shoot you in your left nut, twist your spawn (point) As soon as I enter the room you know it’ll be a bad fight Ignite instantaneous, lob grenades that precise Once you see me it’s too late, such a sad sight You know I kill mad mics sure as I murder Mad Mike It's cute when you try to shoot but now I've got you phaselocked you won't enjoy this watch me take my aim and i'm unloading all my shots. Another one down, find some more Ha- Where you trying to go? i'm bringing a chemical beatdown and I’m all up in your face bro Its not even a fair fight here take my gun ill use a knife bullets flying with punctuation’s before you even write O you brought some other dudes I shoot friends of people too everybody’s a killer till i pull out my girls to shoot [Chorus] Count down, as the shells drown in the root of evil, Priority, roland found, Two, Shooting people, Ghost looking through the peep hole, mali-One Cause ground in the jaws,  gunzerker barrage Stop ‘em and pop ‘em quickly the bullets will drop ‘em A one way fight or flight, I shoot people non-stoppin’ I know the way of the blade, but always? Why bother I’m fluent in fluid battle tactics; be like water. Had enough now bandits? Yo I’m surprised that you lasted I’m tearing up these halls with bullets watch your asses get blasted. Are you surrendering now? I think it’s time for a group hug I use converge and then i purge this stronghold of weak thugs Its not your privilege its my right as i blaze through the night I’m a Guerrilla in the mist with a laser on my site   I’m a monster of a man with a Dahl in my hand All thats left in my wake is a Barren wasteland

Loot Slut

Toil over blood and sweat, love my job raucous god, sacrifice loot,  absolve, this,critical, confirm  the visual Guns for guns, digital , eridium into you XO, First, low center, quick grab scraps,  you have the blue lighted path. Million multipliers you do the math blast a bitch to 64 bits, scratch legendary itch, perlescent to the iris Shots, brick wall, falling. the sky hits Mine,beautiful,  got a wedding band meddle man or woman, then you get a tan crisp,the trigger quicker than you dodge click, reload it,  Dine on the shots enough, bruised guts? lace the boots up loot slut, think you had dibs too tough. Yeah I look threatening but it's hard to be menacing when I can't grab a weapon Why you testin'? Now even my own party is steppin'? Time to learn your lesson Taking the next legendary drop? Out of the question Like "Yeah you can have the next one, don't worry" But when I catch a glimpse you immediately scurry Huh. Fool me once, shame on you Duel me once, sliced in two Diced and bruised, chopped salad flesh need an allen wrench, tighten up your step blessed, 800 times,l make this fast dont follow, like a shitty album, i skip tracks Quick blast  corrosive, i can thin dreams give up, i mean even your skin leaves inseams, and you can put the us, in dust ashes to ashes, fucked to up. Up yours loot slut, what?! Sucks to suck I grab guns and run funds, bitch, duck! I know you want a weapon, act like you gonna score that Zer0 chance you’ll walk on me, I ain't your Salvadoormat Alls fair in warfare, no kid gloves required I'll trump you in a battle, you're gettin' friendly fired On second thought, take it, use it to shoot pigeons Practice makes perfect for this new loot midget Midget!, you asshole, Basho wannabe Point a gun at me, class mod, wanting teeth ass in assassin, emote for lost cause my wish,its three votes for lockjaw call it in the wind, putting down the perro cero, hands off, loot no dinero sharp as an arrow, dim as a road light knocked out, left behind leads for a cold night Stop with the collecting lil loot slut maverick Not even top guns fix those maladroit missed hits You boys should just quit, Imma party of one Salvadork can't do my damage when you use two guns And assassin named after the amount of your kills couldn't put it to good use because you've got zer0 skills Stop your petty fighting, cuz it's making me cringe About to leave you blue and purple just to get to that orange All you guys, sluts for Loot fight but your forgetting who? I even shot more people too trivial in this persuit instead of talking smack around I just simply lay it down fighting over the new toys children settle down fight each other one more time ill turn this truck around Since we can’t all play nice this loot is mine now Everybody take a step back, put the guns down Im just gonna doop em all out are we happy now? [DJ RoboRob as CL4P-TP] Hello there minions, it’s me, Claptrap! Gimmie a high five? don’t make it awkward while i rap. You’re all worse than stairs, so just gimmie your loot, I’m the  **song cuts**

GUNS GUNS GUNS

Stanton Dahl once said And i quote "There are three types of people in this universe: people who need to be killed, the people doing the killing, and the people who pay them” I just happen ladies and gentlemen to be the second good luck if your the first / ill see ya soon I got a Pacifying Pitchfork sniper rifle gets work Legendary Dahl Weapons, fill my pack, picked first I don’t wanna sneak around/ i just wanna gun ya down firing with little resistance they spread my love around Everybody come get some i just wanna show my love rock you to till you all fall sleep / six feet deep D - is for the the Death they cause/ man i wanna shoot em all A - is an all out Assault / i just came to do my part H - because we Hit em all / everybody gonna fall L - for all the Life thats lost / DAHL is what I’m Tellin y’all Bursting while I’m zoomed at y’all / Patrol Scorpio does it all Pistols that can snipe you all / bussing 3 plus rounds in ya Loaded Hornets filled with lead buzzing bullets at your head Spraying with my SMGs / just give it a little squeeze Skirmish with this Emperor leave you running like pantie hoes Jakobs, the only sure way to meet your maker In pieces, "break up" shaken, these guns are,layups. Impact, like falling back from a skysscraper Violators, die dialated for dyed paper Legendary, sharing  cemeteries, wholesale Wood and metal layering,demon bearings, cold nails oh well,get to hell, spread the word didnt hurt one bit, it forgets your nerves burned, dont need fire breath to hit desired temp power is my dialect, decides whos dying next try and quest, without these, skating uphill  curing disease, but only eating one pill king of the gun hill,  pro pain accessory lecher for pleasantry, GSR is blessing me guess youll see the love,gun massacre tests we know if youve got wood in your hand, happiness. Picking up my Maliwan- Where form meets function I'm the master of the elements prepare for your destruction Combustion, Eruption, Do Damage over time. But It's too late to run, just try because I'm- Slagging you up -cover you in that purple goop & you'll be taking double damage the next time that i shoot. Cuz plain Bullets just aren't cool enough- gotta set you on fire Unprotected flesh assures there'll be no survivors Upgrade to armor, but It's not match for corrosive Like Hedorah dissolve your face with plethora of acid U mad bitch? Switch defense- I'm sure that shield is better Except [] I shoot more lightning than the next leading competitor don't even have to shoot though, just take this grenade explode you from afar, sit back, and watch you spray all ways Transform the battlefield, just watch what I create. Combat is an art and Maliwan is my paint. Hello comrade, ah yes, brothers in arms Vladof at your service leaving others so harmed With an array of spray we're leaving no body unbloodied You've got the kills as long as we've got your money It ain't nothin funny take it from me we'll keep you gunning We ain't Maliwan but our products are still stunning Trust us, we know two things: Firearms and vodka Have 'em runnin' tail between their legs, frightened devotchkas We can bet you'll like the competition, but you'll like us moreso Take 'em out like Clockwork, the weapons so horrorshow Droogs by your side 'cause you never leave the hand flat Backtrack confident and drop 'em with the nadsat Phat tracks, whack cats, killing the vicinity Shoot for the stars 'cause you'll be movin' for Infinity Rapidly, reach for the hammer and sickle, you like that Vladof has one question: will you be ready to fight back?!

Handsome Jackass

This is easily the "most nerdcore" song I've ever written... which was exactly the point of it! See, I entered the nerdcore scene in around 2008 when I discovered RhymeTorrents, and ever since then I had become a part of the community. This is really the key thing to remember about nerdcore: It's more of a community than a musical genre. Of course that's really open to debate and up to whoever you ask, but the general consensus that I've seen is that nerdcore really can't be classified as a genre. We still use the term in that way because it's easier, but when it comes down to it what keeps us together is the fact that we all collectively decided to stick together via forums (Rhyme Torrents, Nerdcore Now) and then events (Nerdapalooza, Orlando Nerd Fest). Case-in-point: For the most part I don't make nerdy songs, and yet I am considered to be a nerdcore rapper simply due to the fact that I am a member of this community. Which is fine, and I'll embrace that! But it always struck me as a little bit odd... Take my first release on Scrub Club, Empty Handed, for example. That album doesn't really have anything nerdy to speak of on it. It's mostly just sad songs about feelings (waaaahhh), but since they came from a nerd, now they're nerdcore. Even my second album Idiot Zoo barely had anything nerdy on it, though there were tracks that definitely did start to go that direction ("Unreal Estate," "TMI Tuesday"). If nerdcore were a musical genre by all accounts I shouldn't really fall into it... Until now!

The working title for this entire album was So I Heard You Want A Nerdcore Album... which I never actually intended to be the final title, but contained sort of the thesis for what this album would be. Have Some Fun! as a whole is much more nerdy than anything I've ever put out in the past, but is still a genuine offering of songs I wanted to make. This particular track is sort of poking fun at two things: Those that try to enter the nerdcore scene and make nerdy music just because they think it will be an easy niche to exploit ("Oh, I can totally write songs about Mario and Sonic!"), and also anyone who has ever told me that I wasn't nerdy enough to make nerdcore music (which hasn't happened often, but has happened a couple times). What we're left with is a track wherein I cram as many possible references to nerdy things into it as I possibly can, but dismiss the fact that any of that matters or is what makes a song worth listening to. Just because you can say a bunch of nerdy things in a song doesn't mean your song has value. So when it really comes down to it... Are you really going to let me get away with this? The first verse of this song is literally just following the concept of jamming a bunch of references into a song. It's not until the second verse that I inject some actual personality into the song itself. From the get-go I reference the fact that I grew up watching David Firth and Cyriak, which is true! Some of my fondest memories on the internet growing up were of time spent on Newgrounds and hanging out in the forums. One of the most intriguing series to come out of that time was Salad Fingers, which if you haven't seen by now you should definitely go do. I spent a lot of time watching creepy and weird videos like that, and in the case of Salad Fingers particularly a lot of time speculating on what it all might mean on the forums. This preference to creepy media I feel did have some impact on shaping my personality. I also want to note that in the line "The internet has taught me well, I discovered those new ground to stomp in, I was hooked after I had played just a couple rounds" I was supposed to say "a few rounds" for the multi... but for some reason I couldn't get it to stick and self-editing came to put that scheme to rest. Oh well. I then mention my days of StarCraft, and specifically my loyalty to the clan Lost Minions. This is actually a big deal for me. I started playing StarCraft immediately when it came out because my dad bought it for me, and I was hooked fast. After a few years I ended up joining the Lost Minions. I wasn't a great StarCraft player in all honesty, but being in the clan was a huge experience in my life. I felt like I was really a part of something bigger than me. It was the first internet community that I was truly a part of, and I felt like I belonged. I still remember all sorts of rivalries we had with other clans, specific members, in-clan drama, and politics that swept through the games and the clan forums. I remember trying to keep the peace from time to time. I remember when our  clan leader Keith (or Krush[LM]) tried to ban everyone from playing UMS games because it "was making us weak" (But I totally played them anyway because bounds and tower defense was the shit!). All in all being a part of Lost Minions helped me become a better person, I think, and it gave me a sense of self-worth early on in life and helped me build confidence within a community. [LM] may be gone, but it was a big deal to me at the time and was a significant piece of my life.

There are only two more references that I want to touch on specifically here. The first is a quick one, the line: "I mean I'm this good at age 23, so what's the catch?!" When I originally wrote this song I was actually 22 years old, and it was supposed to be a Catch 22 reference... But by the time I recorded the song I had turned 23 and for some reason felt like I would be lying if I recorded the original line. Strangely enough I've actually grown to like the line more in this form because it's sort of like it's literally saying "where's the catch?" because there is no 22. And finally the other reference I want to expand on is this: "Kittens and ninja stars in check thanks to Mr. Sean Plott." This is another big one for me. Sean Plott is a StarCraft caster and streamer on Twitch who goes by Day[9]. I began watching his videos a couple years ago at the reference of a friend, and really enjoyed his analysis of StarCraft games. Over time though I began to be more interested in his personality, his goofy eccentricity, and the stories he would tell when he randomly went off on tangents. I still like the StarCraft analysis, but really I'm thankful for his rants and stories, specifically the ones where he talks about just generally being a happy person and staying positive. This specific line in my song refers to a video he did talking about the idea of thinking of emotions as kittens (positive emotions) and ninja stars (negative emotions), and trying to keep them balanced in order to enjoy life. It may seem silly, but his rants and musings have helped me stay more positive in my life and reinforce a lot of views I already had about the world, and on top of it all he's just extremely entertaining, so I could never thank him enough for everything he's done for me.

Oh and before I wrap it up I want to say thank you again to everyone who contributed clips for the intro and breaks for this song. You're all the best. <3 So that's the song! It's full of references, some of which link to very personal experiences for me. But that's not enough, is it? No way! Here I'll leave you with the lyrics, but with links at every reference just in case you didn't catch it. Enjoy!

This song came really close to not being on the album at all. There are actually a lot of song concepts that I made demos for but decided ultimately not to put on the album (which is part of why putting this album out took much longer than usual for me). Coincidentally this song was also the very last song that I finished for the album due to the fact that I had to find the specific clips to put into the instrumental breaks and I kept putting that part off. The reason I almost didn't include it though wasn't out of laziness from not wanting to find those clips, it was mostly because I wasn't really sure how I felt about the song. In general it seems a little too specific in nature and like it wouldn't really appeal to that many people. And perhaps it won't, I'm not sure, the album has only been out for about a week and I haven't heard much in the way of response. Ultimately though I did decide to include it for two reasons: The first being that this is my album so screw it, I can put whatever I want on it! The second being that if I did ever release this song, and for some reason Chris Hardwick did end up hearing it, I would want it to be attached to a proper album that I was proud of. That being said, I need to now talk about the very idea of Chris Hardwick actually hearing this song. I guess that technically since it exists and it is out there and I have a small amount of fans, but an amount of fans nonetheless, it is absolutely possible that he could hear it somehow, someway, someday. But it is definitely not probable, and I don't believe it will ever actually happen. Which is fine! Like I said in the song, that's actually not really the point. When it really comes down to it the entire song is about looking up to people and having inspirations from people that you'll never actually get to interact with, and how that's okay. There are a lot of people that aspire to reach a certain level of fame or popularity in general... But it seems weird to me when that's what you're aspiring to. I don't aspire to make a song that will be so popular or good that it'll put me on a level where Chris Hardwick will hear it. I aspire to make songs that will speak to what I feel and believe, that will inspire others who do hear it, and that represent me in some way. And listening to The Nerdist podcast has only helped reinforce that mindset, so this is just sort of a silly love-letter using that as a catalyst to hold the message.

This song is based on a true story! I guess technically all of my songs are based on a true story in a manner of speaking (Well, okay, most of them when you aren't including songs like Dickpuncher II...), but this one is probably the most narrative on the album and it wasn't made just to be a catchy song about online relationships because I figured it would be relevant, marketable, or a good fit. I actually created this song based on the fact that at the time I was in this exact situation. It's actually pretty strange to think that at the time of writing this explanation it's been almost exactly a year since I created this song. The story goes like this: One year ago I performed at an event called Animinneapolis. It's an anime convention in, you guessed it, Minneapolis - which happens to be where I live (basically). I met a girl at the event, although we didn't really talk or interact too much at the event itself. In fact besides a few photos together with her friends and me seeing her at the show and thinking she was cute there wasn't too much going on between us to speak of. Regardless she added me on Facebook and a couple days after the event we ended up chatting at 4AM after I posted a selfie and she asked why I was up posting selfies at such a time. I responded by asking what else you would do at 4AM and after that we began talking to each other every night.

I was already enamored by how cute she was physically, but as I actually began to get to know her I rapidly grew more and more attracted to her, and the feeling was mutual. I believe it was only a week or two into us talking every night for hours on end until I just had to record this song. I remember very clearly getting the idea for the hook stuck in my own head while I was at work one night, and then rushing home to pour it out against an instrumental. To this day this may be the smoothest a song has ever went from thought to creation for me. I sat down with a clear intention of what it was going to sound like, wrote it, recorded it, and bam! The recording you hear on the final version is exactly the same as the night I originally made it (Well I mean it's mixed and mastered now, but you understand what I mean here). Of course if you're unaware you may be wondering why I wrote a song about being in an online relationship with a girl I was so taken by that I had met locally. Why wouldn't I just ask her out instead? Ahh yes. Well you see I would have done that immediately but it turns out that the girl I met at the local convention... wasn't local! She actually lives four and a half hours away and ventured up for the event. Geography, you cruel bitch. This also brings me to the point that I actually had an alternate line for "Girl tell me are you one of my own status updates?" that was "And if she lived any closer I'd ask her out on a real date." But I ultimately opted to go with what I perceived to be the more clever line... more on that later. I do want  to take a moment before I go into the lyrical content of the song to touch on the story between us since those uninitiated may be wondering. The short of it is that after months of chatting online we eventually did get together despite the distance between us, and then months later it unfortunately didn't work out. Ah well, these things happen. Someone had actually asked me why I still included this song on my album since "after all, you guys broke up." To that I say HAH! This song, strictly as a song, is catchy and fun as hell! But more importantly I'm not going to keep the song off of my album due to a silly reason like that. At the time this song was one of the most important things I was writing. It's a slice of where I was at that point in my life, and just because the relationship didn't ultimately work out doesn't invalidate that. Not to mention the fact that we're still good friends, and she is still a wonderful person who I am glad is a part of my life (because I can't think of a reason breaking up with someone should turn them into an enemy).

I have no recollection of when exactly I recorded this song, but I do remember that the first time I ever performed it live was at a really strange show that I did in a movie theater. The show took place in December of 2012 I believe, so I probably wrote this song over the summer of that year. Just as a side-story: The show I'm speaking of was actually not an event focused on me or music at all, it was a LAN party, but one of the people putting it on was a fan of mine and reached out to me to perform at the event. I mentioned that I also had a music video in production (My only music video currently for the song "Stalker") and since the LAN party was at a movie theater it only made sense to ask if I could play my video on the screen. He agreed to let me do that and so we premiered the video in a damn movie theater, which was one of the most bizarre and cool experiences of my life.

The music video went over pretty well as everyone mostly stopped to watch it playing on the big screen, which for me was insane. Then I took to the stage and started performing to a room full of people who were much more interested in getting back to their gaming. A handful of people paid attention to me, the rest just seemed annoyed by the fact that I was there, hah. But that's okay, we had fun anyway. I opened with the track Good Luck, World! and nailed it. After my set had ended I thanked everyone, but then the beat to Good Luck, World! started playing again and since I had plugged in my Zune somewhere in the back of the room I asked for them to stop the music. They didn't for the entirety of the instrumental, so I ended up doing an impromptu freestyle about fighting bears in the wilderness to the beat. Bonus fun fact! During my performance of the song Someone Like You at this show I ended up stage-diving... but not in the way you'd expect. For the last verse I dropped to my knees and closed my eyes to really intensify the emotionally charged lyrics, and then went to punch the stage on the last drumbeat just for dramatic effect. What I didn't realize with my eyes closed was that I was much further on the stage than I had thought. In fact I was on the very edge of it. So when I went to punch the stage in front of me I was met with confusion instead of stage, and eventually the floor which I plummeted down to.

Back to the song, though! Come to think of it I must have written this in August of 2012, because I had been listening to a lot of Wordburglar at the time. I remember this specifically due to the fact that I used the word 'amnesty' in the second verse only because I really liked the word after hearing it in "Forward Front Facer" from "Grandpa Funnybook's Mix​-​Tapingly Arranged Rapping Song Album 2: Dyadic Dynamite!". I had also been listening to a lot of Mac Lethal at the time, which is what inspired the less structured and laid-back hook to the song. I don't really have too much to say about what went into the writing of this particular track. It was mostly an exercise in branching out and doing something I don't usually do: In this case a bit of punchlines and an excessive amount of rhyming and being a little braggadocios. That didn't totally work out because I still found myself injecting more and more seriousness into what I was saying. The first verse works out to be about never giving up and being constantly full of ideas but never motivated to act on them. The second verse about working two jobs and the struggle between trying to earn enough money to live, and balance that with not having the time to do anything and actually live while working so much. The third verse I pretty much abandoned all hope of not being serious and tried to tie it all into some sort of philosophical viewpoint. This is a song about life. It's about wearing a boastful facade over an introspective personality. It's about trying to balance working with living in an effort to maximize both. It's about realizing that when you feel confident that you've got it all figured out, maybe you're actually wrong, and that's okay. But most of all it's about not reading too far into any of this and just kicking back and enjoying life for what it is. It's about finding your own meanings and your own identity, and showing up ready to take on anything. Good luck, world, we're coming for ya.

THIS IS THE INTRO TRACK! I wrote it specifically to be the intro track because I like albums that have a clear starting point. Something of a thesis or a build-up, if you will. I think a lot of albums nowadays don't really do justice to the opener, they just sorta go for it. Maybe it's because people don't listen to albums in full these days as much and in the age of the internet it's all about singles and music videos. Whatever. Your Turn is the introduction to Have Some Fun!.

I wrote and recorded this song immediately after getting home from Nerdapalooza 2012. And I do mean immediately after. I hopped a plane home to Minneapolis, got picked up from the airport, and a half hour later I was in my room writing and recording this introduction. Nerdapalooza has always been a big source of inspiration for me because it's a gathering of the entire nerdcore community. Every time I'm there watching everyone else perform these songs they've spent so much time crafting and putting energy into... It just makes me happy and gives me a creative boost. It makes me want to produce something worthwhile to contribute to the same community. Seeing performances makes me want to bolster my own performance and catalog. I spent the entire weekend of Nerdapalooza 2012 having one of the greatest times of my life, hanging out with friends, having fun, and getting stoked on the idea of creating music. Still amped up on that energy I had to create a song, and this is what came out. At this point I had a good chunk of the album already demoed, and I figured it was time to make a proper intro track.

Fun fact: At this point in my life I was living with five friends in a rented house and I was recording this track late at night in my room. I still laugh about the fact that one of my roommates posted a status on Facebook that read something like "StarF has been in Florida for the past few days and is immediately back in his room yelling about having so much fun."

As for the actual song, the original demo actually had a lot of overlapping vocals after the first "1-2-3-4!" wherein the new verse was coming in over the old verse (So "I guess it doesn't matter 'cause now the cats out of the bag" was overlapping [and overpowering] "I guess it doesn't matter what I say because I've got that swag!") which is why the verses actually rhyme with each other. When it was mixed by DJ Robo Rob though he didn't keep it like that, either because he didn't read the notes I included (tsk tsk) or because he tried it and decided it sounded like butts (also totally possible, and probable to be honest). I actually like it more the way it is in the final version because it really brings out the beautiful instrumentation in the beat that I totally stole off of the internet. As long as we're talking about how amazing Robo Rob made my album sound can we mention that the effects on the second "1-2-3-4!" make me really happy? Ahh yes.

There's a line in the song that didn't work out exactly as I had written it and it sort of causes it not to make sense, but I kept it anyway because I didn't think anyone would notice/care and now that I'm bringing it to your attention you'll only ever be able to notice and care, so what am I even doing?! The line in question is: "Three: You've just gotta BE! // Be there, be strong, beat the odds you see // Be beast, the bee's knees, bestiality // Like fuck you dawg, I be K-I-N-G!" The joke is obviously in the fact that "bestiality" also follows the "be" pattern that's going on, and then is followed up with "fuck you dawg" in the sense of fuck the haters, and then follows with "I be K-I-N-G," which follows the pattern and for those keeping score sort of spells "FUCKING" without the "C" when you factor in the "F-U dawg." Holy shit does this all seem stupid and convoluted when written down. Can we just forget I ever thought this was a good idea? Oh right and the thing you'll never not be able to notice is that for the sake of syllables while recording I actually say "Like fuck you dawg, K-I-N-G," which sort of ruins the "be" pattern and the joke. Or maybe not. I don't know. We've already established in this paragraph that I have no idea what I'm talking about.

All in all this song is just a simple introduction about having fun and realizing that life is probably going to be okay, so you should just sit back and relax. To me it always feels like some of the most incredible and amazing people are the ones under the most stress and who could use a reminder that they're actually doing great ("And oddly it's the stunning sort that fall and get wedged in the cracks"). Whether you like this song, hate this song, like/hate this album, or like/hate me... Just remember that it's all irrelevant and this is the message: Hey, it's all gonna be alright. Just try to have some fun! :)

EDIT: Bonus fact! In the lyric "Enough already! No disclaimers, all the heavy plans are done," the "Enough already!" is a reference to my favorite Bomb The Music Industry! shirt that I own and wear during most of my performances.

My brand new album Have Some Fun! has finally been released for free on Scrub Club Records! Songs about online relationships, taking selfies, sticking your dick out of your sunroof, The Sims, and much more madness await your ears!

This album is the end result of two years of work and a lot of shenanigans in general. Life is hectic and stressful a lot of the time, but sometimes you just need to realize that things will probably be alright. You just gotta kick back and have some fun!