#rap bear

Airdate: September 17, 2017

Story by: Adam Muto, Kent Osborne, Jack Pendarvis, Julia Pott

Storyboarded by: Seo Kim & Somvilay Xayaphone

Directed by: Diana Lafyatis (supervising), Sandra Lee (art)

While I love the show and its music to pieces, Adventure Time has always been a mixed bag in terms of its rap numbers. On one hand, you have songs like "Working for the Master" (written by Rebecca Sugar and delightfully performed by Andy Milonakis) that are fun, bouncy, and easy to remember. On the other hand, you have ditties like Finn's rap battle from "Billy's Bucket List" (written by Jesse Moynihan), which is awkward and essentially just a retread of Moynihan's much funnier "Political Rap" from season four.

When I learned that “Son of Rap Bear” was slated to feature something like seven raps, I was a little leery—especially when I learned the episode was storyboarded by Somvilay Xayaphone and Seo Kim, a duo who despite their comedic chops has never proven to be the best at writing songs. But as with all doomsday predictions, my thoughts and worries were misplaced. “Son of Rap Bear’ manages to be funny, touching, and most importantly, musically competent!

In this episode, the wily Toronto tricks Flame Princess into a rap battle, with her kingdom possibly on the line. FP is pretty skilled when it comes to dropping a sick rhyme or two, but her challenger is none other than the legendary Son of Rap Bear—a character who very literally causes stuff around him to explode due to his musical talent.

In order to prep for her upcoming battle, Flame Princess, who is operating under the idea that one needs "life experience" to write truly memorable rap pieces, tries to cram as much as she can in a pithy few days. Along the way, FP visits her father, and becomes rather frustrated that while he is not exactly what you’d call evil, he still cares very little about the daughter who he has emotionally abused for so long.

When the battle arrives, Flame Princess initially chokes during her verse, letting Son of Rap Bear gain the upper hand. But when she notices her father in the crowd, oblivious to her suffering, her anger and frustration build up and power an extremely impressive rap that leads to Son of Rap Bear’s defeat. Toronto tries to rig the whole show by declaring Son of Rap Bear the winner, but it is a useless attempt, and he is trodden on by Flame Princess’s myriad fans.

This episode is a nice meditation on emotional abuse, specifically of the parental type (a topic that Adventure Time touches on time and time again). Flame Princess's father has reformed somewhat, but he still was responsible for locking his daughter in a lantern. He has shown no remorse for his actions, and continues to be oblivious to his daughter's pain. This is bad in and of itself, but it is made worse by the fact that Flame Princess still loves her dad and wants to connect with him in a meaningful way. Just like when Finn yearned to have a meaningful connection to his scumbag father, FP wants her dad to care.

As Oliver Sava of the A.V. Club pointed out, this sort of dynamic is inverted with Son of Rap Bear and his father. Good ol’ Sonny cared so little about his father that he willfully blew off his legs by rapping. Whereas Flame Princess uses her pain to fuel her raps, Son of Rap Bear uses his raps to inflict pain. Consequently, it’s rather fitting that Flame Princess is able to defeat him in the end.

Given that the episode is about rappin’, “Son of Rap Bear” features a number of guest musicians. Chief among these is Dumbfoundead, who voices the eponymous character with aplomb and swagger. Thanks to his performance, you get the impression that while Son of Rap Bear is business up front, he's got issues deep down that he needs to work out.

Although Finn and Flame Princess briefly talk to Rap Bear proper, he is no longer voiced by Andy Samberg. I’m not going to lie, this is something of a bummer, given that Samberg has experience with rapping, as he is a part of the comedy troupe The Lonely Island (I'm assuming he just wasn't available, as he did return to voice Party Pat—or should I say, Party Splat—in the Elements miniseries). With all this said, Samberg's replacement, Rekstizzy, fills the vacancy nicely.

But the guest that I was most excited to hear was Open Mike Eagle. If you don’t know, Open Mike Eagle is a rapper and Adventure Time fan who hosted an AT-themed podcast called Conversation Parade with comedian John Moe. Sadly, it hasn’t updated in years, but it’s still a lot of fun to listen to what these two creative geniuses have to say about the show. Open Mike Eagle is also a competent musician (his album Dark Comedy is really worth a listen), and it was quite a treat to witness him breathing musical life into a gingerbread man in this episode. Too bad he lost his candy life to Son of Rap Bear’s explosive talent...

Mushroom War Evidence: The epic rap battle takes place in an abandoned sporting arena, first seen in the third season episode “Wizard Battle”.

Final Grade:

ADVENTURE TIME SEASON 9 PREMIERE EVENT on September 17 at 7.00PM

After a week of premieres in July, Adventure Time returns for its final season with a whole hour of new episodes in a special event on Sunday, September 17 at 7.00PM. The hour consists of 4 11-minute episodes listed in the image above and below:

September 17th, 7.00PM - “The Wild Hunt”  (written/storyboarded by Polly Guo, Sam Alden, and Erik Fountain) A fierce creature is terrorizing the Candy Kingdom but before Finn can slay the beast, he must first overcome a guilty conscience.

September 17th, 7.15PM - “Always BMO Closing” (written/storyboarded by Kent Osborne & Graham Falk)  BMO and Ice King hit the road as door-to-door salesmen and stumble upon an irresistible opportunity.

September 17th, 7.30PM - “Son of Rap Bear” (written/storyboarded by Seo Kim & Somvilay Xayaphone)  When Flame Princess is coaxed into a high stakes battle against the indomitable Son of Rap Bear, Finn must help her search for a new strategy.

September 17th, 7.45PM - “Bonnibel Bubblegum” (written/storyboarded by Hanna K Nyström & Aleks Sennwald)  A long lost artifact causes Princess Bubblegum to harken back to the creation of the Candy Kingdom.

Season 9, Episode 3.

Son of Rap Bear.

Very last scene. Flame King compliments his daughter.

She gives a thumbs up, then blows the raspberry.

“It's a battle of rhymes, I'm gonna do it this time. I'm Rap Bear. My raps are mystical... Quantum physics! Whoo! Yeah yeah!”