Written and photos by Neal Cribb On June 20, 2025, Austin’s Come And Take It Live reverberated with nerdcore pride as MC Chris marked two decades on tour with an electrifying headline set. The venue’s indoor stage came alive at 7 PM, with MC Chris —renowned for his high‑pitched flow and “geek gangster” persona …
Written by James ATX Some nerdcore royalty kicked off their fall tour in Austin on Wednesday! Schaffer the Darklord (STD) started things with some sex positive and socially conscious bars. Schaffer even dipped into a few new songs from the debut album from The Department of Darkness, a new project …
Mega Ran (Phoenix, AZ) – nerdcore rapper who drops banger after banger. SXSW Schedule Bio: Random, aka Mega Ran, aka RandomBeats… Teacher, Rapper, Hero. When LA Weekly said that Ran’s “fanbase and niche audiences are growing at a rate not seen since Tech N9ne,” they meant it. A former middle school …
We handpicked a list of artists after listening to all the performing acts at SXSW 2017 on Spotify and made a Best of SXSW 2017 playlist. Then we selected the top acts with relatively small followings and created Music Felon’s SXSW 2017 Top 20 Playlist. These artists are the crux of what the SXSW is all about …
Photo credit: Sabelo Narasimhan MC Frontalot (Brooklyn, NY) is nerdcore royalty, rhyming about subjects from IT problems to old folklore with a very distinctive cadence and sound. From his FAQ: Q: Who is MC Frontalot, and what is nerdcore hip-hop? A: Front’s just this middle-aged nerd who spends a lot of …
Sammus, (Ithaca, NY) an extraordinary rap artist that defies genre, dropping bars that range from thoughtfully introspective to esoteric gamer references. Bio: SAMMUS (Enongo Lumumba-Kasongo) is an Ithaca, NY based rap artist, producer, and PhD student in the Department of Science & Technology Studies at Cornell University. Known as much for her …
Written by Bang Ho If you thought Mega Ran was just an opener to be passed over at the nerdcore show, you’d be dead wrong. Forty minutes before he hit the stage, there was a line outside Sidewinder and inside you’d think the headliner was about to take the stage. …
Bio from Facebook: The Persona produces electronic hip hop: hip hop tinged with electro, house, and industrial, as well as other genres of music; featuring a stage presence that ventures from punk rock attitude to hip hop braggadocio to sly indie irony.
Guest writer Phil Barton Dual Core, of the nerdcore hip-hop world, blessed Austin last night with a true party. The in-your-face performance, hanging from rafters, jumping off of monitors, and spitting lyrics that would make your IT guys head spin was a breath of fresh air in the world of …
