Yesterday Est.1987 chatted nerdcore, 35 Laurel Dr and Simple Plan with MC Lars. With only 1 day to go before Slam Dunk 2011 officially commences here is the final part of our catch up with the festival's favourite rapper...
[For part 1 click here]
[For part 1 click here]
EST. For you, is writing music spontaneous or more a planned out process?
LARS. I try to get my ideas from anything I can and whenever I hear something or see something that could be ironic or funny I write it down. I try to just document everything that is surprising and if it's surprising to me it'll be surprising to other people.
LARS. I try to get my ideas from anything I can and whenever I hear something or see something that could be ironic or funny I write it down. I try to just document everything that is surprising and if it's surprising to me it'll be surprising to other people.
LARS. There are two things that being an English major helped with. When I was reading Edgar Allan Poe I was realising that it was iambic tetrameter. That meter and hip hop are kind of the same thing, so I was able to look at hip hop and literature with the persepective that hip hop can be part of the cannon of English Literature. Also, I wrote so many papers as an undergrad that when I write songs I say; ok my verses are my defending statements and my chorus is like the thesis, so it's helped me organise my argument.
EST. You held a lecture in an American College showing the smiliarity of the styles of Marlowe and Kanye- do you see yourself as a cross between the two men?
LARS. I think my music serves that purpose. Everyday I get emails from kids who are like; yeah my teacher played the song "Mr Raven" in my classroom. The music gets them into the poetry. It makes it cool for them. And then it makes the teachers get into hip hop and lets them think maybe there's something more to this.
EST.You are a busy guy- you have your own record label, a comic strip and are a published poet; did you always want to pursue a career in music or did you ever consider the graphic art or poetry route?
LARS. One of my new projects is do a hip hop history in graphic novel form. I love doing comics and that’s one of my favourite things. Music is just somehting I love doing and kinda just took off for me. Music is just a great thing and I find that I have found a voice and it's fun.
EST. As you yourself are familiar with balancing the demands of a degree and trying to fit in your music, what advice would you give students with musical aspirations?LARS. My advice would be to finish school first. That’s important because then it gives you stuff to write about and kids need to do that and find your own style. That’s just how it is, you have to stay fresh and find your own niche and write about stuff that’s important to you. For my senior year of college I was touring and only had 75% of my college experience. I made the choice, but now I would have told myself to put off touring for a year and finish and do the whole thing.
EST. Thanks Lars!
Don't forget you can catch MC Lars performing on the MACBETH STAGE AT 1930.
