Happy Wednesday!

MC Lars was the fourth and final artist I saw at the Manchester show. I really liked his set, I was vaguely familiar with his music before now but after the show I’ve found a new nerdcore great.

The First song I heard from MC Lars was a song about Edgar Allen Poe(1).

Then recently when I started listening to him rap, I noticed a trend:

Big thank you goes to MC Lars for the following interview:

OBOP: Who inspires you? Musically, artistically, writing, personally? (As many answers as you want, don’t worry about restricting yourself to one source)

MC Lars (MCL): My biggest influence is definitely “Weird Al” Yankovic! I love how he was able to, as Lin-Manuel Miranda said on Marc Maron’s podcast recently, strip music of its “genre clothes” and comment on everything. He’s definitely my biggest influence and I was so stoked that he thanked me in his last album.

OBOP: Did you always want to be a musician/songwriter or was there a “monkey touch monolith” moment?

(MCL): I always wanted to be a cartoonist, but when I did my first Shakespeare rap in 1998, I knew I was onto something!

OBOP: What do you consider your greatest artistic and/or professional and/or personal achievement? (Feel free to answer all three or one or a combination, whatever man)

(MCL): Definitely playing Carnegie Hall in 2012! We debuted “Flow Like Poe” and I felt like I’d finally made it.

OBOP: What superpower would you have if you could have one and why/what would you do with it? (Seriously anything, from the mundane, to the established, to something completely original)

(MCL): I’d have the power to heal people’s hearts. 🙂 I try to do that with music anyway!

OBOP: If you could be in possession of a pocket dimension that you could travel into and out of at will, that contained any established cannon (books, movies, comics, video games, Salvador Dali paintings, anything) what would it be and what would you want to most do in there?

(MCL): It would be amazing to go into the Bible and meet Jesus – I’d love to hear what he has to say about today’s political climate.

MC Lars is one of the most approachable people I’ve ever met, I mean that includes all celebrities and everyday people, when he says

I’d have the power to heal people’s hearts. 🙂 I try to do that with music anyway! -MC Lars

I can really buy it. Funny thing is my friend and I had gotten to Manchester a few hours early and we thought the doors opened at 7.30 and so we walked in and there was like this hush of when people are present who aren’t immediately recognized and like 5 dudes standing around. I thought we were early and didn’t think much of it until one of the roadies (I assume, maybe he was an employee of the club) asked me if we had tickets and I said yea and as he was informing us that we were 30 minutes before the door this big dude, who I didn’t at first recognize as MC Lars comes over to us and asks us if we’re here to see the show.

This giant man has a butter melting smile and his handshakes turn into back-pat hugs, even with me and my mate who were strangers to him. We get to talking and MC Lars hears my accent and asks me where I’m from, I frequently forget that I have a discernible accent, and I tell him I’m from St Louis and how I’ve been trying to see MC Chris in concert for 10 years and had missed him in concert in St Louis 3 times including October 2016 and all that. He then asks how long I’m here for and all that which leads me into talking about how I’m a study abroad student and somewhere around minute 5 of me rambling on I realise this guy has been giving me his ENTIRE attention as if I was an old friend and we were catching up. As my friends can tell you, I have no problem talking(2), but I’m not always used to having someone pay so much attention to what I have to say much less this strange celebrity.

I feel bad because I remember asking him where he was from as well and couldn’t tell you where without looking it up but I do remember he told me that he studied abroad when he was in college too. He told me it really changed his life. Dude’s a great artist, writer, performer, and if you ever see him live don’t be afraid to approach him. If he doesn’t approach you first.

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