With thick mutton chops and a fairly high-pitched, heavily-accented British voice, B-Type is certainly not your typical rapper. But lo, he is a nerd! So, his look fits right in.

I first became acquainted with B-Type on Rhyme Torrents, the largest nerdcore hip hop community forum. Although he’s become more refined in his style, he started off a bit rough but came across as a cool dude which instantly makes him likable. I’ve heard him progress through the first Rhyme Torrents rap battle tournament, various Rhyme Torrents compilation albums and the occasional episode of Letters vs. Numbers. Over the last couple years, I’ve come to appreciate his style and the effort he puts into his work.

Previously known as Mister B, he is now part of the chiptune group Superpowerless which is definitely worth checking out! Also in the works is a solo album titled Hugs.

Interview with B-Type

So B-Type, how’d you get involved in music and what projects are you working on right now?

I started out as a bassist in a terrible skapunk/poprock band called Should Have Seen It Coming, which then changed its name to Third Floor, and then to No More nightfall, and finally Raziel. It lasted something like 16 months, we had about 15 practices and 15 less gigs. When I moved to Bradford for University, I was lucky enough to be in Halls of Residence with a punk named Duncan, and we formed the band Dead Mercredi, with the logic that there was a band for every day of the week except Wednesday. (Wednesday13 totally dosnt count.)

This band was similarly unproductive, and I spent my time trolling Emo chatrooms and going to whatever local live gigs I could. Someone in the emo chat thought I would get a kick out of the MC Lars song Signing Emo, which of course I did. This, combined with a blossoming love of live Hip-Hop shows, cemented my decision to become a Nerdcore Rapper.

That, and I wanted to be the Bloodhound Gang but was sick of putting together bands that went no-where!

As for right now, Im working on my 3rd Album, technically my debut album as B-Type, entitled “Hugs”. For the first time since I started making music, I am working with a producer, Jaylyn Coffin of Emergency Pizza Party, which has made the world of difference. While ive always enjoyed making music, this is the first time ive truly been excited about it.

Are any MCs making a feature on your upcoming album Hugs?

Hugs is kinda a long way away, Im thinking like early 2010, so while solo-songs are very close to completion, the collaborations are some ways away. That said, I already have Verses coming my way from Fanatical/Jaylyn Coffin, and Quartz Relic of Magitek fame. My usual co-conspirators, Category, Illithid, and Superpowerless will probably feature at some point. Ive been trying to come up with a concept for a song to do with My Parents Favourite Music, and I have a list of dream collaborations I might start trying to tick off.

So, in answer to your question, yes!

What inspired the album’s title?

Well, the first album was called Snogs, which is, um, English I guess for kissing with tongues. While I was in Florida for Nerdapalooza 08, everyone seemed to find this word hilarious. Genoboost made a hilarious comic about it and i decided to use it as album art. Ever since, ive gone for like….monosyllabic gestures of affection, so Hugs was a natural one to think. Plus, at one stage, many of the (now scrapped) songs were about frustrations with relationships and hugs were the only affection i was getting so it fitted that tone well, and alot of the songs im writing now are much happier and sweet on account of finding love and such, so it still fits. Im running out of words though. Snogs, Winks, Hugs……I figure “Daps” might be next. Maybe it will be a Zealous1 Collaboc1de style album, although im jumping the gun a bit there.

How did you and Jaylyn Coffin meet up? Is Coffin the only producer on Hugs?

Akin to many people involved in nerdcore, we were both part of the Rhyme Torrents community, and both attended Nerdapalooza. I should probably point out that I am lucky enough to be able to say we are romantically involved! After this years Nerdapalooza, she was on the Superpowerless / Jaylyn Coffin / B-Type mini-tour and became a member of Superpowerless, as part of the live band as well as shooting 3 videos for us.

Production wise, she is in charge of recording and mixing my vocals. Oliver Hindle (Superpowerless) has volunteered his skills to do the same job, so I dare say he will be involved there as well. On the beats side of things, I still make the odd beat myself and tend to go to Illithid first for beats that, you know, dont suck. Although this time round, Im on beats by way more people than last time, including Wholemilk, b0wlman, Category and Quartz Relic thus far.

Superpowerless has had a lot of success in the 8bit genre, who comprises the group and how did you guys form up?

Superpowerless is Oliver Hindle, but has had a hilariously rotating cast for a long time. I have the questionable honor of being the longest serving member besides Oliver, and currently the group comprises of the two of us. Jaylyn Coffin played with us on our first tour, and Mike Slevin played guitar when we were gigging round Leeds. We yoyo between being a two and three piece, but not counting stage invasions we have been 5 members thick before.

As for how we formed, Superpowerless was Olivers project for a while. I booked him to play Nerdapalooza UK and we became friends. One time I let him know I was coming to a gig, and he texted me asking if I would join him on stage, as his bandmates at the time were unable to show. I had dabbled in chiptune before so I was down with it, and the gig went pretty well! I just kept showing up to gigs ever since….I never did see his other band mates. He is pretty much a monster so he may well have made them up.

How many live gigs have you done with Superpowerless?

Gosh, Im not sure. At one point we were gigging at least once a week, sometimes 4 times, for a couple of months. I would speculate we have done approximately 15000 gigs, including open mics, family fun days, radio shows and completely unattended pubs.

You gotta be a drinker to be the sidekick in Superpowerless.

What is the Letters vs. Numbers podcast? Does the name have any special meaning?

LvN is a show I do with Genoboost and Chibi-Ma from gamemusic4all.com. it can be found at www.lettersvsnumbers.net and has a music/chat format. It mainly consists of Ma and I teasing eachother, and Geno cracking us up with one-liners, although we do of course discuss geeky music, videogames and other nerd things.

The name was originally for an online label Genoboost and Hex Warrior of Nerdapalooza were putting together. Neither had the time to do it really, but Geno loved the name, and when we whimsically decided to do a podcast, he mentioned the name to me and I thought it was awesome. Its come to represent our relationship with our listeners, with the hosts being the Letters and the listeners being the Numbers. We tease our listeners somewhat, but they love it. Actually, we mostly tease other podcasts and their inability to be as good as us!

Yes Vagina Deep in Podcast, you sicken us.

How long has LvN been around?

Since April 12th 2008, which is the day we decided to do a podcast, did a podcast, and put it out.

For a new listener, what 1 or 2 LvN podcasts would you recommend?

Generally speaking, I would say whichever one went out the most recently! But my personal favourites are the 2 from Nerdapalooza 08, which represented the first time Genoboost and I had ever met in real life. The insanely long episodes 14a and 14b are also ones I listen to from time to time. Featuring Shinobi Onibocho from Krondor Krew as well as what I am fairly sure was Chibi-Ma’s second Letters vs Numbers show, the vast majority of in-jokes we have come from that show, as well as the first one Ma was on, “The Lifestream made me do it”.

I know you have in the past but did you attend Nerdapalooza this year?

I did! My Letters vs Numbers co-host Genoboost of gamemusic4all.com and I had the honor of hosting the event this year, which was an absolute blast. I got to do a song with a long time hero of mine My Parents Favorite Music, as well as introduce some mind-blowing acts like MC Lars, Zealous1, Scrub Club, I Fight Dragons…argh Im making a mess, dropping names everywhere.

I also got incredibly drunk.

What prompted the name change to B-Type from Mister B?

It was something that was on my mind for a while. There were many problems with the name MisterB. For a start, there were a bunch of different musicians already performing under that name. If you put misterb into google, I was usually the top result music wise, unless one of the others had put out an album recently, so this wasnt a huge problem. The main problem was the top result: A Hardcore Sex Webshop catering to the gay BDSM market.

….

Yeah.

I still answer to the name MisterB, still refer to myself as MisterB, but the music I do from now on is B-Type. It was pretty cathartic, actually, as no-one has heard any B-Type music (apart from, you know. Tetris) so I felt like I could work and release things without having to worry that people would assume it was rubbish because I did it!

[View with PicLens]

Los Angeles nerdcore rapper, GOSHone released a pretty amazing album last year called Ctrl_Alt_Ego (download link below). I was listening to it in the car the other day and was inspired to share it with you.

For a debut album, GOSH pulled out all the stops. The production value is tight and the album features well known artists YTCracker and MC Plus+, as well as some nice vocal work from a couple ladies.

Although it’s not the strongest track on the album, Where My Nerds At? is easily the most recognizable. I’m partial to Laptop Muzik, Flowin About and Haterz. Newteknowledge is a great track too and is featured in the iPhone music video below. I’d skip past Big Brains because the verse by MC Plus+ drags this one down.

From, coding to gaming and overclockin’ his Pentium, G1 attacks classic nerd topics with fresh angles. You’re going to get a lot of replay value out of this album.

Ctrl_Alt_Ego by GOSHone – Free Download

Click Image for Free Download

This is my commentary on my life as an underdog, using my intelligence and tech skills to craft an opus for the modern day Poindexter, decorated with the electronic sounds of underground Los Angeles. [More on GOSHone.com]

G1 appeals to his audience with a deep voice, slick flow and smart, playful lyrics. I’m looking forward to seeing whats up next for the GOSH. Don’t leave us hangin’ too long, man!

Check out G1 on NerdcoreHipHop.com.

From rollin’ D20s, seeding torrents, hacking to tech support, Dual Core covers the gamut of nerd life on Next Level.

Overall Score: 85/100

Next Level is what happens when two creative and talented people collaborate. Not only that, int eighty and c64 pull in the top names of nerdcore hip hop – MC Frontalot, YTCracker, Schaffer the Darklord, Beefy, Mega Ran – to join the party.

They kick off the album with a rock-based beat that has to be one of the best intro tracks I’ve heard in a while and it comes with the added benefit of not being named Intro. For You leads nicely into Kick Back and Natural 20s, two of my favorite tracks. Also topping my list of faves is The Game and Magnificent Seven. Eighty gets reflective on Life’s Work and Letter to c64. The latter being a nice touch of old school hip hop when MCs showed more respect to their DJs. Painting Pictures is a great personal track, not only is the beat hot but the lyrics are touching. The storytelling eighty employs reminds me a lot of Slug from Atmosphere.

Learn more here – Tim interviews Dual Core

My main complaint is about the sample on track 5 – I Remember, it was really repetitive and annoying. Overall, Next Level is awesome. I had a great time reviewing the album and it certainly earned a spot on my MP3 player. Be sure to check it out.

• Dual Core Music

What do you think of the album? Leave a comment below.

Two guys. Two countries. One passion – making awesome music.

Dual Core is a nerdcore hip hop group comprising of c64, the producer/DJ and eighty, the MC. These two guys combine their musical powers to create hits like Hostage Down, End of the World, My GF is… and Take it Back. Since 2007, Dual Core has released 4 albums – Zero One, Super Powers, Lost Reality and Next Level.

“His beats made me want to rap, and he quickly became one of my favorite producers,” recalls eighty in regards to c64’s production.

A Little Background

How did the name Dual Core come about?

eighty: Living on separate sides of the ocean, we’ve spent almost our entire career working separately. I saw us as two separate processors working in unison, essentially like a dual core chip.

c64: A lot of our tracks have computer-based references too, so the name was ideal.

What musicians influence your style?

c64: I’m a big fan of underground hip hop – a common interest which lead to myself and eighty originally meeting on a website years ago. A few of my favourite hip hop producers / deejays came to prominence in the 1990s, such as DJ Premier, RZA of Wu-tang Clan, Muggs of Cypress Hill, Dr Dre and Pete Rock – you may hear their influence in my sampling techniques and scratches. I listen to a lot of electronic music, most recently groups like The Prodigy and The Qemists, along with UK-based sounds like drum and bass and dubstep. Portishead have also been on my playlist a lot recently. A lot of older music inspires me heavily – snippets of soul, jazz, heavy metal, psychedelic 70s stuff, 80s rock – it all makes its way into our music in one form or other. I also have a large amount of respect for ‘chiptune’ artists – the level of creativity shown with such limited tools is incredible.

eighty: I grew up in Cincinnati hearing midwest underground hip hop. Acts like Hi-tek/Reflection Eternal, RJD2/MHz, J.Dilla/Slum Village, Molemen, and Blueprint helped define my taste in music. Currently listen to all sorts of music can be found in my ipod which round out the sound of the music we make.

The New Album: Next Level

Your new album Next Level is pretty sweet and it’s clear you put a lot of effort into it. When did you guys start working on Next Level and what areas did you focus on to improve musically?

eighty: Thanks! We technically started on it early in 2009, but much of the work was completed in the months before the release. I can’t say enough about the awesome that is c64′s work ethic. As for improvement, I just tried to keep up with his production like on every Dual Core release.

c64: I started work on instrumental tracks in 2008, and put the best ideas aside for the album. All the writing, mixing and artwork was completed over the last few months though. We tend to set ourselves short deadlines that don’t fit in well with our non-musical lives, but they push us into completing albums! My personal aim was to be happy with the sound of every single track, create something that is a an accurate reflection of our influences and real lives, and make interesting, non-disposable music that I (as a listener) would enjoy. Eighty really stepped it up with the concepts and story-telling on this album, and as a result we have produced what I believe are our best ever songs. When I first heard the raw vocals for ‘Painting Pictures’ and ‘Life’s Work’, I knew we had created something special. Hopefully our listeners will think so too.

Recent Events

What did you think of Nerdapalooza this year?

eighty: It was a blast! We already have some plans in the works for next year.

c64: It was great seeing everyone get together to perform our collaboration song ‘Magnificent 7′ – I believe there are 3 or 4 seperate videos on Youtube! After working on the track remotely that was definitely a big moment for me. Unfortunately flights from the UK were a bit too expensive this year, but it would be cool to make it out there in the future and experience Nerdapalooza first-hand.

I see you’re playing at the Facebook party in Las Vegas. How did you guys manage to snag that opportunity?

eighty: It was all thanks to ytcracker, he hipped the Facebook folks to our music. It turns out our contact at Facebook is a fan of the song “My GF Is…”

c64: Shout outs to ytcracker! You can check his slick flow on our new tracks ‘I Remember’ and ‘Magnificent 7′. Also many thanks to the other artists who made guest appearances [on the album] – our man Remington Forbes, Beefy, Random, Schaffer the Darklord, MC Frontalot and MC Lars.

Want more Dual Core? You can find them here:

• Follow Dual Core on Twitter
• Visit them on Facebook
• View their videos on YouTube

MadHatter leads Scrub Club Records, a non-profit hip hop label bringing you talented artists like Kabuto the Python, Dr. Awkward, Benjamin Bear and The Ranger. Both businessman and rapper, MadHatter rhymes with the Sinister Six, a collective which includes the world renowned rapper YTCracker. As a group, the Sinister Six dropped their first album Invasion of the Mic Snatchers in 2008.

MadHatter can be found at RhymeTorrents.org moderating Battles and Beefs or performing at events like Nerdapalooza.

His gruff voice, energetic, thoughtful rhymes, and positive personality have made him a favorite of many. Enjoy the interview, check out the music and leave a comment!

How long have you been rapping and how did the name MadHatter come about?

I’ve been rapping since 2001, back when my only music was our first project, the Shadow Puppets. I had been a percussionist and vocalist before then, but that’s when I hunkered down with my partner at the time to see if we could take a stab at recording. We ended up using a $6 microphone with a sock over it for a pop filter, and I mixed raw wav files using sound recorder. I kid you not. I upgraded to GoldWave eventually, but this was all extreme learning experience. I would say my skill set and musicality have really grown over the last five years into something people can take seriously.

As far as the name MadHatter, that’s kind of a long story. To sum it up, I used to go by the name of Jester online wayyyy back in the beginnings of the internet and Telnet (probably when there was just a few people with that name online worldwide, haha). On some classic bulletin board systems back in the day, I ran across a guy named /\/\ad}{atter and his buddy Ice Man, the first who was in the well-known hacker group “Cult of the Dead Cow.”

He eventually followed me to the Wichita State University board where the two taught me a few tips and tricks and really grew my knowledge, mostly about phone systems and wardialing, but also nifty things I could do with IP numbers, of course. Eventually, that }{atter got to a point where he wanted to retire from the group and concentrate on college, drinking, and girls, and offered to pass on his name to me if I wanted.

I happily accepted since he had taught me so much in a sensei-type way, plus I had been borderline obsessed with the Alice In Wonderland universe since an early age. It just made sense, and since about 1993 or 1994, that’s what I’ve been going by. Carrying on his oldschool legacy while bringing my own flavor, all mixed together in a tight little Lewis Carroll package.

What musical projects are you working on right now?

Oh lord, far too much, haha. First coming would be Deafinition’s first album Resurrection, as in the resurrection of hip hop. And this dude is true about it, too. I just need to record a couple of featured verses on there as well as one from Kabuto The Python and that project will be complete. AMAZING lyrics and flow from this guy. After that, we have a slew of projects that could be coming out at any time.

Benjamin Bear’s Robochomp, an audio adventure to be completely mastered on cassette format. We have The Ranger’s new album, our artist from Australia, that I will be mixing and mastering track by track. Dr. Awkward is heavy into his next release, which I will also be finishing up the audio on and dropping a guest verse.

Myself, I will be working on the Life of John Henry CD with superstar producer Pelicaine Einhander, which will be a steampunk-themed Hip Hop album that will blow people away, with instrumentals and themes all taking place before the year of 1890. Also, I’m doing a crazy side project called Word of Mouth, which will be me covering entire songs using just my vocals (beats, instruments, voice, everything). Noncents Volume IV will drop any time now, featuring unreleased tracks from all of our artists as well as brand new material. We just signed Superpowerless from the UK, and that guy basically makes a new album every week, hahaha. He will bring new chiptune flavor to the label. Everyone is working on some great projects, and this year will be absolutely insane.

Besides our regular music, we do have a competition that will start next month to decide the next new artist on Scrub Club Records. It’s called Versus Mode, and I hope it brings the best out of all the contestants and helps them level up regardless if they win the competition or not. Plus the grand finale will pit the top two artists against eachother in a battle-of-the-bands type concert! More details on that will drop August 1st on our website.

Do you have any live performances coming up?

Well, this Thursday (July 30th), I’ll be battling 7 other emcees and rap groups for grocery money for my family, haha. The event is called Move The Crowd and is hosted by the very busy businessman Cash Hollistah here in Salina, KS. The crowd is about 250-300 people, it will be a blast.

Official Scrub Club shows coming up? I’m not sure there is one quite planned, although we are definitely interested in playing Nerdapalooza 2010 and might possibly be going to MAGFest coming up as well in Virginia. Our artists Kasparov and Kabuto The Python are included on a west coast tour called the FTW Tour, but details are few so far. Definitely hit that up, though. Dr. Awkward is also openly looking to book shows out west. I’m planning a few things that might go down in the next couple months that involve live shows, but that’s under wraps for now. All I can say is keep watching the site, Facebook, and Twitter!

What sparked the idea for Scrub Club Records and its not-for-profit theme?

One of the first things I can remember sparking this idea was back in 2001 when everything started out. I was really just concerned with spreading our music as far as possible and my partner was concerned with making it into a career. We had several arguments about money including him getting mad when I burnt a couple copies for my cousins instead of charging them $10 apiece, or when we got custom hockey jerseys made up for $35 that I was willing to give the hardcore fans for the cost just so they could rep some really awesome gear and spread our name, and he wanted to charge our fans $75 to $100 to make good profit off of them. Shit like that just really got to me.

Then, later on when I was starting my solo stuff, I was charging $5 for cds. After realizing a lot of our fan base was made up of individuals just like me, I knew that no one had the money to pay for music, especially when they could just find it online. Our fans were just as poor as I was… I know I certainly didn’t pay for music, except for the few scant live shows I went to and how I really wanted to support a deserving artist. With that and how I viewed the imminent collapse of the music industry, I knew it had to be done (to go not-for-profit).

During a Scrub Club meeting, every member in attendance agreed it was a great idea, and we made it so, no longer charging a single cent for any of our music. We were close to non-profit before, now it was complete. I think that was back in 2005 or 2006. Now I realize how great and smart that move was, our music spread like an old uneducated person’s imagery of the swine flu or a conservative republican tween’s view of terrorism. We were suddenly everywhere.

You guys have some pretty sic graphics on your site. Who are the design geniuses behind Scrub Club?

I don’t know about genius, but i do all of the graphics and coding work for the site and lots of our various projects and print products. One thing I can say is that everything I do is very oldschool. I only use Photoshop and have never been trained in it, and I also code websites with old, old, old-ass HTML skills. I never learned flash or anything advanced. So what you see is a totally untrained nerd trying to make something oldschool but different. As for the site, I prefer fast load times for Scrubs still using dialup, and images that are fresh-looking for people who want eye candy.

Any chance that Midwest Nerdfest will get a rez?

There are talks. A few people who might possibly be interesting in being sugardaddies for the fest have approached me, and a few other people have given me their thoughts, advisory style. What I’m leaning to is possibly throwing a mini version of the event to test the waters first. Stay tuned!

What’s your take on nerdcore as a genre? Do you consider yourself or Scrub Club to be nerdcore artists or more generally hip hop artists?

I love Nerdcore and support it full-heartedly. It’s one of a million sub genres created by youth, but who are we to say whether it’s “real” or not? Alive or dead? It exists, and both the excitement and the quality are growing at an alarming rate. This isn’t just a fad, we will always have comics, games, and technology and there will always be Hip Hop. So don’t look for Nerdcore to dissipate any time soon.

As for Scrub Club, we started in 2001 as a pure Hip Hop-style outfit. A mutated version of Hip Hop, but that’s what we’ve always been. And since the very beginning, we’ve had references to video games, comic characters, superhero-style themes, dorky movies and tv shows, cartoons, etc. Then along came the birth of the genre of Nerdcore and we were picked up by that tidal wave. We set out to make good, real music with no real genre to stick to, and then Nerdcore picked us up as kindred. Still, not all of our music will particularly fit in with the Nerdcore-only tribes, like Deafinition’s pure and gritty Hip Hop coming up, or my upcoming Victorian Era album.

So we’re not a Nerdcore-only label, and none of our artists began making music just because of Nerdcore. But that doesn’t mean we don’t love and support that scene. A vast majority of our music fits their appetites and they’re the closest family we’ve got! Scrubs, nerds, geeks, and all other underdogs are welcome in the Club!

MadHatter, thanks for your time!

Keith A. Moore, Beefy, or Beef Thompson, whatever you want to call him this man can flow. Beefy barged onto the nerdcore rap scene in 2005 with two EPs – The Whitesican EP and nerd. Beefy hasn’t kept fans waiting long in between albums. Tube Technology hit the net in 2006, and 2007 saw the release of two albums – The Adventures of Beef Thompson: Private Dick and Bremelanotide (with The Grammar Club). Rolling Doubles dropped in ’08 and most recently fans were treated to The Adventures of Beef Thompson: IN SPACE. Whew!

Beefy even had the opportunity to perform in Amsterdam in early 2009 with MC Frontalot, MC Lars, YTCracker and MC Router. Before Beefy headed off to Nerdapalooza, I was able to ask him a few questions about his album and The Grammar Club. Here’s what I came away with…

You have a new album you’re working on called Shining, is that right? What can Beefy fans expect to hear? Any collabs?

I’m working on two solo projects right now. With Sprinkles which will have guests like Shael Riley, Dual Core and some people I’ve never worked with before. The second album is being produced by The OneUps’ Mustin and was at one point going to be called Shiny but at the moment we don’t have a name for it. It will however feature MC Lars.

How are things going on the new Grammar Club album? When is that due out?

Grammar Club tracks take a long time to complete due to the nature of our creative setup. We do have a lot of demos right now for the next album and some complete tracks we plan on previewing at the upcoming Nerdapalooza event. Shael is also working on a solo album with his band the Double Ice Backfire, so while we’re always working on The Grammar Club our solo work is our main focus for the time being.

Presumably you’ll be heading to PAX 2009, any chance you’ll be performing?

We’re trying to work out plans for a Pre-PAX show, but besides that I won’t be performing at the actual PAX event. That kind of thing is reserved for the kinds of artists that are on a whole other level than my own.

If you were meeting someone who had never heard of Beefy, what would you tell them?

I tell em that I make hip-hop music for nerds about things like Street Fighter and comic books that is wildly relatable and fun. I would also tell them that I love hugs and that my music is like an ear hug.

Beefy Around The Web:

• @ Beefyness
• On MySpace
• Follow Beefy On Twitter
• Interview with Z from Hipster, Please!