Race Wars came out last week. To all you uncool people that's the newest mc chris album. The title is meant to suggest people in cars battling it out in an apocalyptic setting, not different races of people battling it out in a racist setting. It's a pretty awesome album and I highly recommend it. I'm especially excited because I'll be going to see mc chris at Emo's in Austin on October 4th. I've seen mc chris probably 6 or 7 times now and I look forward to his shows every time he comes to town.
If you're still not sure who I'm talking about here's a little summary. I discovered mc chris through [adult swim] on Cartoon Network back when it was still new and awesome. He worked on animation for several shows and voiced several characters including Hesh on Sealab 2021 and MC Pee Pants/Sir Loin/Little Brittle in Aqua Teen Hunger Force. I was recording a cover of the Sealab 2021 theme song for fun and I came across the song "Fett's Vette" while I was searching for sound clips. I was hooked and I downloaded everything I could find.
It wasn't until several years later when we moved to Austin that my wife and I got to see mc chris live. It was an awesome show and only solidified my fandom. Over the years we continued to see him whenever he came to Austin and even built up a small relationship. He started to recognize us which was cool and he was always nice to his fans. Remember in that one blog how I talked about bringing gifts to celebrities? It kind of started with mc chris. We sometimes bring him snacks and drinks and stuff for the road just because we enjoy the show so much we like to give a little something back. Once I made him an mc chris Guitar Hero controller. He eventually auctioned it off on ebay to raise money for Cystic Fibrosis and it brought in over $200 which is insane to me.
Speaking of raising money for Cystic Fibrosis, that's another randomly awesome thing he does. A few years ago his nephew was born with CF and ever since then he's been raising money like crazy to fund research for a cure. He regularly auctions off toys and collectibles he has sitting around his place and he has a donation bucket at every show. To date he's raised over $100,000 total.
So anyway, mc chris is awesome and I'm a fan of his raps, but what does that have to do with this picture specifically? Well, along with being a rapper mc chris is also a bit of a comedian. His CDs are sprinkled with skits (mostly featuring the hilarious John Gemberling) that, when put together, form a totally plausible and highly dramatic narrative. I'll do my best to summarize the story based on the skits (even though it's recounted somewhat out of order of the albums at the end of Race Wars). If you're an mc chris super-fan and I've made a mistake somewhere don't hesitate to correct me.
In Dungeon Master of Ceremonies mc chris' asshole agent, Mr. Chandler (played by John Gemberling), sends him to the red carpet where he shows up drunk, high and extremely volatile. In an excellent nod to a Reggie and the Full Effect skit Mr. Chandler hires two hit men to kill mc chris. mc chris' soul is transported to heaven where he meets Jesus (played by John Gemberling) and is promptly kicked out. In mc chris is Dead he comes back as a zombie and starts the zombie apocalypse, even turning his old agent into a zombie. At the end of the album zombie mc chris meets up with the Rebellion Podcast, another long running mc chris skit about a bunch of guys who podcast on various topics related to the albums. When they ask what caused the zombie apocalypse mc chris' best guess is magic, so one of the members decides if magic exists then he also can perform magic. He uses his newfound abilities to send mc chris to Hell. Once in Hell he meets Virgil (played by Matt Besser) who tortures him with his ancient raps. Over the next three EPs (Part Six, Parts 1, 2 & 3) mc chris meets Mr. Killian (also voiced by John Gemberling) in Hell who signs him up for Hell's #1 game show, GTFO. If mc chris wins he will be sent back to Earth, either as himself or as a ghost with a robot butler like in Rocky 2 except the robot won't acknowledge his presence. After a series of challenges and The Running Man style hunter battles an old friend of mc chris' reveals that he was sent to hell by magic, not because he was a bad person, and gives him a Kindle pre-loaded with a magic tome containing the spell to send him back to Earth. mc chris eventually finishes the game, winning his prize and finding out in the process that Mr. Killian and Mr. Killian's secretary are actually his parents and he's about to witness his own birth because he's actually in a past version of Hell. At the end of Race Wars zombie mc chris meets with Mr. Chandler again who is also still a zombie and still doesn't like his music. He tells mc chris that he's had reports of a ghost with a robot haunting a lighthouse on a hill and that he thinks it's mc chris' ghost. If zombie mc chris can reunite his body with his ghost/soul he can be returned to normal.
Got all that? So, in my picture the Ninja Turtles are helping zombie mc chris meet up with his soul because they're nice guys and because I'm pretty sure Ninja Turtles aren't susceptible to the zombie virus.
To close up here's the opening song from mc chris' new album, Race Wars.
No comments:
Post a Comment