Comic book rap — the term conjures up a certain set of expectations. Low ones, at that.
If I try and clear my mind from all the things I already know about Adam WarRock and his music, and try and just picture what my first impression about comic book rap music would be, to be honest, the image isn’t very pretty (and this is coming from a guy who likes comic books and rap music). I picture a fat guy, wearing a stained Avengers t-shirt, rapping poorly about how awesome it would be if Batman and Hawkeye could have a book together.
But, thankfully, all of that is wrong. Adam WarRock is trim, well dressed, has serious skill as an emcee, and although his songs are about comic books, they come from a real place of personal experience, hopes, fears, and, yes, loving comics. The album opens with “On the Subject of Normal,” which is a treatise on personal goals, society’s expectations, and how sometimes those two don’t fit together. It is a spoken weird piece, and sets a tone for the record. By addressing this topic in such a direct way, it immediately diffuses the bravado so often associated with hip hop, and recasts the album’s boasts as personal victories, not put downs to others — as he says on “Booster Gold,” “I’m most likely your favorite rapper’s favorite rapper, that is if your favorite rapper is me.”
Other topics, such as reinventing yourself (“Retcon”), being an outsider (“Beast I.Z.”), and overcoming fears (“I Kill Giants”) are all tackled through the prism of comics, whereas other tracks, like “The 616,” are songs about comics more specifically. This was a big surprise to me, as although I had heard a few WarRock tracks before hearing this record, I assumed that more would be explicitly about characters and storylines.
And really, thank Rao that the balance is tipped towards WarRock’s real life. As much as there may be an audience for straight up raps about the Sinestro Corps War and the Age of Apocalypse, I’m not in that audience. Instead of using (pardon the cliché) Courvoisier and Escalades as the cultural touchstones in his rhymes, he is simply using Wally West and Invader Zim instead. To people like myself (geeks, nerds, what have you), we can relate better to that than we can expensive liquors or strip clubs. Adam WarRock is, by being both of his own people and embracing hip hop as a means to express himself, creating music that is both culturally specific and aesthetically broad which, honestly, is a pretty unprecedented and brave thing to be doing.
You can hear the entire album and purchase it at adamwarrock.bandcamp.com. It is also available on iTunes and on adamwarrock.com, and you can stream “The Kids Table (featuring Doctor Awkward)” below.
