When you think of styles of hip hop, braggadocio, gangsta, and conscious hip hop might come
to mind.
But what about Art Rap?
Art rap is a style of hip-hop that Open Mike Eagle has embraced throughout his entire career
The first thing you need to know about Mike to understand his style of rap is this: he
loves the band They Might Be Giants
I will talk about them all day.
All day!
They Might Be Giants is a weirdo art-rock band from Brooklyn formed in 1982.
They’ve released 19 studio albums including a handful for kids.
Mike Eagle II is a hip hop artist born in 1980.
He’s from the South-Side of Chicago.
I went to school in the projects and that wasn’t always an easy conversation to have
with people.
I used to lie about it a lot.
When Mike was about 9 years old he heard Birdhouse in Your Soul for the first time.
Musically that song is just thrilling to me.
“Birdhouse in your Soul” is a song about a night light.
It changes keys 18 times in 3 minutes.
Blue canary in the outlet by the light switch Who watches over you Make a little birdhouse
in your soul
If you ever listen to their songs.
The feeling of their songs is very happy, jovial, high energy.
But if you ever read the lyrics they say some fucked up shit.
One of Mike’s favorite verses comes from “Where Your Eyes Don’t Go”
Where your eyes don't go a filthy scarecrow waves its broomstick arms
And does a parody of each unconscious thing you do When you turn around to look it's gone
behind you On its face it's wearing your confused expression
Where your eyes don't go
That to me that’s just like that’s just perfect.
Mike’s childhood obsession with They Might Be Giants can really be felt in his music.
My antenna span's killin' I'm all full of data like a Spiderman villain
I'm part flesh and part energy The last text I sent you was from the heart
literally
I was inducted into the hip-hop tradition in the South Side of Chicago.
And what that meant was the style in this time space was this punchline style.
We got Juice from Chicago in here.
Cause I mack right I track light like photosynthesis.
Rappers is wack as hell and I'm gonna put it in parenthesis.
No pause or comma cause I'm gonna keep you fearing this.
You got a question mark I'm the n**ga here period.
Mike has turned the whimsical and dark style of They Might be Giants and the punchline-y
style of Chicago hip hop into a really special style of rap.
On his latest album he’s managed to turn really serious topics like addiction and racism
into pointed and humorous verses.
Today I saw a lady say hi to a stranger / Then avoid my eyes like I'm a white-person strangler
/ Walking past voters in a democratic blocks that hit / The windows and the automatic locks
if not / Reparations give me free black therapy / And tell people you're scared of them it
makes them act scarily
A lot of these ideas and premises they came from these really vulnerable places.
So if I say something heavy in a way that makes me chuckle then it makes me feel better
about it.
The final song I’ll leave you with is haunting and beautiful.
The beat is uplifting, the lyrics are dark.
We've gone too far We don't want to go back home
We don't like to see each other but We don't want to go back home
It’s about this group of people who go to a dive bar because they don’t want to go
back home.
It runs counter to the idea of a support group because typically that’s about people trying
to be sober.
Ma I"m done I call up the homie I borrow his gun, I'm not gonna run
I'm my father's son I hold up the legacy
Macho, masculine all in my pedigree Angry and cold
Bolder than tensile Trying not to be overly sensitive
Fail, fail, everyday, damn...