Mmm Dropped?

So, in the comments to my recent post Hot Garbage, on the subject of Hot Karl's debut album (or his second, depending how you look at it), it was brought to my attention that Hot Karl was featured in a documentary called Dropped. It's distributed by Sundance, but seems to be a Netflix exclusive.  I guess they mainly bought it for their channel.  So, anyway, I said I'd rent it, I did, and here's the scoop:

It's a roughly 60 minute film, broken up into 7 or 8 segments, each on a different music group that got dropped from a major label. It's not Hip-Hop specific, but three of the segments are on Hip-Hop acts (including, yes, Hot Karl). With that many pieces crammed into that short a running time, you might think they couldn't possibly get into very much depth - and you'd be right. They're mostly just short interviews mixed with performance clips for each artist or group... they play like EPKs for the most part. And, well, I'm just going to touch on the Hip-Hop acts, 'cause, you know, nobody cares about rock music on this blog. ;)

I've just watched this, and I already don't remember much about Spearhead's segment. It's the most EPK-ish of the three... a single interview with lead vocalist Micheal Franti who spends most of his time talking about the first Spearhead album. He makes the point that he's glad he was dropped because this way he can continue to address topics his label wouldn't like because his music was too radical.

The Hot Karl piece is actually much better... it's the one they open the film with, the longest by far, and it features interviews with a bunch of people besides just Hot Karl himself. A couple radio DJs talk about how he won an on-air freestyle contest, which is what got labels interested in him; and they seem pretty genuinely enamored with him as an MC. Will I. Am shares some memories of also being on Interscope when all of the label's attention was focused on Karl. As Karl elaborates, Interscope was apparently convinced he would be the next big thing and gave him a limitless budget. Whatever he asked for he got... at least until they signed Eminem, after which he was totally shut out, his project was shelved and they lost all interest in him. Mack 10 (whose name this doc continually spells as "Mac 10" on-screen) talks about how he tried to sign Hot Karl to his own label but Karl held out for the Interscope deal (hindsight is a big theme in this doc). You can also tell by how his clothing and background locations keep changing that they interviewed Karl on more than one occasion, unlike the other artists in the other segments - this is clearly their star segment. I'd bet the doc was originally intended to be all about Karl, and then the other interviews were added to broaden the subject matter into something more marketable.

One thought I had while watching the Hot Karl segment... he takes a shot at A&Rs, saying they're all really just frustrated musicians who wish they could rap or perform but lack the talent. It's almost painful how he misses the irony that the exact same thing could be said of former musicians who get dropped before releasing any records. Both statements are unfair, mean-spirited, and true probably about 95% of the time. Maybe he should be applying for an A&R position at Interscope?

Finally, the third Hip-Hop segment claims to be about Burning Star, but I think the filmmakers are just confused here... The segment consists of just one interview with Apl. De Ap who talks all about The Atban Klan. He details how they were signed and dropped by Ruthless Records, which is kinda interesting; but it's all much too brief to really hook us. Bizarrely, Will I. Am was interviewed for the Hot Karl segment, but not this one, even though he was a lead member of the Klan! Now, Burning Star is a band that did a few songs with the Klan/ Black Eyed Peas, but Apl. is not a member, and the whole interview is about the Klan, not Burning Star. There are a few seconds of footage of a Burning Star show, which I guess Apl. was at when they interviewed him. Considering the filmmakers didn't know how to spell Mack 10's name, I'm guessing Hip-Hop isn't really their "thing" and they just didn't understand the distinction between the two groups.

Anyway, all in all, Dropped doesn't get nearly close enough to its subjects, and is too lazily assembled to be considered a good film. The Hot Karl segment is the most compelling and the best done, and even that's way too short to justify tracking the film down (basically what I wrote above gives you all there is to be found in the three Hip-Hop segments, and the rock segments are no better), so save yourself the trouble. But if you happen to catch it on the Sundance channel, it'll hold your interest for the short time it takes to plow through.

Hot Garbage

In this blog I harshly criticize a dead record by an independent MC. I usually avoid this kinda post, because struggling, starving artists don't need more negativity thrown at them - I'd much rather spotlight a dope or at least interesting record that hasn't gotten much attention... But this album annoyed me enough that I don't care, and more importantly: it answers the question "what's that album listed on your 3rd Bass page," which I've actually had 2 e-mails about.

This is the 2005 debut album by a guy named Hot Karl on Headless Horses Records, The Great Escape. I didn't know who he was, either. Like a year or so ago, I was googling around for some info on MC Serch's unreleased ridiculously titled M.any Y.oung L.ives A.go: The 1994 Sessions album (mp3-only doesn't count as released, you hear me, Serch? No vinyl is bad enough, but at least put out some CDs!)... and an EBay listing popped up for this album featuring MC Serch. So, I looked around and ordered it from Amazon for a penny (note the hole-punch in the scan). I listened to it once, updated my 3rd Bass page and put it away. Tonight, I've taken it out for my second listen and to blog about it.

So, it turns out Hot Karl is the guy on the left-hand side of the album cover holding the puppy. He's one of the billions of rappers who rap about how they're the only rapper who's against the "bling" clichés of hip-hop (hence the album cover). And he's all about pop culture punchlines. I actually realized when the CD arrived that I had heard Hot Karl before - he was on a DJ Rectangle 12" with Eminem called "You Must Be Crazy" with Dree. You could really stop the record after Eminem's verse, but Hot Karl was passable (and for the record, Dree was wack. So's the hook. Seriously, just download Em's 40-second verse onto your IPod).

Now I believe that track was originally meant to be on Hot Karl's debut album, Your Housekeeper Hates You. He was signed to Interscope and had a whole other album with appearances by people like Redman, Fabulous and Mya, which was shelved because the guy's essentially a novelty act (though a couple of the bigger guest spot tracks were white-labeled)... and Karl later put out the album, radio-blended into a mixCD called Industry Standards to promote The Great Escape. And I'm not one of those guys who says every white MC sounds like Eminem, but this guy really does sound exactly like an Eminem knock-off.

The album starts out with the MC Serch collaboration. It's a duet with Serch playing an A&R trying to talk Karl into selling out by "going jiggy," but Hot Karl stands firm for his principles. Karl makes some jokes about Serch's career, and it turns into a pure "Guilty Conscience" rip-off ("it's becoming obvious why Pete Nice kicked you out"). He's got songs like "Butter-face," which makes fun of ugly girls and of course he name dorps a lot of female celebrities, and "Kerk Gybson" a reminiscence (list) of 80's pop culture references, like Pac-Man and The Facts of Life sitcom (that one's even in the hook). "Suburban Superstar" is a horrible dance track all about how he's from the suburbs with one of many lame R&B choruses... it's like some horrible, ODB-less follow-up to Pras's "Ghetto Superstar" from the Bulworth soundtrack. "Back/Forth" is a song with a female MC named Boobie Poquito (no fooling) making 3rd grades jokes about his sexual prowess. His album is also full of skits, too, all "humorously" touting his artistic credibility, where an A&R tries to talk him into selling out in various ways and he stands firm. But it's hard to imagine anything more commercial and trite than the content he's already filled his Great Escape with.

All in all, the production on this album is super annoyingly poppy (though 9th Wonder provides one decent track towards the end), and full of cheesy hooks by studio singers. Each song and skit feels like they're playing to the same gimmicky image, and his snarky, jokey delivery will all make you wish bad things on him. A few of his punchlines are amusing, but mostly you get one random pop culture reference after another mixed with embarrassingly juvenile humor. In fact, while he's definitely doing the Eminem thing (I don't care what he says in interviews I've just googled; the man is borrowing from Em)... he's actually more along the lines of Tom Green or Jamie Kennedy. "Circle Circle Dot Dot" sounds like it was ripped straightoff this album.

The one plus side is that he wrote really nice liner notes talking about each song on the album... the anecdotes (did you know Ali Dee, who produced "Back/Forth" on this album was the voice yelling "Can't Truss It" on Public Enemy's single?) and explanations are fun and engaging, although the bit where he explains how two of the songs are inspired by David Lynch's Mulholland Drive is ridiculously pretentious. But for the most part they actually kinda make you like the guy and feel bad for hating the man's music so much.

And yeah, Hot Karl does have a myspace... there's a video up on it of his final performance, because he's quit hip-hop (no comment). He talks about how he started rapping as a gag (not news once you've heard his material) and makes a lot of punchlines about Interscope ("if you're not laughing, then you don't get the joke. And if you don't, then you should work for Interscope" etc). He does have a book he's selling, which - unsurprisingly - is a collection of 1980's pop culture references. It also lists his homepage as HotKarl.com, but apparently it's a porn site now (so no link - type it into the browser yourself, pervs). ...Anyway, now you know what that last Serch guest-spot is.

Tags: Hot Karl, MC Serch