Under the Underground Nerdcore Movement: Meet Baddd Spellah, Kickass Nerdcore Music Producer

I have long considered myself a big nerd, with a touch of pride. But only realized how soft core my shade of nerdiness was when I happened on a whole new genre of music known as nerdcore, or “geeksta” rap. It’s a type of hip hop where far-from-fly dorks rap about topics like Star Wars ("Fett’s Vette” by MC Chris) and physics ("What We Need More Of Is Science” by MC Hawking).

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So it should come as no surprise that Vancouver, a city with a thriving hi-tech sector and clubs that pulse with hip-hop, is home to the genre’s equivalent of Timbaland.

David Cheong is an art director for video games by day but works as nerdcore’s Midas at night, lending his golden touch to sparse raps under the alias Baddd Spellah. So what’s his niche? In the words of one nerdcore artist MC Router, he’s the “awesomest beat smith.”

Nerdcore’s lyrics make it clever and dorky. Spellah’s rhythms and added sounds make it head-nodding cool. Witness his polish job on MC Chris’ “Fett’s Vette.” He adds the subtle layers of badass that make hip-hop beats so damn appealing - but in a way that never deviates from nerdcore’s sincere heart. 

It’s this skill that’s gotten Spellah working on the tunes of nerdcore luminaries. Just this past spring Spellah produced the “godfather of nerdcore” MC Frontalot‘s latest album “Secrets from the Future.” It’s probably the biggest coup for Spellah’s nerdcore career, which has spanned eight years and over a dozen nerdcore artists - along with accompanying countless all-nighters.

Last summer I weaseled my way into a recording session at Baddd Spellah’s home studio. As I knocked on the door of his East Vancouver house the cartoon avatar on his myspace page came to mind: an asian man in black framed glasses with lips pulled back and teeth bared. In direct contrast to that an unassuming man clad in a plaid shirt and khaki cords answered the door. He was thoughtful and deliberate in the way that reeks of competence.

That evening he was working with MC Jomega, aka Johanna Gustafson, a striking blonde Langley school teacher who sports periodic table socks and a voice that could slide like a trombone. Before long I was holding her lyrics up getting glances from her lemon-lime smiling eyes. “It’s the nerdcore chapter and we’re showing what it’s really worth,” she raps over some oompa loompa beats. Spellah mans Ableton Live on his computer in the next room.

A poster of Jay-Z and Bill Gates shaking hands sits above his screen. “You know its funny, those are the two spheres that are making a lot of money fly around the world right now: rap music and computers,” he says. Small wonder the marriage between the two is such a hit.

Spellah plays the first take back to MC Jomega. When it gets to the end where she says “peace out” she tilts her head forward and slaps it with her palm: “What a doooo-ooork!”

But it’s part and parcel of the genre. MC Frontalot, who gave the genre its name in the song “Nerdcore Hiphop” back in 2000, started life off as Damien Hess, a web developer and founder of his high school’s Monty Python fan club.

Since then its ranks have swelled and spread across the world. Last year MC Lars’ song “Download this Song” reached #29 on the Australian music charts. There’s even an upcoming documentary titled “Nerdcore Rising” on the topic. Needless to say, for a genre that just got named seven years ago, it’s doing just fine. And here’s why.

Between doubling the choruses of the recording MC Jomega bounces up and exclaims to no one in particular: “This is the most fun I could possibly be having!” The microphone’s popstand, MacGyvered from a clothes hanger and covered with an orphaned sock, bobs in agreement. Listening to her, so did I.