My parents, at least when it came to music, were very divided. My mother listened to 80’s rock and my father stopped listening to metal before I was born and started listening to Hip-Hop. Now I know that Bon Jovi, Poison, and Guns and Roses have their place in Music history, but for me I was pulled magnetically to Hip-Hop almost instantly. I still remember when my dad would make up words over the curse words so I would repeat him and not the song. Fast forward 20 or so years later still listening to Hip-Hop many of the artists past and present have used, comics, video games, and anime to bring the 2 worlds together and solidify the genre for me.
Many lyricist’s today use geek culture because that is what they grew up with, sat in front of a TV or picking up comics to kill the time during the days and afternoons as our parents worked or were busy. One of the biggest artists that came to mind is MF Doom he basically wears a Doctor Doom mask when he performs and sings lyrics like “In love with Mary Jane, she’s my main thing/Pulled her right from that web head, what a lame brain”. This just shows the impact comics have on the industry and it doesn’t stop there. Rapsody’s song “Dark Knights” is completely devoted to the Batman movie going as far as to dress like the joker in the music video. We even had Hip-Hop homage variants from Marvel just a couple years ago.
Currently one of my favorite artist’s is Denzel Curry. He lyrical rhymes constantly use all types of geek culture for his songs, he has gone on record stating if he was not a rapper he would be a comic book artist. His song Dark Tournament references 3 separate anime’s in 1 line “Left hollow like Ichigo, Grim Reapers and Soul Eaters”. This time could not be more perfect for anyone who is into video game, comics, anime/manga, board games and card games. Geek culture has been sent main stream in such a short time. High school for me meant getting picked on or bullied for liking a lot of these things now, no matter who you are most likely there is something out that links you to geek culture and that’s how the world should be everyone is equal to another no matter our like and dislikes.