Rating: NNN
The NOW music team writes about music we literally found on the street
WHO: MCBC
WHERE: Red Bull stage, Ryerson campus, NXNE
Opening line: “You don’t know me, but I follow you on Instagram.”
Go to enough shows and you’ll be handed your share of free CDs. That number multiplies when you get to write about music for a living.
This self-produced six-track preview of the upcoming album, Beats, Mics & Lights, from New Jersey rapper MCBC melds boom-bap with electronic production for about half the songs, but really shines on #42, Forward Motion and Rolling Stone, when the artist shows his knack for mining 70s vinyl and plucking out funky samples.
MCBC avoids profanity entirely, as well as many of pop music’s more tiresome tropes (partying, women). What he does rap about (hard work, haters, seizing the moment) is nothing remotely new in hip-hop, but he does it convincingly enough, via diverse vocal delivery that sometimes owes a little too much to hip-hop A-listers (Kanye here, 2 Chainz there).
The only weak link, Sun ‘n’ Beach, features clichéd female backing vocals – “oooah, yeaaah, summa, summa, summa time!” and the rapper overusing “Sorry, not sorry.”
Still, worth a few spins.
Top track: Rolling Stone
For more info see facebook.com/reach.BC