Busdriver: Fear of a Black Tangent

Fear of a Black Tangent
Fear of a Black Tangent
2005Underground Hip-Hop

I just can’t get enough of this goofy-ass album. Maybe it’s the Cali vibe, or the clever word play. Shit, the guy uses “LOL” in the first song–nerdy AOL-centric banter that makes me cringe and laugh at the same time. I know only college-educated whiteboys like myself listen to this semi-intellectual, self-aware hip-hop stuff, but maybe there’s something to it. Maybe it’s guys like Busdriver–a man who knows and accepts his off-genre audience–that brings that sense of deep-irony and humor to his music that all that new-generation, fake emo crap (see AFI, Taking Back Sunday and Dashboard Confessional) is completely missing. Sure, it’s weird, and the guy could give a shit about jewels and rims, but I’d rather hear about Unemployed Black Astronauts any day. If you want witty and just a bit bizarre, pick this thing up before some other assface calls you a granola, backpack wannabe.