Necro

Quite honestly, we are going to this show just to see who shows up. We’ve never been able to figure out exactly who is supposed to like Necro. He doesn’t fit any of the white-rapper models. He’s definitely not going for the mainstream, but fans of “underground” rap who dig backpacker stuff or nerdcore will be nauseated by the Brooklyn rapper whose definition of hardcore rap combines hardcore porn and evisceration imagery that would be at home on a Cannibal Corpse album. Though he definitely digs metal, Necro’s traditional rapping never breaks into the guttural grunts or the wimpy singing that appeals to whatever remaining fans of rap-metal crossover still exist. And despite his often impressive flow and wordplay, he seems more like a rock dude who loves to rap, thus alienating the hip-hop heads who give props to white rappers like Bubba Sparxxx or Eminem.

That said, Necro’s had millions of visitors on his MySpace page, and they can’t all be Cro-Mags fans pumped up to hear the Necro/Harley Flanagan collabo on his latest CD, Death Rap (on his own Psycho + Logical label). The CD has a freestyle/mix-tape/cipher vibe, which goes along with one of our favorite aspects of the artist formally known as Ron Braunstein: The packaging is almost always high-end slick, brutal and amazing (2004’s The Pre-Fix for Death had a cover that could have been on an Iron Maiden album), but the tracks usually embrace a lo-fi, raw, ground-level aesthetic. Or perhaps six feet below ground level.