Nerdcore hip hop is a musical genre. The name is derived from "nerd" and the "-core" suffix in genre names like "hardcore". The name was first used in 2000 by MC Frontalot, often considered the founder of the genre, in his song by the same name.
Nerdcore hip hop could reign supreme! - MC Frontalot, "Nerdcore Hiphop"
Besides Frontalot, other musicians who have described their music as "nerdcore" include:
Features of Nerdcore hip hop
The uniting feature of the genre is that it is hip hop by and for nerds. Common song themes include Star Wars (Frontalot's "Yellow Lasers", 2 Skinnee J's "Mind Trick", and mc chris' "Fett's Vette"), science (most of MC Hawking's work, like "Entropy" and "E=MC Hawking", 2 Skinnee J's "Pluto"), and similar topics, but in truth the range is very wide. An emerging trend is for artists to focus on one particular topic; the Lords of the Rhymes, for example, confine themselves to the writings of J. R. R. Tolkien. Nerdcore is often, but not always, released over the internet rather than through record labels.
Note that the 1999 song It's All About The Pentiums by "Weird Al" Yankovic, a parody of It's All About The Benjamins by P. Diddy, features use of Internet terminology with hip hop music. Though unintentional, it could be considered a predecessor of nerdcore. However, "Weird Al" (though undoubtedly a nerd) is not generally considered nerdcore, because he parodies music of all genres rather than writing original hip hop.
External links
In the news
Nerdcore artists