What My rap name means ( The B-Villainous Manifesto)

If you’re a millennial like me that means you might have grown up seeing celebrities like Pee Wee Herman, Elvira, Urkel, and Gallagher on T.V. as a kid. These were very defined characters you could spot a mile away in any lineup. I’m not sure what MTV is like now, but I remember what it was like growing up. I remember that channel playing music videos by artists like Bjork, Marilyn Manson, Snoop Dogg, and Primus. These were very unique artists that stood out with unique songs and videos. MTV also used to show these weird short films that featured their logo being warped and animated in various ways with claymation and other effects. I loved those things. They had an underground DIY look and they were made by indie film makers. Not one of them looked like the next.

A screenshot of an old school MTV commercial with an animated logo

Pee Wee Herman (Left) Elvira (Right)

This was also the era of Saturday morning cartoons that were played on numerous channels. In fact, classic cartoons like Looney Tunes and Tom & Jerry were still in rotation along side shows like Ren & Stimpy, Rocko’s Modern Life, Dexter’s lab, and Cow & Chicken. All of which were hand drawn animation.

Screenshot of Stimpy from the animated show Ren And Stimpy

Mainstream hip hop radio stations and music channels also included lyrical hip hop artists. Big Pun, Redman, Wu tang, and E.P.M.D. were in their rotation.

Redman with EPMD

Everything I’ve just mentioned along with kids toys, video games, commercials, and movies from that era had something in common. They were creative. They were either creative, required talent to pull off, or were just so unique it made them unforgettable. I’m not saying everything was great or better. I’m saying those qualities were a driving force in mainstream culture back then. What happened and why did it change you ask? I’ll give you my opinion. The marketing changed. The marketing world figured out a formula to save money, speed up production, and mass produce culture. The quality of all these things suffered as a consequence. Just like a shitty fast food cheeseburger. That’s how we went from lyrical hip hop to mumble rap with artists rapping about the same stuff. We went from Hollywood taking a chance on original ideas to mostly formulaic CGI movies that follow the same template. We went from hand drawn animated cartoons to characters that are drawn once and manipulated with a computer. Safe boring systematized entertainment.

The action figure for the character named Bebop. Bebop is a punk rocker who was genetically mutated with a warthog and is now a henchman for Shredder the main villain of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

I feel like we human beings have already been systematized to death in the modern world. As children we go to school and sit quietly in a class room to learn a bunch of bullshit we won’t use in life. Then the bell rings and we go eat processed food like cattle. Then some of us go to college which is a more expensive version of what we’ve been doing since childhood. Then we move on to working a job, sitting in traffic, and waiting in line at the DMV. Conglomerate-funded news media is our most readily available source for information about what’s going on in the world while we let algorithms curate our personal tastes based on something we clicked on or watched a month ago.

Traffic in Charlotte NC

All of this sounds pretty damn lame if you ask me. It sounds like a wack world to live in. We can call it the “wack world” the “lame world” or the “world of wackness”. Whatever floats your boat. I like people, life, and the world, but I feel like it’s being consumed by this other wack world. If being wack and lame is normal in this wack world then it needs a villain. I have nothing against progress or marketing. I just feel like the creative world becomes stale when everyone plays it safe and does the same generic stuff. I feel like making your own music and art are ways to combat the lame generic stuff that’s being promoted all around us 24/7. I’m a fan of lyrical hip hop and I respect it as a craft. I enjoy pushing the craft as far as I can. Once I was able to achieve the goal of being really lyrical I wanted to see how much further I could push it. Can I rap as different people in different voices and keep it lyrical? Yep. Why not? See my tracks One Man Posse Cut and White Guy. Can I rap as a cartoon character and make my lyrics even more unrealistic. Yep. Instead of rapping about how much of a tough badass I am I’ll brag about being a short dorky white guy and make it funny. Let's face it, I'm not exactly a male model. If I'm cool it's not by any mainstream standard. And I have no interest in rapping about material possessions, money, or being a hard thug. I feel like there's already a lot of that out there. I feel like I'm not alone in feeling that way. I can't relate to that. What about weirdos like me that like to laugh at stupid shit and be entertained? My friends and I have dropped the idea of trying to be "cool" long ago. I'd rather have fun than have a cool image. Maybe we can find other people to join us. We can make our own entertainment and amuse ourselves in our own way. I'll make cultural references about weird stuff from my childhood and not compromise my rap skills. B-Villainous. The B stands for my first name Brennon. Villainous represents being a villain to a world of stale, boring, systematized entertainment and using art and music as my weapons for global domination.

A screenshot from my music video for the song White Guy. Where I rap in a dorky voice and make nerdy references.

A screenshot from the music video BizNES. Where all the lyrics are about Nintendo games.

A screenshot from my animated music video Raptoon. Where I rap as a bunch of different animated characters and in different voices.

Now that I’ve been releasing content and performing live I’ve gathered some fans who really get what I’m doing. I call them Supervillains. They’re people from all walks of life who have something in common. They like to be entertained. They like to have fun. And they’re also in on the joke. We can probably all agree that it’s fun to come together with other people to have a good time. If you’re watching one of my videos or attending one of my live shows I hope you’re having a blast. I’ve done interviews before where I’m asked about the meaning of my rap name. I usually give the short simple answer which is how I want my rap name to sound like a guy who would rap about stuff like Dr. Claw, Skeletor, Mortal Kombat and Gremlins. And The villainous element to what I’m doing isn’t serious. It’s more like pranksterism than anything.

I think It’s funny when people disrupt what’s “supposed to be” in the creative world. Especially when it reveals how serious and uptight the way things are supposed to be. When the creators of South Park showed up to the oscars dressed as women while tripping on acid. That was funny to me. The guy who plays Borat (Sacha Baron Cohen) is pretty much banned from every award show because of his public hijinks. That’s also funny to me. Back in the day Sublime was playing a music festival and they made a bunch of photo copies of the back stage passes and gave them to their fans so they could all dance on the stage during their show. That’s dope! And funny to me. Back when TRL was on MTV the Insane Clown Posse had their fans show up all together on a random day live on TV. The camera guys tried their best to keep their fans (juggalos) out of the shots, but to no avail. That’s funny to me. So when I perform my live show at an event with other artists that are trying to be taken seriously and they want to look cool or tough. I think it’s funny when I walk out wearing a brightly colored goofy shirt or some costume while rapping in different voices while cartoons are playing on a screen on the stage. I had to create a guy that can pull that off and B-Villainous is the guy. And my fans aka the supervillains are all in on the joke.

The creators of South Park Trey Parker (Left) and Matt Stone (Right) at the Oscars dressed as women

So at the end of the day. I’m just a guy who likes to be entertained and I like to entertain people. And I like to do it in a way that I haven’t exactly seen done just yet. My fans are in on the joke because they get my humor and what I’m going for.

Me performing live dressed as Ric Flair while DJ 4xLit plays the beats and animated videos on a screen behind me

If you'd like to join in on the fun and come to a live show, or be in a music video, or see my new content when I drop it I highly recommend joining my list. I'll send you an occasional text or email when I drop something new. I'm not going to blow your phone up with spam. It's just an easier way to stay connected with what we've got going on. To sign up click the link right HERE

Until next time

cheers

-B