by In an increasingly disconnected world, tiny moments of sincere connection — like checking in with friends to see how they’re doing — can have new meaning. Subtle or otherwise mundane occurrences can similarly breed joy, reflection, or commonality in the right context. This record might be a little bit like that. Laced with off-kilter synthesizers, steady popping percussion, smooth basslines, and sprawling lyricism, aight, u? is an arty/experimental/underground hip-hop record from Phoenix-based artist MC|DC, featuring production from Gimpheart. To get a little bit more insight behind the creative process, I caught up with my friends who crafted this record to see how they were doing:
The following interview was edited for length and clarity.
Hey guys. Can you introduce yourselves?
MC|DC: I’m Daniel Suber. I rap under the name, MC|DC. [I also] currently play trombone, hand percussion, and backup vocals in Spicy Mayo.
Gimpheart: Hey Clipper! I’m Manolo, I occasionally record and produce as Gimpheart and sometimes write and record in E Z P Z. I produced the beats on this record and did vocals on a couple of tracks.
How did this record happen? How did it come about?
MC|DC: Manolo and I had already been collaborating on music both as a duo and in other bands for years, but I don’t think we’d ever done a full project together. The pandemic started in a time where things were winding down for most of my bands, so once I had completed my obligations with them, I was left without an avenue to be creative musically. In my email, I found a few beats that Manolo had sent me for some song ideas that we never completed. I recorded vocals for a few, he liked them, and we decided to give new life to these unfinished and/or unreleased songs. It was a lot of polishing things that we started in the past and recontextualizing them to fit what we were going through last year.
Gimpheart: Let’s see… I sent Daniel a few beats and he did some songs and we liked it, so we decided to put together some of my unused beats with some of his unused songs from the past four years or so. To me the cool thing about this project is that there is a cohesion even though the elements span 4 years and were created at varying times within those 4 years (i.e. a beat made in 2020 matched with a verse written in 2016).
A lot of the tracks have this sort of evocation of subtleties of everyday life, extrapolations of what might be ordinarily mundane, but kind of what make them interesting: buying Beyblades on eBay, eating Pei Wei on the freeway, getting sunburns, going to Circle K, someone playing “Badfish” on the jukebox, thinking you look good in the mirror, drinking with your friends, etc. (there’s a million of these). It’s almost like Seinfeld or something. What’s your process for chronicling these kinds of things and incorporating daily observations into art?
MC|DC: For a lot of my songs, daily observations are really the foundation. Most of the time, I don’t sit down to write with a pre-determined theme in my head. Instead I think of particular moments and the feelings or ideas they evoke. The lyrics of the song kind of build around that. Ultimately, I hope that some of the mundane, everyday things that I notice in my life occur in the lives of the listeners too. Maybe they bring up memories for them that evoke some of the same feelings and ideas that I had when I was writing. When someone references something from the bible or a famous movie, it’s a kind of shorthand for all the things we associate with it. I guess I intend for some of the observational content in my songs to do the same thing.
What aesthetic orientations did you all have when making this? Musically, but also, what was going on with you? Did you read any good books while making this?
Gimpheart: These were really just beats I had made that I thought were dope that were still on the computer and not on the internet. Daniel and I have collab’d before and so we naturally kind of gravitated towards making another project together. We both had pieces to a puzzle that was 4 years to solve. And it’s SICK. Books… I start books and don’t finish them. It’s a bad habit. I don’t wanna talk about it.
MC|DC: At first I thought of this project as a bunch of disparate parts that didn’t have much in common, but as it got closer to completion, I saw it coalesce into something like a checkpoint. As I’m sure is the case for many people, I went through a lot both externally and internally over the last few years. When I was finally making music again though, everything felt a little more normal and manageable. The world wasn’t magically better, but the sense of purpose and productivity I got from creating made me feel like I was still doing alright in spite of the circumstances. In my opinion, this project is about being appreciative, confident, and comfortable about your life while still realizing how fleeting these feelings can be.
I was probably reading Virtual Light and Hyperart Thomasson when I wrote a lot of the lyrics. During the recording process, it was mostly comics. I read an anthology of comics about food and I reread Hard Boiled, some of Sandman, and I Never Liked You by Chester Brown. Not sure how much (if any) of that influenced the songs though.
Was most of the production digital? Any live instruments going on? I wanna guess some basslines and a couple of percussion spots.
Gimpheart: Yeah the production was mostly done on an MPC Live, so there was the occasional bassline that I DI’d. “Party Time” was done on an Electribe and that was all in the box. The beat for “Confidence” was all done on an SP-404 and so that was all sampled digital instrumentation. For all the other tracks I think all the percussion was played on the MPC, with some synths and basses recorded directly into it.
A long time ago, one of your bars was about being politically ambivalent, but there are a few sprinkles of contemporary political conversations — in both a broad and specific sense on this record.
MC|DC: Yeah, I think I had a verse back in the day that started with, “first thing’s first, yo, I am not political”. I probably wrote that in 2009 or something, and I don’t exactly remember the motivation behind that line, but the attitude was most likely born from a mix of apathy and ignorance. When you don’t follow politics closely, it’s easy to think that things are inherently one way, and they’ll never change, so why care? As I’ve grown older, I’ve realized that there’s intentionality behind many of the harmful systems and structures I once took for granted. I have a clearer picture of some of the obstacles we face and how they came about, and since I’m better able to articulate my political frustrations now, I’m less hesitant to do so.
Also, the lyrics on this project were written over the last four or five years. In that time span, I think, for better or worse, politics has become increasingly relevant in our lives. Maybe I’m just a victim of the times.
What are your guys’ favorite/most memorable lines on this record?
MC|DC: Favorite lines? Umm… I like: “Drinking water has PFAS / My backyard’s full of stray cats / These millennials eat ass / And they don’t like to pay cash,” and “Pull up to the Fry’s so we can buy the wine / What’s that Kangaroo shit you get all the time?“
Gimpheart: Oh god so many, this project is endlessly quotable, but if I just had to pick a couple: “They say in god we trust, don’t trust god with my money / Don’t trust man with my spirits, beers, and wines” and “They’re not hits, but some of these tracks bump like zits / And that’s something I fuck with I don’t have a list of buckets / I, myself, am a vessel that’s continually purged and replenished / And when I’m finished, I’m finished.”
“2016 Primal Scream” as a closer is really cool. It seems like the most direct conversation with the listener.
Gimpheart: Thank you, I love closers that have that kind of direct feel. That song was actually originally basically half the length. Daniel (MC|DC) sent me two verse takes and I thought they were both super dope so I put one after the other, and when I heard the finished song, I knew that was very immediately the closer.
MC|DC: Thanks. Yeah, I think I wrote both of those verses in one sitting or at least in one day. There were a few revisions, but the bulk of it is pretty raw. I’ve written a few other stream of consciousness type songs in the past, but they were more abstract. This song is blunt and vulnerable. I like it as a closer because it’s a tonal shift from the other songs. It’s a representation of what I said earlier about how fleeting the feelings of calm and control can be. I think there’s a little hope and positivity in that song as well to balance it out though.
Did his neck tat say ACAB?
Gimpheart: Yeah did it?
MC|DC: Bro, it’s a question. I’m asking because I’m not sure. I’m hoping someone will listen to he song and let me know.
