Photo by V. Ruan (http://flickr/victoria)

Adam WarRock (i.e. Eugene Ahn), an MC from the DC-area recently showed up on our radar via a recommendation from our comic artist friend Rusty Shackles (i.e. Jay King).  Shortly thereafter we visited AWR’s website (http://www.adamwarrock.com) and had our minds rearranged by his rhymes.  Covering subject matter from Doctor Who to Scott Pilgrim to Ira Glass and more, AWR delivers progressive hip hop flavor with a pop culture twist that was clearly up our alley.

He recently recorded his debut full-length album with Ohioan DJ Ruckus Roboticus (i.e. Dan Haug) – who just released his latest digital EP Chicks by-the-way – and is expecting to drop the record in September 2010.  We had a chance to catch up with AWR during his visit to Ohio, share a couple drinks, and later I was able to get the lowdown on his history, the new record (tentatively titled The Infinitum Project), and a few of his other projects – the “Ira Glass” digital single that will drop August 5, 2010, and a mixtape EP called The West Coast Avengers.  We hope you find AWR as affable as we do and make plans to pick up the single, EP and his debut in September.  In the meantime, subscribe to the War Rocket Ajax (http://www.warrocketajax.com) podcast and get a flavor for our new broseph.

YouIndie:  When and how did Adam WarRock decide to share his science with the world?

Adam WarRock:  Going way back, I started actually performing back in early college. I started out doing a lot of spoken word, going to open mics and just kinda freestyling and battling at parties. That began to translate into writing actual lyrics to rap instrumentals, and creating whole songs and performing my own material. The actual Adam WarRock brand started as an off-shoot of a podcast I do with comic book journalist and batman expert, Chris Sims (http://www.facebook.com/l/7fd7aEKBsZguoFxWcycF4GgGXQA;the-isb.com), called War Rocket Ajax (http://www.facebook.com/l/7fd7aRynvcNjI0PH3xvnfLNwqbQ;warrocketajax.com). I do a lot of post-production on that show, and for one episode, I put in a rap I did sort of as a joke, and people responded to it. So I did another, and another, and just started up a website so I could put my songs all in one place, and it kind of took off from there. The name is an homage to one of my favorite comic book characters, Adam Warlock, and the name of our show (WarRock…et Ajax). And the rest, as they say, is history.

YI:  You recently left your job and have decided to make this a full-time endeavor. How difficult was it to make that decision?

AWR:  “Difficult” is a relative term, I guess. On the one hand, it was pretty easy leaving a job I thoroughly did not enjoy. On the other hand, going from a stable income into the world of being a full-time creative professional is something that still terrifies me on a daily basis. I once had the opportunity to be a full-time starving artist way back when I finished college, and I passed on the opportunity to go to law school. That’s something I’ve always regretted, but there’s no question that my experiences, both academically and life-wise, have made me a better emcee, and most importantly a better business person, giving me the skillset to be able to actually make a real go at it independently, rather than depending on people telling me how to do things. And having worked for three years at a job I hated on a daily basis made me realize that I needed to do something I loved, or at least give it a real try. I can always go back to the corporate grind; I pretty much view this as my last chance to be a grown man jumping around on stage and screaming out rap lyrics. It was difficult, but it was sort of just staring at me in the face and daring me to take the leap. So I did, and it was easier than I thought it would be, in a lot of ways, as much as it still stresses me out on a day-to-day basis.

YI:  I noticed on your blog that you’ve been getting some criticism due to the fact that you don’t sound “black enough.” Do you care to address that? How important is race in the rap game?

AWR:  I grew up in Memphis, TN, where there was a very prevalent black community. So not being black, and loving rap as much as I did, you tend to get labeled as “wanting to be black” by a lot of people, even though I never wore Fubu jeans or talked like a thug. I approached rap from a different direction, wanting to enjoy it in a pensive, even intellectualized way, as much as I enjoyed it in a visceral, bob-your-head way. So I understood why people said that, but it’s pretty clear that once you talk to me about the genre, I’m not deluding myself into thinking I’m a part of black culture, or that because I like rap or make rap music that I have some claim to that heritage in any genuine way.

People forget how emergent hip hop is; as a genre, it’s been in existence really for less than thirty years. And within that time, it’s gone from being a fad, to being the hugest cultural force, to being just another area of popular music that people accept as part of the billboard charts. Today, we have the first generation of people who’ve grown up with hip hop not just being a “black thing.” Back in the 90s, say when Eminem broke onto the scene, it was the hugest deal that a white guy was rapping. Now, there are tons of them and no one so much as blinks an eye if a rapper isn’t black. It’s a fun time to be making hip hop, because this generation is very much going to determine what the future of the genre will sound like; and I’m excited to be a small part of that.

So when people say my rapping doesn’t sound “black enough,” I can kind of understand where they’re coming from. They like a certain style of rap that I don’t happen to create, and that’s totally cool. And in an earlier time, sounding “black” would have been the default setting for what rap should sound like. But now, it’s not. It will always be a black cultural genre, in the same way that jazz or the blues are, but people should accept the fact that not every rapper will sound like the stereotypical style some people may hold in their heads. And that’s not going to always be a bad thing. Good music is good music, period.

YI:  Some listeners have perhaps mistakenly pigeon-holed you with the nerd-core rap genre? Who do you believe your contemporaries to be?

AWR:  Oh man, contemporaries. That’s a tricky question. I don’t bemoan people who peg me as a nerdcore guy, because quite frankly, I make a lot of geeky music. And there are a lot of bands and acts that make geeky music out there, that often times, my music may sort of sound like. I think there are a few acts who make geeky music, but do it in a smart, innovative way. The geeky center of the song is not the focus, or the reason it exists; it’s simply the sweet coating that helps get the message across. Acts like Jonathan Coulton, or bands like Kirby Krackle, make geeky music in a really fascinating and smart way; moreso than nerdcore acts who just want to make songs about nerdy stuff. And again, there’s nothing wrong with making a nerdy song for the sake of making a nerdy song. I love a lot of those songs too. But I definitely strive to always make a song about more than just the obvious geek reference that’s there on the surface.

YI:  What is the concept behind the album and when can we expect to see this?

AWR:  The album is a story, told from different perspectives and characters, about a hero and a villain fighting for the fate of the universe. The idea is inspired by Marvel Comics’ Infinity Gauntlet saga, and takes a lot of cues from that story in terms of establishing the stakes. There’s a hero who built up a culture, and was banished when he was no longer needed. He returns when a villain begins to wreak havoc on the earth, and there is an artifact, like the Infinity Gauntlet, that gives the holder absolute power. All the battles take place in music form, and involve a lot of characters that come into play. The album is very much inspired by Prince Paul’s A Prince Among Thieves album, which came out back in 1999, and told a story in rap form through the whole album. And even that album was rumored to be inspired by The Who’s Tommy. Me and Ruckus Roboticus (http://www.facebook.com/l/7fd7a0St_OOlu3MBNOiJt-YWtmg;ruckusroboticus.com), my DJ, worked very hard to make sure each song on the album could stand on its own, but when put together, makes this bigger puzzle that makes sense in the overall story. We are mixing and mastering the album now, so expect it to be out in September.

YI:  What other projects are on the horizon for Adam Warrock?

AWR:  We have a song called “Ira Glass,” that is going to be released as a digital single on August 5, 2010. We’re hoping to do some publicity with some public radio venues, as we think it’s a really great song that can appeal to a lot of audiences. Also, I am working on a mixtape EP called The West Coast Avengers, which will be released sometime in between the “Ira Glass” single and the album, which is a mixtape using only famous West Coast gangsta rap beats. So that should come out sometime in August as well, free for everyone to download.

YI:  When should we expect to see you on tour?

AWR:  Once the album is out, we’re hoping to start touring. We’re going to be going through the Midwest, and then up the East Coast. We’re organizing the finer details of that now, and I’m hoping to be able to announce some surprises with the tour and the locations soon. But trust me when I say, we are planning to throw a pretty elaborate and fun live show everywhere we can play. The material definitely gives us the leeway to make up our own little Rocky Horror Picture Show sort of thing live.