Blockhead Is a Hip-Hop Comedian?

Posted on Jan 27th 2010 4:30PM by Jesse Ship

Blockhead, aka Tony Simon, has been producing moody cinematic soundscapes for labels like Ninja Tune and Def Jux for almost a decade. But what most fans don't know is that there's an extremely funny man hidden behind the dark exterior.

Despite his minimal acting training, Tony was part of an improv show that ran on public-access TV in New York for a couple of years in the late '90s. While on the show, he connected another beatmaker, Jeremy Gibson, who now goes by the rapping knight, Sir Jarlsberg. Hip-hop comedy was in the air as the two got to making some songs under the 'Party Fun Action Committee' moniker which found their way to El-P, head of the indie hip-hop label, Def Jux.

"El loved it. We were shocked that anyone wanted to put the album out. It's probably the most obscure things I've ever worked on. And the raunchiest too."

Mostly improv-based, the spoof album features two clueless A&R reps trying to navigate their way through a bagful of "underground" urban artists. Its sort of like the 'Weird Al' album of hip-hop, taking jabs at multi-syllabic white boy rappers ('Chapstick' by Sweet Pickles and MC Noel Weissman), frat house rap ('Beer' by the Brothers of the Alpha Pi Kappa Fraternity), rappers with lisps ('Mental Storm' by the Mystical Knights of the Vizual Roundtable) spoken-word poetry ('Word Up' by Andrew Q and the Free Jazz Crusaders), and yes, phony rappers (pretty much every track on the album).

Released in 2003, the 16-track album is now available as a free download at Blockhead's blog. Listening to Blockhead's most recent album, you may never have guessed there was a funny bone in his body. 'The Music Scene' was produced with Ableton Live and shies away from the typical verse/chorus/verse formula, hoping to create a more epic sound, where no eight bars are alike.

"I usually just bounce off of one beat per song, but with this album I was able to run with three at the same time." The album features bittersweet beats, samples from old psychedelic rock albums and album art work by Omega One.