Top

music

Stories

 

Wishahouse

Great white Northerner never-weres make a mountain out of a prole hill

For Vancouver-via-Manitoba MC Mcenroe, blowing up is a journey, not a destination. He's dedicated 11 years to modest hustle, going from a bored skate rat pestering mall security to a working-class grown-ass man with mortgage payments still trying to make a mountain out of a prole hill. His label, Peanuts & Corn, is a rec-room-brewed WishaHouse, a stable for barely self-sufficient MCs content with their status as never-weres since the struggle is so much fun, bragging about freshening up in a club bathroom and writing one-sheets while wifey's at home picking out baby names. Suburban white guys don't get their dreams deferred; they put them on layaway.

Modestly hustling Mcenroe
photo: Tyler Sneesby
Modestly hustling Mcenroe

Details

Farm Fresh
Time Is Running Out
Peanuts & Corn

Skratch Bastid/John Smith/Pip Skid
Taking Care of Business
First Things First

See also:

  • Podcast: An Audio Guide to This Week in Music
    NEW! Clubrat Special by Robert Christgau
  • Related Content

    More About

    Without a highly profitable star (nor the means to tour the U.S. cost-effectively), P&C survives on a steady stream of unpresumptuous releases like last year's Break Bread EP, which featured Mac's five-MC-one-DJ crew popping their blue collars, rapping about selling car parts, picking lotto numbers, and aging gracefully (headbands notwithstanding). Farm Fresh's Time Is Running Out, however, confronts hip-hop's Logan's Runsyndrome head-on. Three guys just a pinch past 30—Mcenroe, curmudgeonly gravel-throated crank Pip Skid, and neck-snapping beatsmith Hunnicutt—retreated to Mom's basement in their hometown to eat cookies and recapture small-town restlessness. Their workaholic dogma struggles to ignore the ticking clocks on the album cover, making Farm Freshthe best self-battle record of the year—in hip-hop, admitting "I'm old" is a lot more dangerous than Kanye admitting "I'm self-conscious." Farm Fresh's wordplay is increasingly mischievous in that Ogden Nash (or Buck 65) way, where the pleasure is in awaiting the clever syllable combo at the end of a line ("sticker-shock"/"Knickerbock," "Geddy Lee"/"Steady B"). And they really nail it with DJ Hunnicut's one turn on the mic, a wholesome paean to dating at the county fair that finds intangible joy in an elephant ear—urbanites should use the song for escapism like suburban kids use Snoop.

    Pip Skid's determined gaze and nostalgia trips turn to cantankerousness on Taking Care of Business, a collabo with fellow Break Breader John Smith and 1200 Hobos member Skratch Bastid. Tired of rapping for beer money like he was Devin the Everydude, Pip finally admits he wants the "gonna make things clear money." Hearing Bastid's Rawkus-ready beats and bravado scratching behind him, you wish Pip could get a chance to write his version of B.I.G.'s "Juicy." Though even then, he'd probably never stop D.I.Y. hustling. And the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis would just collect dust.

     
    My Voice Nation Help
    0 comments
    Sort: Newest | Oldest
     

    Concert Calendar

    • May
    • Thu
      23
    • Fri
      24
    • Sat
      25
    • Sun
      26
    • Mon
      27
    • Tue
      28
    • Wed
      29
    New York Event Tickets

    ©2013 Village Voice, LLC, All rights reserved.
    Browse Voice Nation
    • Voice Places New York

      Voice Places

      Find everything you're looking for in your city

    • Happy Hour App

      Happy Hour App

      Find the best happy hour deals in your city

    • Daily Deals

      Daily Deals

      Get today's exclusive deals at savings of anywhere from 50-90%

    • Best Of

      Best Of...

      Check out the hottest list of places and things to do around your city