Nerdcore is NOT Dead! Nerdcore is LIFE!

MC Lars thinks Nerdcore is dead, apparently because some kids posted a stupid video on YouTube.
STOP THE PRESSES!
A genre has practitioners who are lame? It must be DEAD and OVER. Riiiiiight.
I think the problem is that MC Lars sees Nerdcore as defined by “home-produced beats and an awkward flow.” That, to me, is NOT Nerdcore. Sure, a lot of Nerdcore has that feel to it, because a lot of practitioners started out that way. MC Frontalot is a freaking Nerdcore GOD and he often has a rather awkward flow.
But that’s not what Nerdcore is.
Nerdcore is rapping about nerdy shit. Not the bullshit that comes out of guys like Jay-Z and Kanye (do not get me started on Mr. Anti-Literacy, seriously. Fuck you, Kanye).
Nerdcore guys rap about sci-fi cons and D&D and not fitting in back in high school. Shit I can identify with. They don’t rap about how their “bitches” need to “get out the way.” If they have a girlfriend, they tend to glorify her (“her name is Schaffer the Doctor, cos she’s a Ph.D!” sayeth Schaffer the Darklord of his wife, for example).
Is Nerdcore a subgenre? Yes. Will it ever be mainstream? Probably not. That’s fine by me. Nerds aren’t mainstream either (except here in beautiful Silicon Valley, woo!). I’m going to keep buying Schaffer’s CDs. And MC Lars’. And those of Beefy and the rest too. I’ll download their songs. I’ll keep pimping them to my friends as good music, because they are.
MC Lars bitching about Nerdcore and saying that he “cringed” when he was called a “nerdcore rapper.” disappoints me. Not all of MC Lars’ stuff is Nerdcore, true. He’s a general, funny rapper first, and happens to do some Nerdcore stuff. But his talking about groundbreaking bands and whining that Nerdcore people should be doing the same thing just strikes me as pretentious.
It sounds to me like MC Lars doesn’t just have the wrong idea about what Nerdcore is, but he also has the wrong idea about what it means to be a nerd. Nerds are passionate and do what they love regardless of what mainstream society thinks. Why do nerds have a rep for being unpopular and unfashionable? Because they care more about their passions than about being popular and keeping up with bullshit fashion trends.
I suspect that some fledgeling Nerdcore artists will quit upon reading MC Lars’ blog entry, but that’s okay. The ones who are passionate about their music will stick around, and those are the ones I care about. The ones who keep Nerdcore alive.