MC Frontalot is an artist who has been making music for almost twenty years now and is one of the forefathers of the subgenre known as nerdcore. His last full length, Question Bedtime, came out in 2014. He now follows that up with an album about the Internet, Net Split, or, the Fathomless Heartbreak of Online Itself.

When an artist has been around as long as Frontalot, you might worry about them running out of steam, or getting stuck in the same gear they’ve always been in. One listen to Net Split, and it will become very apparent that Frontalot is energized and inspired as ever. There are a couple of reasons for this, one being that he had a concept for the album that he was invested in and interested in exploring from different angles. Another is that the album is largely collaborative, so he has a lot of people to bounce ideas off of and feed off their energy as well. This goes for the production, live music, and on the mic. Sonically, he’s crafted this really energetic and frantic synth-pop/hip hop hybrid sound that is really helped by the addition of a lot of live instrumentation. Lyrically, the album gets really interesting as Frontalot works his way through different aspects of the Internet, such as memes, comment sections, and dating profiles. In lesser hands, this subject material could have just come across as cranky old man raps or just bad jokes, but Frontalot does a great job of mixing a sarcastic sense of humor with an even-handed criticism and acknowledgement of how these things aren’t inherently bad, it’s more in the way that we use them, or use them poorly. My personal favorite song on the album is “IWF,” or “Internetting While Female,” featuring Miss Eaves, Lex the Lexicon Artist, E-Turn, and Starr Busby, who all hop on the mic to share their own stories about how the Internet has treated them poorly in different ways, solely because they had the audacity to be women online. It’s an important song, but it also absolutely bangs and features quite the collection of charismatic emcees.

At this point in his career, MC Frontalot could have phoned it in if he wanted to, taken some generic beats, taken some nerdy references, made a couple of jokes, and called it a day. And people would have liked it just fine. What’s exciting is that at this point in his career, MC Frontalot is still taking the time to do things right - finding themes, putting a lot of critical thought into his lyrics, and working with a lot of talented artists, both young and old. The result is that nearly twenty years into his career, he’s dropping what might be the best album to date.