MC Lars

Self-proclaimed originator of “post-punk laptop rap” MC Lars, whose recent hit album This Gigantic Robot Kills (out now Crappy Records/Oglio), continues to crush retail and wow critics and fans across the globe. Branded as the ideal label for a cutting edge artist like MC Lars, Oglio has made a name for itself in the past few years by releasing albums from underground legends Kool Keith and Wesley Willis. Oglio teamed up with the Texan pop-punk quartet Bowling for Soup’s front-man Jaret Reddick and novelty rockers Size 14’s Linus Dotson for their Crappy Records imprint in 2008, and have gone on to successfully promote and back MC Lars as their breakthrough artist of the year.

First week sales of This Gigantic Robot Kills quadrupled the already staggering first week sales of Lars’s previous endeavor, The Graduate. The week the album hit shelves, Lars headlined Dutch software company’s 4Worx’s first annual hip-hop festival, where Lars played to a packed crowd in Amsterdam two days after the release of Robot. The European press descended on the event, interviewing Lars on national television and in newspapers, enticing Lars to spit one of the hottest freestyles ever kicked on Amsterdam radio. Lars then went on to be featured as a breakthrough artist at MarsCon in Minneapolis a week later, rocking heads at the growing sci-fi event that highlights some of the best underground indie hip-hop acts in the world.

Lars went on to rock more faces than humanly thought possible at his March showcases at SXSW in Austin, Texas. Continuing his talks on hip-hop and postmodern culture at high schools and colleges in the spring, Lars has remained a bright light in the world of rap music, proving time and time again that the genre is more than just a vehicle for extolling “promiscuous women, blunts, 40s, and gats.” In April, Lars went on to headline his 10th UK tour, receiving incredible press for his new album, as well as garnering the “Guitar Hero Hero (Beating Guitar Hero Doesn't Make You Slash)” video high rotation on English music television and nearly selling out the entire run.

Having been in the hip-hop game for almost a decade, Lars and his team have proven that an independent artist can survive comfortably in the face of a changing music industry and uncertain economy. With successful tours in nine different international markets, Lars has stayed on his grind nonstop, well aware that today's indie artist make a living through constantly playing shows and maintaining an Internet presence. On a shoestring budget, Lars has received exposure from MTV, G4, and mainstream rock radio, as well as laudatory reviews from Rolling Stone to SPIN to Alternative Press. Continuing in the punk rock and DIY footsteps of his heroes and forebearers, Lars has stayed relevant as an iconoclast misfit arbiter of pop and underground culture. It's amazing how far one can go with just a laptop and a dream.