You should care about Astronautalis.

Astronautalis—the guy is so unknown that he doesn't even have a page on Wikipedia, and yet he's making some of the most compelling smart-whiteboy-indie-rap this side of Why? and Buck 65. I don't know too much about him other than that he hails from Jacksonville, Florida, aspires to become “the Van Morrison of this rap shit” and had enough time on his hands to comment on a few of my friend's pictures when she friended him on MySpace.


Oh, and the songs: languid, mid-tempo, introspective hip-hop tracks with lyrics that ache with cleverness without being nearly as preachy and corny as, say, Sage Francis. He treads all the themes you'd expect—finding hip-hop in the Florida suburbs, awkward dinner encounters, splitting a box of donuts with Tupac Shakur, and so much more. He lists “[his] father's career in the rail industry” as an influence, and listening to his music it doesn't sound like a joke: there's a palpable sense of Bible-Belt wanderlust that permeates these lyrics and beats.

And I'd be totally remiss if I didn't mention his freestyles. One hallmark of an Astronautalis show is the moment when he asks the audience for not just one topic to freestyle on, but as many as seven or eight different subjects to work into his sprawling, off-the-cuff flow, which can stretch to over ten uninterrupted minutes at a time. Here's a video in which he wraps about Wii Sports, tooth decay, sluts, the death of Deep Ellum, and something called “monkey on a stick”:



My favorite freestyle of his dates from three days after September 11th 2001, appropriately titled “Three Days Later [9/14/01]”. It's so profound and moving that halfway through you'll probably have forgotten that it's a freestyle at all. Just listen to this.

Astronautalis - “Three Days Later [9/14/01]”

His two albums, “You and Yer Good Ideas” and the follow-up “The Mighty Ocean and Nine Dark Theaters” are both wonderful records that I always return to, and any number of songs on either of them make stellar mixtape fodder. Here are a few more links for you to sample:

”Meet Me Here Later” off “The Mighty Ocean and Nine Dark Theaters”. A pretty good representation of what this album sounds like, although there's more singing than rapping on this track. Worth a listen for the beat alone, as well as the stunning chorus.

”Oceanwalk” off “You and Yer Good Ideas”. It's unfortunate that I couldn't find a standalone mp3 for this song, because it's probably his best. The simple beat serves to focus the attention on some of his most compelling and plaintive lyrics. This is the obligatory “hip hop saved my life” track that every indie rapper has to write, sure, but listen to it anyway. And then go buy his albums, because no one has ever heard of this guy, and that needs to change.