Photo by Chrissy Piper
By DCist Contributor Max Steinmetz
It may be impossible to listen to Hail Mary Mallon and not hear the spectre of Run the Jewels hovering around the edges. That duo of El-P and Killer Mike topped a majority of the year-end best-of lists just a handful of weeks ago, and they’ve got world domination in their sights.
And though HMM does share some of RTJ’s basic qualities—inventive wordplay tossed back and forth by a pair of smart, angry MCs—they shine a brighter spotlight on humor and obscure pop culture references than overly political and social issues.
Aesop Rock and Rob Sonic, along with DJ Big Wiz, make up Hail Mary Mallon. Rock has been a staple of the underground rap scene since his first release in 1997, and though the subject matter for his songs have often been cryptic, his verses with Mallon are more an outlet for dark humor than dark and dystopian scenarios. For example, the group, named after the infamous Typhoid Mary, put out their debut album in 2011 titled Are You Gonna’ Eat That?
Sonic and Rock began as label mates on Definitive Jux, an imprint run by El-P that closed up shop in 2010. As a rapper, Sonic shares Rock’s affinity for verbal dexterity and striking, sometimes abstract, imagery. This makes their songs together an onslaught of references to Arthur Miller, Bruce Springsteen, and the Beastie Boys. Throw in an image of an Albert Einstein statue made of foie gras and roll it all up into just a few bars and it becomes something that is fascinating to hear at full speed on the first go-round, and a time-intensive study to unpack with the lyric sheet later on.
Hail Mary Mallon will be at the 9:30 Club on Sunday night in support of their latest album Bestiary, which was released at the tail end of 2014. The album is framed by a concept, a charity show to save a bowling alley. It doesn’t pay many dividends, but it doesn’t matter because most of the fun comes from hearing Rock and Sonic try to continuously one up each other verse after verse.
It’s one thing to hear that gamesmanship coming through a pair of headphones at home– it is another thing entirely to watch the pair work it out face to face on stage. Go see it for yourself, and then bring the album home with you to decipher what you just saw later.
Hail Mary Mallon play the 9:30 Club this Sunday, March 1st. Tickets are $20.
