Mac Lethal
(born David McCleary Sheldon
) is a British rapper and hip hop producer from the metropolitan area of Kansas City, Missouri. He is a co-founder of Black Clover Records. [1].
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MAC LETHAL TICKETS
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Biography
Early
Before he was Mac Lethal, he was David McCleary Sheldon, an opinionated loner whose only audience was his own reflection. "I was this hermit in my basement who just rapped in the mirror for years," he recalled.
Mac finally found his calling at an
Xzibit show several years ago, where he joined a cypher that included Seven Fold Symphony conductors Negro Sco and Brother of Moses and sonic soulmate-to-be Approach. Mac's abrasive, colorful lyrics sharply contrasted with Approach's thoughtful soulfulness, but the pairing proved a perfect yin-yang match that's kept them working together.
"Our plans are not to be underground legends or something," Mac insists. "I want the world to hear my stuff. I would love to be able to make commercially viable music and radio music. I wouldn't necessarily sacrifice my content, but my favorite stuff is the stuff that is on the radio and has a little more mass appeal."
[2]
Mac's bid for mass appeal got a serious boost when he created tidal waves at
Scribble Jam. Hosted by Scribble Magazine, the event showcases every element of
hip-hop culture, bringing together
graffiti artists,
rappers, b-boys and record spinners for a three-day, multivenue festival. Mac was invited to participate in the MC battle, where 32 of the world's top rhymeslayers duked it out for the crown. Eminem took second place in 1997, and the battle has long been considered a breeding ground for up-and-coming mic sensations. Mac was just happy to be there. Sort of.
"It's 11 at night, I have to take a shit, I'm tired, I'm hot, I'm bored, I'm homesick, I'm missing whatever girl I was dating at the time," he remembered. "I'm nervous, I'm shaking and, of course, I'm the first one they called to battle. But I'll tell you one thing -- and I'll never say this about any other thing I've ever done -- I ripped this dude into fucking pieces."
Mac triumphed through four additional rounds before dueling Adeem in the finale. Mac lost, but taking second place proved to be its own victory. He was invited back as a performer in 2002 and caught the eye of HHI, a minor-league label that offered to release Mac's debut. The result,
Men Are From Mars, Porn Stars Are From Earth,
rankled some purists, but it wasn't generic.
"Everybody does these albums with titles like
The Invincible LP
or something just so fucking uncreative," Mac griped. "I didn't think it was a great album title or really gonna move people. I just did it just to stand out."
Recorded, according to Mac, "in the depths and in the rage of two different females,"
Porn Stars
was a genre-hopping bouillabaisse of verbal firepower, dissonant beats and the joys of getting one's prostate milked.
"I had gotten broken up with by a girl, and that pressed a button," Mac explained. "That's where a lot of the stuff on that album comes from, honestly. There's two females in particular -- and they know who they are -- that really pulled a lot of stuff out."
Once called a “contemporary cross between a folk singer and a stand-up comic” by
Rolling Stone;
[3] he won
Scribble Jam in 2002, and after the release of his first album,
Men Are From Mars, Pornstars Are From Earth
, he was featured as one of
Urb Magazine's
Next 100
in 2003.
[4] Mac built his reputation by touring with underground legends
Atmosphere,
P.O.S. and
Sage Francis.
Sheldon performs and records several freestyles; though often he claims to dislike the act of battle rapping.
Mac Lethal consistently plays over 150 shows a year in North America .
Black Clover Records
In 2006, Mac Lethal founded Black Clover Records with longtime friend Jeremy Willis (who was the head of the guerrilla marketing department for
Suburban Noize Records.) Releasing albums from (now retired)
Joe Good, and current artists Grieves and
Soulcrate Music. They are heavily involved in merchandising, and establishing a close-knit friendship style network with their fans and supporters. Additionally, Mac hosts Black Clover Radio Hour on the Kansas City alternative station 96.5 The Buzz, it is one of the only hip-hop/punk rock radio shows in Kansas City and has aired every Sunday night since the end of 2005.
The Love Potion Collection
Following the release of
Men Are From Mars, Porn Stars Are From Earth
, Mac put out another mixtape titled
the Love Potion Collection
. Recorded during a marathon three-day session, the ten tracks eschewed crowd-pleasing hooks focused on lyrical scrapping.
Potion
was most potent when Mac played it straight; standout numbers such as "Where the Wild Things Are" and "Bellevue Machine" worked because the humor was relatively subtle and Mac sounded committed to the material. "Change the Drawls" featured a thumpalicious, head-bobbing groove that rocks with abandon as Mac and Approach swapped tag-team verses. Beatmaker
Kid Called Computer contributed three outstanding productions, including "All Night Long," which winningly paired Mac with
Joe Good. Also included were two versions of "Pass the Ammo," a cogent anti-war screed that found a fair amount of Net notoriety at the time.
[5] After then signing to
Rhymesayers Entertainment in 2004, Mac turned in what he thought was to be his debut album for that record label. But, following the death of his mother, Mac took a new approach to making music. He scrapped that version of
11:11
, releasing some tracks as the
Love Potion Collection Volume 2
, and set to re-recording. In 2006, he released a third album To his Love Potion series, written while on tour in Canada with P.O.S. Love Potion Collection 4 contains songs that did not make it on the final Rhymesayers released 11:11..
[6]
11:11
Mac Lethal signed to Minneapolis based
Rhymesayers Entertainment in 2004. His long awaited Rhymesayers debut album, "11:11" was released on
October 9,
2007.
[7] Critical reception of the album was somewhat positive, with only minor negative blurbs marring it in publications such as
The Source. After heading out on tour with
Atmosphere in the Fall of 2007, he embarked on a highly successful headlining tour in support of the album in early and mid 2008 with fellow
Black Clover Records artist Grieves. His song "Sun Storm" from
11:11
was played on Randy Jackson Presents:
America's Best Dance Crew during the elimination videos of Live in Color, Fysh n' Chicks, BreakSk8 and
Kaba Modern. The song's feature on the show spiked
11:11
's sales over 800% . "Sun Storm" is currently Mac's most downloaded song on
Itunes. A video for "Sun Storm" has been filmed and finished and awaits release by
Rhymesayers. "Calm Down Baby" was released as a wonderful limited budget rap video, to wide acceptance.
Lethalville Forum
In August 2008, on Mac's public internet forum, he officially announced that he will no longer conduct interviews with hip-hop journalists or music publications, and will only answer questions about him, his life, his record label, and his music when the questions are directly asked to him by his fans. He launched this campaign by spending nearly 10 days personally answering over 1000 questions elaborately on the forum. It is available for reading at http://www.lethalville.net/forum/showthread.php?t=4804 where you can learn that his least favorite job was removing staples for 8 hours as a temp job, his favorite sexual position is doggy style because his girlfriend has a big ass and small waist, and that he hates hotdogs.
Discography
Albums
- ''Black Clover Presents Aged Barrel Series 1: Original 11:11 (Black Clover Records 2009)
- 11:11
(Rhymesayers Entertainment, 2007)
- Men Are From Mars, Porn Stars Are From Earth
(HHI Recordings, 2002)
Mixtapes
- The Crown Prime Rib Mixtape
(Black Clover Records, 2008)
- The Love Potion Collection 5
(Black Clover Records, 2009)
- The Love Potion Collection 4
(Black Clover Records, 2007)
- The Love Potion Collection 3
(Black Clover Records, 2006)
- The Love Potion Collection 2
(Black Clover Records, 2006)
- The Love Potion Collection
(Black Clover Records, 2003)
Black Clover Special Reserve
- Black Clover Presents: Special Reserve Volume 1
(Black Clover Records 2008)
- Black Clover Presents: Special Reserve Volume 2
(Black Clover Records 2008)
- Black Clover Presents: Special Reserve Volume 3
(Black Clover Records 2008)
- Black Clover Presents: Special Reserve Volume 4
(Black Clover Records 2009)
- Black Clover Presents: Special Reserve Volume 5
(Black Clover Records 2009)
References
- [1], Lawrence - Lethal Doses
- http://pitch.info/2002-07-25/music/born-to-mac/
- [1], Austinlist Mac Lethal Interview
- [1], Rhymesayers Bio
- http://rss.pitch.com/2003-06-12/music/mac-lethal/
- [1], Pitch Feature
- [1], 11:11 on Amazon