Hi, everyone. Andras Mahan here, the Internet’s sincerest
cinema nerd. And it’s time for a review of the debut mixtape by Cal Chuchesta:
The New CALassic.
Cal Chuchesta is a rapper/producer, as well as the comedic
alter-ego of music critic Anthony Fantano of the Needle Drop, a guy who I
stumbled upon one day while looking for reviews of Aesop Rock’s Skelethon and
immediately took a shine to. Sure, his more hipster-lead tendencies do shine through
a little too much in some of his reviews, but otherwise, the guy comes across
very articulate and insightful when it comes to the music he looks at. And on
his show, he has the character of Cal as his roommate, who I guess is meant to
represent the average pop radio listener that keeps calling everything new that
they hear “teh best thing EVAR!” While his antics on the show were pretty
adorkable, I’ll admit that he was more a distraction than anything else when
Fantano was the guy I wanted to see. I guess this is how most people feel when
reviews get interrupted by skits and/or storylines.
Every so often, Cal would
showcase a beat he’d made to Anthony and, because of fan demand, he ended up
releasing not one but three beat tapes full of them. And then in August of
2015, after a few track drops and a storyline in Fantano’s reviews about him
selling his soul to the Devil for a record contract… which may be one of the
weirdest attempts at viral marketing I’ve seen, this mixtape hit the online
outlets to a welcoming response of “we know this is a joke”. Well, in spite of
that, I will do my best to go over this thing’s merits and demerits as best I
can because just treating it as a novelty release can only get you so far.
Also, if you’re annoyed by how much I’m cribbing Anthony’s style for this
intro, don’t worry: It’s just for this paragraph.
