Beantown Beats: Michael Christmas

Regular-guy rap is a fairly recent development in the hip-hop world. While every rapper used to brag about their money, women, and technical skills, nowadays, plenty of stars just talk about their actual lives. In the last few years, Drake, J. Cole, and even Chiddy Bang have developed the idea that writing songs about your average day can also get you a solid fan base.

Michael Christmas, a Boston-native, spits deadpan rhymes that border on comedy, but stay interesting. His first songs, “Daily” and “Michael Cera,” let the listener in on his straight-up normalness. He told us his daily routine and how he feels like Michael Cera. On his latest track, “Kunishi,” he talks about his childhood, and the dreams that he had. It’s by far the most mature side we have seen of him so far and it’s much more promising. We can only hear someone rapping about hot pockets so many times.

His self-depricating style is really refreshing in a genre that has always been plagued by braggadocio. The challenge for Christmas going forward will definitely be to maintain the public’s attention while rapping about things of little actual substance. Regardless, he’s been written up by Complex, 2DopeBoyz, Pigeons and Planes, and just about every other hip-hop site. As a Bostonian, not many rappers even get to that point, so I sure am curious to see how Michael Christmas can grow as an artist. As a newcomer in the game who has a really unique voice, however, it’s pretty hard not to root for this guy.