Mad Trucker has been a unique fixture on the Little Rock hip-hop scene. Ever clad in his trademark trucker cap and sunglasses, he made his name as one of the most original freestylers at the semi-regular Under the Ground MC battles. His delivery is urgent, full of clever wordplay ("tee'd off and leaving divets") and off-kilter imagery ("I'm hyped like ten ferrets in a plastic basket").

Stylistically he occupies the same loopy surrealist landscape as Del tha Funkee Homosapien and Kool Keith. He shares Del's vowel-bending enunciation and abstract sensibilities. His lyrics are also less about self-aggrandizement and more about establishing his own uniquely cinematic vision. With song titles like "Zombies," "Cyborgs Can't Behave," "I Wield This Laser Ray," "Deadman Schizo," and "Possessed by Science" it's obvious that his preferred genre is more likely sci-fi/horror than blaxploitation.

Don't mistake him for a hyperactive Fangoria reader, though. Lines like "this is the view from the teeth of God's pliers" prove that his ideas are still street-level and insightful. He also employs a good deal of restraint; the track "Suicide Bomber" features some rapid-fire rhyme spitting that a less mature MC would dedicate an entire LP to displaying.

A good manifesto for Recklessly Zooted could be found in a line from "I Wield This Laser Ray": "This is post-hip-hop / Push 'em in a crater and let the 808 drop." In that line he shows he's maintaining a respect for the past (the TR-808 drum machine debuted in 1980), while still looking toward the future (assuming hip-hop can be old enough to have a "post-" prefix). Living in the past and the future simultaneously would seem paradoxical to some, but it's just another day at the office for Mad Trucker.

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Colter McCorkindale
Musician • Webslinger
pointedstick.net/colter
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Trucker and crew have a bigger and stronger sound than ever before. Trucker rebuilt for 2005. Lovers of mutant rap and trip-hop acts like Tricky will dig these cuts.

The record is an amazing stream of reality-based rhymes, documenting the chaos of the age we are living through and the reshaping of the world to come. Mad Trucker plows through roadblocks of cultural taboo each track. Lyrics leave jaws in the dropped position as tracks are deconstructed unexpectedly and zipped back up in a breath.
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