Bear the Astronot

Bear the Astronot Stretching the bounds of rap by including as many styles as possible, Bear the Astronot takes the fresh sounds of underground hip-hop and mixes in elements borrowed from indie rock and electronica to create a sound that leaves you wondering whether you turned on Daft Punk, Eminem, or Radiohead. After being raised by his hippie parents on Indian reservations and trained at the Conservatory of Recording Arts & Sciences, Bear has the background to bring more to a track than just beats and samples. His lyrics have more than a little bit of edge to them, like in “Earth Goggles,” which offers a wide-angle view of the innumerable problems mankind has gotten itself into: “Now there’s no trees with leaves growin’ on ’em / To fall in autumn, but who am I to hate on ’em / I’m the one who just wrote all of these lyrics on ’em’ / Maybe I should rap about money and cars / but that’s not what you see when you look down from the stars.” Bear’s sarcastic tone and downtempo beats serve to veil a decidedly more upbeat and hopeful message that runs through his work. — Brian Bardwell