The Last of Our People (known colloquially as LOOP) is a collective of friends bound together by their love of music and nerd culture. Whether you are a die-hard fan of anime and manga, or just someone passively interested in hip-hop and sports culture, LOOP has something for everyone. Existing at the forefront and bridging the gap between music and anime, LOOP has established itself as a dominant and respected force within the nerdcore community. As with all stories, however, they have a beginning, a time when few knew of the LOOP.

This story is the main article for this week. We sat down with Mir Blackwell, one of the co-founders and co-owners of LOOP. The subject of discussion is how LOOP started, how it got to this point, and where it is going from here. We will cover what you can expect from us throughout the lifetime of this newsletter. All will be explained and discussed, so we hope you enjoy your time, for this is the story of the Last of Our People.

A History Lesson with Mr. Blackwell

LOOP was founded in late 2019 as a collection of friends who had already begun making music together, ultimately deciding to do it as an official collective. Originally, the workshop name of this newfound group was going to be known as AGTFTT (Ain’t Got Time For The Talking), but was workshopped to be shorter and more catchy. The whole idea for the group was Po's, Mir recalls, as he says, "I was honored to even be asked to be apart of this”. Po and Mir went on to ask other friends and frequent collaborators within their small community, united under the goal of making good music and trying to get paid from it. Looking at it under a unique lens, Mir had a lot of confidence in LOOP, stating, "I was very confident, but not in the sense of like, I thought we'd be as big as we are right now, but confident that this would be a great place to breed creativity and try to push each other to hone in on our craft". The foundation of LOOP is a simple mixture of friendship and passion.

A passion for not just music, but for anime and nerd culture. This leads to why nerdcore is a common connector for each artist. However, if you ask any member of the group, the answer will usually be the same. LOOP doesn't consider itself a nerdcore collective. It would be more accurate to describe LOOP as a collective with nerdcore artists in it. It would even be reductive to call LOOP specifically a music collective, despite everyone in the group having made music and enjoying it. Instead, the most accurate summation of LOOP is as a collective of creatives. Examples as to why that's more accurate include this newsletter, Karoshi's graphics and editing, Twitch, or Cole with music reviews. As Mir describes, "The reason a lot of us do nerdcore is because before even finding the scene, we made music with anime punchlines and we all played video games and watched movies. It's all about rapping what you know, I can't make punchlines about “Scandal” or “How to Get Away with Murder” cause I've never seen those shows. I've seen DBZ x-amount of times, so I can bring that knowledge and that energy to my tracks". There is a level of artistic integrity and continuity in only rapping about what you know. It allows for genuineness and a more personal connection with the audience.

There are many reasons why collectives don't usually pan out. However, we flash forward over five years later and LOOP is still thriving and growing bigger than ever. Mir had this to say about the longevity of LOOP, "I'm not sure why, but I try to emphasize not just picking up people because they have a couple of good songs or some bars. We try to make sure that you mesh with the personalities that we already have on board before we bring people in". A guiding principle you'll see in LOOP is unity, if LOOP didn't exist, members would still be friends and still would be collaborating. For example, you could be the hottest product on the block, but if the personalities clash, the discussion is over. With it being half a decade since the founding, it's fair to ask, when did LOOP become legit?

"Depends on what you mean by legit. When did I know LOOP was musically like that? From the start, looking at people like Ham and Ciyo, you can just see the talent from the beginning, but I don't think we're legit yet. There are still things I wanna see from us. I'd love to have an office or a uniform level of quality across the board as far as microphones, soundproofing, and mixing quality. There's maybe one person currently living solely off of music right now, and I'd love to see that number increase to damn near everybody before I can really say we're legit".

The interview would've ended here, however we ended up asking some questions that didn’t fit so neatly into the story that we couldn’t leave out.

Was there anyone in nerdcore at the time that inspired you guys?

“Shofu is like the nerdcore second cousin, and some of our roots can be traced back to there. I also used to be big into the Goin Off Podcast with rap critics and muses, so I was a little familiar with Sammus at the time too.”

Do you have a favorite LOOP-based memory?

“There's a lot that are great. Meeting Po irl the first time was surreal. I remember Melvin and I cooking up the “I Did It” video the day before the “Silence Sahmir” diss track dropped in order to fire back immediately, Kendrick got that from me. We recently were talking about the first Mudae month, when everyone would just be sitting in call waiting to roll a waifu. But an all-time moment was hearing that crowd in Atlanta (Momocon 2022) all scream “BITCH, SHUT UP, I'M FINNA RAP NOW”. It was unreal to see so many people know the words to one of our songs, and we dedicated that performance to Ace cause he couldn't make it out to Momocon.”

Where would you like to see LOOP be in 5 years?

“If you want numbers and projections, call Po. I just want hotter music and maybe some of our infrequent droppers to up their output a little, but as long as we can do it together, I'm happy wherever we at.”

And with all that being said, do you have any closing thoughts for the readers?

“Honestly, just thank you across the board. Thank you to everyone who streams our music, pops up on the late-night streams, yells at us for not dropping, and praises us when we do drop. And I wanna send a special thanks to the people who helped us get this far, from our first members to our former ones, you all played a part in where we are now. Niggas like Pete, Diggz, and Shwab have used their platforms to show love, and even people like nolifing, my nigga Mak and Carlos. Thank you.”

Expectations vs Reality

After hearing the origins and goals of LOOP, there may still be confusion about the newsletter. Whether it is about the how’s and why’s, or just what kind of content will be posted here, some common questions will be covered in the section below.

The first question asked is usually why. The short answer is community, we would like to foster more connection points with our audience. This goes hand in hand with the longer answer; expression. Members of LOOP have engaged in expression since the beginning, and it is the foundation we stand on. However, music isn't the only form LOOP has sought to pursue. Early followers will recall the hour-long podcasts and segments done periodically and sporadically uploaded on the LOOP YouTube. This was something many members of the group enjoyed and wanted to take part in, but the effort outweighed commitment, eventually becoming a mere pipe dream. This is not the only example, you don't need to look far to find the Verse of the Month (VOTM) contests, an in-house ranking and voting on the best LOOP verse or song from the previous month. This was yet another idea many were on board with, but with few avenues to pursue, the verses piled up and the idea was scrapped.

The newsletter is a place where all these ideas can be experimented and expressed. A place where LOOP members can begin to carve out ideas for the group and themselves, without the worry of it all crumbling immediately. The main feature you can expect from the newsletter is simply for us to be, well, us. The idea of professionalism and what we should change is there, there will be cuts, edits, and potentially redactions. However, no one's speech pattern or personality will be policed. This is a haven for our artists to connect with their audience and experiment with challenges and problems that previously seemed daunting.

General Segments

These are things you’ll routinely find throughout future installments:

• Behind-the-scenes looks at songs, albums, & posse cuts

• Shortened podcast bits

• Interviews with your favorite artists

• Music of the Month (Our resident music enthusiast Cole will provide some music every month)

• Anime of the Month (Would be available to anyone, but Ham Sandwich will be running the first one)

• Sports rants and discussion (with a focus on basketball in particular)

• Anime of the Month

• Early peeks and previews of new songs and projects

• “No Stone Unturned” (a mini series podcast in which the stoners of LOOP gather around and chop it up)

• Us… obviously

With all that being said, we feel it is only right to wrap the first issue of our newsletter with a staple segment from our biggest music nerd. Take it away, Cole.

Cole World

This month, I’ve been listening to Saba’s new album “From The Private Collection”, which I consider to be his most diverse work yet, in terms of topic choice & style. The album starts with Every Painting Has a Price, which I think is a great intro and example of what’s to come in the album, with serious topics being covered while still sounding jazzy and having fun on No I.D’s production. My favourite songs on the album are the aforementioned Every Painting, as well as the song How To Impress God, which I consider a phenomenal storytelling song using the perspective of God to explain Saba’s feeling of inadequacy, no matter how successful he was, later transforming into self-acceptance about overcoming his obstacles. If you enjoy jazz rap, conscious rap, or anything adjacent, I definitely recommend checking this one out, as I think it’ll be one of my favourite albums of the year.

With the first issue coming to a close, we would like to take a second to collectively thank all subscribers, followers, listeners, readers, and viewers of all kinds. Without the support of this great community, we would never have been able to accomplish any of the stuff we’ve done thus far. While we have helped to foster such a community, it is you, the members of said community, who deserve our credit. Thank you. In our final moments here, we’d like to direct you below, where you’ll find some of our links, early Easter egg previews, and some of our most recent releases to stay in the loop of all things… LOOP.

THE NEWS CYCLE

• Rumor: What if everybody hopped on a Blax song, that’d be crazy tho no way…………unless?

• Rumor: Chris Craig broke the Law of Equivalent Exchange…

• Rumor: Who knew a tee shirt could stall a wish? Mir did…

• BREAKING: DRIPSTICK - ALIEN (album) out now

• BREAKING: Ham Sandwich - BADBOY FREESTYLE