Cassandra Cronin on October 28th, 2017

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For just a minute, Wednesday night at the Echo transformed from concert hall to a classroom. One woman raised her hand as L.A.-via-Chicago rapper Open Mike Eagle squinted into the audience from the stage, a logo for his fictional “Advice Show” projected behind him as he searched for a volunteer. He tells the crowd, this is what people really come to his shows for, he is excellent at giving advice. He calls on the woman standing just below stage right and she shouts, “I hate grading!” Ever the comedian (and former third- and fourth-grade special ed teacher), Mike quickly retorts: “Okay, let’s you and me make a deal, grade fewer papers.”

Upon first brush with Open Mike Eagle’s onstage persona and musical catalog, which is rife with nods to science fiction, Cartoon Network, and artsy rock acts like Pavement, Sufjan Stevens and TV on the Radio, you might think of Mike as something of a comic book superhero (see also: “Iron Hood“) come to rescue conscious rap from its recycled cliches and downturn in market value. Mike wants us to know that rap is not disposable, that rap shows can be elevated from a hot mess of college kids spilling drinks as the performers blurt their ad-libs over tracks, and that rappers have the power to bring you closer to issues that might otherwise not affect you. Apart from breaking from the setlist to play the “Advice” game, the man born Michael W. Eagle II outlined his perspective in his characteristic left-field manner: rapping about living in a place that should’ve never existed, the teardown of his aunt’s building in Chicago to make room for nothing, the rejection of armchair activism in our turbulent political climate and the immortalization of people and places you love through art.

Most hip-hop artists run in two parallel lanes: commercial “banger” rap, or lyrical rap, which can further be subdivided into “conscious” rap or “art-rap.” The latter lane has received regular traffic from artists like El-P, Del the Funky Homosapien, Aesop Rock, MF Doom, Busdriver, Danny Brown (yeah, I said it, fight me), and milo, though a few of those artists have crossed over to bangers lane when the opportunity has arisen. Art-rap, which distinguishes itself from hip-hop with creative narratives delved from both dreams and histories, encompassing the MC’s discontent by slyly playing the villain or cutting to the chase with a no-holds-barred critique of societal ills and inequality.

Open Mike Eagle’s raps handle far more than society’s fascination with pain or systemic racism at large. He also talks “Adventure Time,” supporting characters from Netflix’s “House of Cards” and name-checks Vladimir Putin. With a tactical combination of pop culture references and big swings at topics like urban renewal and 45 (or as he put it during the show, “a chair full of garbage bags”), Eagle’s deft wordplay and cinematic imagery have earned him a diverse fanbase, devoted to discussion of the sometimes obvious, other times cryptic nature of his writing. If his intent as a rapper is to build bridges between heads and spark conversation, mission accomplished.

Setlist: Raps For When It’s Just You & The Abyss, Big Pretty Bridges (3 Days off in Albuquerque), (How Could Anybody) Feel At Home, Daydreaming in the Projects, Idaho, Legendary Iron Hood, My Auntie’s Building, Very Much Money, Happy Wasteland Day, Qualifiers, No Selling (Uncle Butch Pretending It Don’t Hurt), The Processional (The Funeral March), Doug Stamper (Advice Raps), Ziggy Starfish (Anxiety Raps), Brick Body Complex, Dark Comedy Late Show

||| Stream: “Brick Body Kids Still Daydream”

||| Watch: Open Mike Eagle bagging on Pop Tarts