Conner O’Malley’s 'Rap World' Is as Fresh as It is Absurd

wrote this for a class assignment :)

We have now reached the point where a film set in 2009 can be considered a “period piece,” as evidenced by Conner O’Malley’s Rap World. The 56 minute feature, which O’Malley wrote, directed, and starred in, is available for free on YouTube, but premiered at a series of screenings/Q&A’s in Brooklyn last summer. Through Blair Witch Project style “found footage” shot from the camcorder of the silent fourth member of the friend group Rap World follows, three townie white boys from Tobyhanna, PA set out to make a rap album with one microphone, a copy of Audacity, and a dream.

The trio (played by O’Malley and frequent collaborators Eric Rahill and Jack Bensinger), are recording their album creation process to look back on when they’re rich and famous one day. We follow them as their energy decays through antics that play out like a high school sleepover after one friend procures their license and another procures stray weed gummies and a pack of cigarettes from their older brother. The crux of what makes this synopsis so appealing though, is that these boys are actually grown men. They range in age from late 20s to early 30s, with O’Malley’s character stated to be the 32 year old father to an infant son. Each character displays their unique flavor of loser-dom, whether it be the lover-boy desperation from Rahill’s character, or the understated social ineptitude of Bensinger’s.

The 70 hours of footage shot being reduced to a comprehensible and hilarious hour-long plot is a true mark of the new guard of creatives – those that were raised by the internet being inspired by its anomalies and novelties. The editing is masterful in the way it emulates that of someone with a barely passing knowledge of Sony Vegas, the low-brow nature and casualty of the dialogue is meticulous and a testament to the actors’ improv skills. As much as Rap World spoofs on the lonely, misguided weirdos that never leave their hometowns, it celebrates the contributions they make to the obscure corners of the internet – those that ground us in a certain point in time and culture.

O’Malley and co. are intentional and largely accurate with its 2009 setting. Having watched Rap World three times, each with different people, the only inconsistencies spotted were a current day Target generic brand label on a bottle of ketchup, a modern Windows loading screen, and a parking lot ad for GIANT grocery’s mobile shopping service. Even though I was only six at the time, the hallmarks of 2009 culture and technology are instantly recognizable. The boys discuss their ideas over a game of Wii tennis. Bensinger’s character whips out a Samsung Intensity cell phone (the one with the slide out keyboard) to take a picture of a girl (played by SNL’s Sarah Sherman in a delightful cameo) he sparked up a conversation with outside the grocery store.

It’s almost generous to call Rap World a film, but that’s where its true beauty lies. The distinct and reverent depiction of an experience that is simultaneously absurd, modern, and universal is omnipresent in the ethos of today’s youth, and will almost certainly be something audiences will see more of as the old guard of film continues to phase out.