Goofin’ Gangstas

There the dude is, dropping rhymes about Helen Keller and dry humping a buffalo in a loin cloth.

He could be your doctor some day.

But for now, Nathaniel Mott is putting the whole "open up and say ahh" thing on pause.

"I actually deferred medical school the other day," says Mott, one-half of fast-rising electro hip-hop duo 3oh!3, who's been known to cavort with wildlife in his underpants in the group's videos. "I've put that on hold for a second while this is going on. It's kind of a dual life that I live."

Mott plans on returning to his studies "somewhere down the road. I want to see this out for sure and keep doing this for a few years at least," he adds. "But it's something that I'd really like to do eventually."

Until then, he's sticking with bawdy mock rap tunes about makin' out with your sister and the joys of sipping whiskey from a brown paper bag. 3oh!3 (pronounced "three oh three," which references the area code of the band's native Boulder, Colo.) embrace gangsta rap tropes while at the same time goofing on them.

On their full-length debut, last year's "Wait," which has sold more than 150,000 copies and earned the band a gold single, the duo (which is rounded out by MC Sean Foreman) harnesses Dirty South beats, a winking braggadocio and an exaggerated urban patois as a means to both revel in and deflate some of the machismo that's so rife in the genre.

On "Chokechain," they pair Lil Jon-style shouts with a warbly, oscillating synth line in a pseudo balla anthem; on "Holler 'Til You Pass Out," they pretty much do just what its title suggests.

It's all meant to be a tongue-in-cheek tribute to the hardened hip-hop that these two obviously have some taste for -- they couldn't do such a dead-on send-up of the scene if they weren't intimately acquainted with it -- though not everyone's laughing.

Some folks see 3oh!3 as a couple of cultural carpetbaggers making light of something that, having originated in the African-American community, they have no business commenting on.

That line of reasoning is almost as hard to take as the sight of these two busting rhymes while busting out of some tight blue and yellow underwear in their video for "Don't Trust Me."

Once you put your art out into the world, it's open to anyone to celebrate or lampoon. End of story. No racial background check necessary.

Besides, the whole point of a group like 3oh!3 is to add a little levity to a genre that seems to be allergic to it at times.

"When Sean and I met, we were both pretty ingrained in the underground hip-hop scene in Colorado, and we both kind of got disenfranchised with it, just by seeing how people in a specific music scene are so closed off to any sort of branching off to other musical things," Mott says. "I remember I was working at a radio station, and everything that I brought in for underground hip-hop that was a little different, people were like, 'Oh this sucks, it's not hip-hop.' It seemed like it was taboo to have fun with your music."

White boys satirizing rap stereotypes is nothing new (see MC Chris, MC Lars, Lonely Island, etc.), but 3oh!3 does it with enough pop savvy to enable them to cross over onto the commercial airwaves, where they're a steadily growing presence.

By incorporating liberal does of hard rock and electronica influences in their repertoire, they don't feel like a one-trick pony, out to belabor a single punch line.

The aforementioned "Don't Trust Me" is a dance pop sweat bath with a falsetto chorus that sounds like Felix Da House Cat jammin' with the Bee Gees; "Still Around" is a surprisingly straight-faced piano ballad that wouldn't sound out of home on a Ben Folds disc.

3oh!3's kitchen-sink sound has enabled them to appeal to an increasingly broad audience.

When they were getting their start in Boulder, they opened for everyone from metal bands to rap acts such as Snoop Dogg and Bone Thugs. They recently completed a sold-out European tour with popster Katy Perry, and are one of the headliners of the punk-centric Warped Tour this summer, which they've played the past two years to growing crowds.

Nowadays, 3oh!3 is being featured on the cover of magazines like Alternative Press, and their tunes have notched millions of plays on MySpace.

It's kind of ironic, really, that a duo who've long made light of the trappings of success and the showiness of fame have come to achieve as much on their own.

"I'm a complete a-hole to everyone now," Mott says of his growing status. "I don't allow anyone to look me in the eyes. I always have sunglasses on, no matter what time of day it is. I don't respect traffic signs," he chuckles, "or signals."

Contact reporter Jason Bracelin at jbracelin@ reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0476.