Editor’s Note: Nerdtorious squad and producer of DadBodRapPod, Nate LeBlanc, recently revisited LA rapper/poet Hymnal. In an expansive piece that reaches behind Hymnal’s words for meaning, it simultaneously showcases the remarkably fertile patchwork of personalities and crews during the rap boom of 1990s LA. Concurrently published on our homie’s terrific site, Passion of the Weiss— DM
Hymnal is an LA-based writer, MC, and vocalist whose work is defined by poetic diction, melodic delivery, and a writing style characterized by inscrutable tangles of phrases that are nevertheless loaded with meaning. With a long but sporadic discography behind him, Hymnal has been involved in some of the most creative projects to emerge from the LA underground and continues to create thoughtful and highly original material. At the same time, he is a bit of a mystery.
