Just in time for that wild and crazy Halloween party, MC Lars has released an expanded anniversary edition of his album “The Edgar Allan Poe LP”. 

The album is available as a digital download and a double CD and features 19 tracks – 12 from the original album plus seven bonus recordings.

The album features songs taken from such Poe classics as  “The Cask of Amontillado”, “The Raven”, “The Tell-Tale Heart”, and “The Black Cat”.

Lars has a number of guest artists on the album including Jaret Reddick of Bowling for Soup, the Dead Milkmen, Watt White, Mega Ran, Rodney Anonymous, Schäffer the Darklord, Lacey Johnson, Ash Tell Em, Christina Rotondo and Worm Quartet. Underground prank-call figures Longmont Potion Castle and Brad Carter of Phone Losers of America also appear on “$3.47.”

MC Lars spoke on the new Poe album saying, “I’ve been rapping about Poe since before I had any business doing it. The EP was a sketch. This is the actual building. A year ago I sent it to 385 people who paid for it before it existed, which is the most Poe thing imaginable, except he never got the money.”

MC Lars is the musical pioneer who created Lit-Hop – a fusion of classic literature and contemporary hip-hop.

Like the graphic novel brought a whole new generation to reading, MC Lars has found a new way of introducing classic literature to a new generation of rap music fans.

After earning a bachelor’s degree in English, Lars went on to earn his master’s degree in Instructional Science and Technology in order to design a format for teaching poetry through rap.

He said, “I went and got a master’s degree to prove that teaching poetry through rap actually works, because I got tired of people calling it a gimmick. It turns out you can just measure it.”

He adds, “I want a kid to hear this record, get obsessed with ‘The Raven,’ and not realize until later that they did their homework.”

Over his 20 plus year career MC Lars has shared the stage with numerous top rock, rap and hip-hop artists including Bowling for Soup, Nass, Snoop Dogg, Simple Plan, Weird Al, KRS-One, Insane Clown Posse, K.Flay, and T-Pain.