“Excuse me, can I buy you an orange juice?”: Pigeon John’s nice-guy rapcabulary

While even his most upstanding, positive, grown-up hip-hop contemporaries fall back on dark-tinged beats and male bravado to make their points, Pigeon John more often thrives by undermining those temptations. The L.A. rapper and hook-slinger not only sticks to an unassuming, silly vibe in general, but has also built up what seems to be his own little phrasebook of references and scene-setters to keep all that consistent from verse to verse. Ahead of Pigeon John’s show Monday at Larimer Lounge, The A.V. Club scoured his discography, including the new Dragon Slayer, for examples of the fedora-rocking MC’s endearingly dorky vocabulary and themes.

Not quite fitting into rap

Key line: “Tryin’ to excel / But still in my Tercel (“High School Reunion,” from Pigeon John Is Dating Your Sister)

Just about every godawful mixtape you’ve ever heard comes soaked in the conviction that the featured MC’s days of being a desperate nobody will one day pay off gloriously, and that he’d probably murder you with laser eyes for pointing out he’s a desperate nobody. So it’s surprising to hear even a humble dude like Pigeon beginning his 2003 album, Pigeon John Is Dating Your Sister, with a whole heap of doubts about his career choice, even asking whether he’s become a joke: “Shoulda got a real job and a digital phone,” he sings in the chorus of “High School Reunion.” In this song, he also dreams of being able to play Jay Leno and go out swing-dancing, and notes that “most people my age is in a corporation / Not in the Inglewood jail for a citation.” By the time he recorded Pigeon John And The Summertime Pool Party’s “One For The,” Pigeon clearly felt a lot better about doing rap his own way, but it comes through even more firmly in Brother Ali’s guest verse:

Cuisine and shopping

Key phrase: “I'm chillin’ in the back of the Bell chewin’ tacos / I feel like young Sean Connery in Cabo.” (From “So Gangster”)

Pigeon John’s fantasies of hip-hop glory are always disarmingly modest, and that’s most evident when he name-checks his favorite foods. On Dragon Slayer’s “So Gangster,” he goes on to chant: “Act like you in Cabo / Let me take you out /We’ll go to Denny’s on Vermont / And we’ll get waffles on the house.” Taco Bell is a recurring theme—Pool Party’s “Freaks! Freaks!” praises the bean burritos in particular. But he makes the least likely dish on earth seem sensual and funky on perhaps the best track from 2005’s Pigeon John Sings The Blues, “She Cooks Me Oatmeal.”

Courtship

Key line: “Excuse me, can I buy you an orange juice?” (From “Money Back Guarantee”)

The Pixies-bumping “Money Back Guarantee” walks through one of those rare scenarios where the nice guy actually makes some progress hitting on a girl at a bar. If anything, he errs on the side of too dorky—“Dude, I wanna get hurt!” he tells a friend in some opening banter—but makes his bouncy flow sound effortless. In other words, he’s really a lot smoother than he lets on. Earlier on, Dating Your Sister’s “Identity Crisis” also explored his insecurities with women, one of whom rejects him “because you walk black and act white.”

Life’s big letdowns

Key line: “Those were the days / These are the nights, I’m afraid to say it” (“Growin' Old,” from Pool Party)

For someone who makes you feel like you’re hanging out with the friendliest dude ever, Pigeon has a deft handle on disappointments and the brutal dashing of youth and hope. “Growin’ Old” fondly recalls bygone days of hanging out and listening to his rap heroes, but Dragon Slayer’s “Davey Rockit” has a lot more bite. The title character, a DJ, proclaims, “one of these days, I’m gonna be large / I’ll practice all night long,” all while living in the shadow of an embittered alcoholic father who’s had to ditch his own musical dreams. Davey’s upbringing weighs on him, especially on the chorus, which sounds like a lonesome, scared kid trying to convince himself.

Lesser letdowns

Key line: “Just shake-shake it off and go home.” (From “I Lost My Job Again”)

But of course, Pigeon John will be the first to point out that not all the blows life deals you are for keeps. On “I Lost My Job Again,” he bungles one menial gig after another, finding himself “butt-naked in the kitchen lookin’ through L.A. Weekly” to figure out where his next rent payment is coming from. The vibraphones dinging along through the chorus are both goofy and reassuring, as if to say that Pigeon’s screwed it up before, probably will again, and in the future might remember not to make coffee at inopportune times. On Dragon Slayer’s “To Do List,” he makes an even bigger mistake—not doing the chores his wife asked him to do. But hey, when he’s busted for such crimes against matrimony as not feeding the pets, he gives his lady a genuine, pleading apology. Did we mention he’s the nicest guy in the world?