Schaffer The Darklord

Who is Schaffer The Darklord?

Mark Shaffer, better known by his stage name Schaffer the Darklord, is in American nerdcore hip hop artist from New York City. He combines dark metal themes with hip hop music to create a unique, and often comedic, style of music. He has cited his main musical influences to be Jello Biafra of the Dead Kennedys and MCA of the Beastie Boys.

In 2001, Schaffer collaborated with Katastrophe and Strict Chem to form the rap group The End of the World. One of their songs, Candyass, was featured in the film Sugar High Glitter City, directed by Shar Rednour and Jackie Strano; the soundtrack was nominated for a 2002 AVN Award but lost to Snoop Dogg's Doggy Style. He later branched out on his own, although he and Katastrophe have maintained both a personal and professional friendship.

In 2003, while living in San Francisco, Schaffer was a member of the bands Burmese and Bottle dog.

Schaffer the Darklord's songs include "Tin Man", a macabre retelling of The Wizard of Oz with the titled character as the heartless villain, "Cat People" a fun, nerdy romp about cats, people who love cats, were-cats, and other cat related phenomena, "The Other Devil", which hilariously depicts two devils arguing on Popeye's shoulder, which is now performed live with the notorious Schaffer the Puppet starring as the Other Devil, as well as many songs featuring the Darklord's unique combination of self-deprecation and narcissism such as "A Very Bad Man", "Thunder Thief", "Scorpio", and "The Heckler". Schaffer has performed and collaborated with many of Nerdcore's biggest names such as MC Frontalot, MC Lars, mc chris, and many others around the country.