Microkhan by Brendan I. Koerner

In discussing Bulgaria’s long and healthy tradition of heavy metal last week, we briefly lampooned the first act that popped up when we Googled “Bulgarian hip-hop”—a buffoonish rapper named Ustata. As fate would have it, a Bulgarian reader chimed in to gently upbraid us for highlighting her nation’s most embarrassingly awful MC:

I’m amused that Ustata, the Bulgarian Vanilla Ice, is mentioned here when Upsurt is much more of a solid hip-hop choice from the country.

In the interests of righting a wrong, then, we present you with Upsurt’s latest video (above). It seems to represent a major departure from the band’s previous efforts, which were obviously inspired by the Hype Williams school of music promotion. The faux mullets and country twang on display here make us think the Upsurt team did a swing through Western Brooklyn at some point in the not-too-distant past, and came away changed by the irony-heavy experience. Which is not to say we don’t really dig the music or visuals here—it’s tough to resist a creative product that makes such effective use of rabbit iconography.