Local rappers Jed Sed and Walter J. Liveharder have an affinity for Wes Anderson. A couple years ago Jed and Walter teamed up as O.R. They?—their name comes from a scene in Rushmore where Max Fischer (Jason Schwartzman) gets called out for passive-aggressively misidentifying the work clothes worn by Dr. Peter Flynn (Luke Wilson) as a nurse’s uniform. When Flynn explains that they’re actually O.R. scrubs, Fischer replies, “Oh, are they?”
The cover of the duo’s debut EP, 2014’s Did Somebody Say Our Names?, makes their love of Anderson’s movies even more obvious—it’s a cartoon drawing of Fischer. The EP’s song titles also crib from Anderson’s work. “375th St. Y” is a reference to The Royal Tenenbaums, and “Aboard the Belafonte” tips its hat to the fantastical vessel from The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou.
O.R. They? borrow a bit of dialogue from The Life Aquatic for the title of their new full-length mixtape, Not If I Don’t See You First. Anderson references aren’t nearly as omnipresent on the mixtape as they were on the EP. In fact, one of the more noticeable musical cues comes from the Olsen twins: “Sausage Not Included” features a sample of “Gimme Pizza,” the meme-spawning song from the 1995 VHS release You’re Invited to Mary-Kate & Ashley’s Sleepover Party. Jed and Walter are at their best when they lock into each other’s flows, and their loose-limbed wordplay on “Adventures in Haberdashery” has all the color of a great Anderson scene.
Here’s the Rushmore scene that inspired the duo’s name:
Leor Galil writes about hip-hop every Wednesday.