Did you know that Corey Feldman has a rap career? The former child star has pursued a number of different media avenues since the height of his acting career in the 1980s, including several turns as a film director (his 2020 documentary The Rape of Two Coreys alleged that he and fellow 80s child star Corey Haim were sexually abused by Hollywood celebrities as children).
But Feldman also apparently has a music career — perhaps inspired, in part, by his long-time friendship with the late Michael Jackson. His most recent song, "Deceptive Deborah," was released this past September, and has so far garnered…less than 10,000 plays on Spotify, apparently. (His 2016 collaboration with Snoop Dogg has accumulated around 250,000 plays over the years.)
Feldman is now taking his tunes on tour with — of all artists — the early 2000s rap-rock sensation Limp Bizkit. Yes, that's a real sentence I just typed, and not a nightmare dreamed up by an LLM AI.
Feldman also performed at Chicago's infamous RiotFest this past September, for which New Noise Magazine described as "Goonies Never Know When They Should Die:"
It felt, to me, like Riot Fest booked Feldman as a joke for attendees to go watch ironically and laugh at, which felt cruel. The chants of "Corey! Corey!" from the crowd sounded like when high school bullies pretend to be your friend so they can make fun of you. All of it gave me an uneasy feeling until Feldman actually took the stage and, only moments into the set, stopped the song and yelled at his band for not all being on the same count (they sounded fine). At this point, any sympathy I had for Feldman in this situation went right out the window.
Feldman's performance is exactly what I expected from watching YouTube videos of him. The music is mediocre at best, but Feldman's choreography and stage theatrics are positively laughable. What's more, his attempt to brand himself as the "comeback kid" because he's a child actor who now has a relatively unknown music career seemed forced at best. And Feldman spent an inordinate amount of time on stage complaining about his ex-wives, which felt like a Hollywood cliché and a tad misogynistic. So yes, Feldman was basically booked as a joke, but by the end of the set, I was more comfortable with laughing at him.
Which is frankly a more glowing review than I expected.
Those of you in the Los Angeles area can also catch Feldman next weekend at the DesignerCon Collectibles MegaShow, which he is apparently headlining.