Born and raised in San Francisco, Watsky hit the scene as a slam poet/spoken-word artist, winning various awards and appearing on HBO's Def Poetry Jam in 2006. A few years later, after graduating from Boston's Emerson College, he found YouTube fame with a viral video of him speed-rapping, leading to a performance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. He's since released several EPs, mixtapes, and collaborations. Cardboard Castles is his second official studio album, following his 2009 self-titled debut. Rocking a stereotypical white-guy voice, he delivers rapid-fire verses heavy on the humor, with plenty of pop culture references and absolutely no fake gangster/wannabe drug-lord shenanigans. The production (from Kush Mody, Mikos, and Daniel J. W!shington) is charmingly unpredictable, a mish-mash of random genres that fits perfectly with Watsky's proudly goofy rhymes about cheese fries, hipsters, Volvos, smartphones, and Star Wars. He's kind of like the bastard child of Eminem and MC Paul Barman.