PROFILES

Muck Sticky

His Music: Since 2004, Muck Sticky (Justin Osburn) has produced five independent albums, including Muck Sticky Is My Friend (2008), a hook-laden homage to the opposite sex driven by an NC-17-rated hedonism. Frequent stage prop: a humongous (imitation) marijuana cigarette.


In $5 Cover: In a faithful rendition of his stage persona, he plays a puckish hip-hop artist whose be-cool-with-yourself message makes "Up with People" look like a Wagnerian opera by comparison. Muck's fictional crush on Kate Crowder is emblematic of so many one-sided pursuits, teetering between paying off and pouring sour milk on his otherwise sugary-cereal outlook. Featured songs: "This n That," "Make-Believe," "The Icky Muck."


In $5 Cover Amplified: Muck Sticky's dogged avoidance of pain and depression are revealed to have their roots in the loss of a best friend -- a defining moment never far from his mind as he supports his mother and sister in working toward a more abundant life.


On Memphis music: "I make my music because it's something that I haven't heard already. I'm afraid that if I got into a big studio with some huge-name superstar, that it would just end up being like everything else there is out there. And that's not what I want to do."


Latest news: He is at work on a self-produced feature-length film. Learn more at myspace.com/mucksticky.


--John Hubbell


Muck Sticky on MySpace



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$5 Cover Amplified Summary:

Intimate, thoughtful, always entertaining and often formally daring, the 12 documentaries that comprise the anthology "$5 Cover Amplified" reveal a modern Memphis music scene that is as creative, passionate and vibrant as in the city's commercial heyday, when Elvis, Isaac Hayes and Al Green demonstrated that visionary art and popular culture could be inseparable as the 'A' and 'B' sides of a vinyl record.

Produced as a complement to Craig Brewer's episodic MTV drama series/ new media experiment, "$5 Cover," the "Amplified" series of documentary portraits chronicles the rousing art, uncertain careers and sometimes problematic home lives of a diverse, distinctive and often eccentric group of Memphis music-makers.

Mesmerizing Valerie June croons confessional lyrics from beneath a Medusan tangle of dreadlocks that's as thick as her family ties and her musical roots. The puckish Tommy Chong-meets-Pippi Longstocking "clown prince of rap," Muck Sticky, proves to be as dedicated to the welfare of his mother and sister as to his own pursuit of happiness. Punk rock pioneer Jack Oblivian, who plays to sell-out nightclub crowds in Europe, makes ends meet in Memphis by cleaning houses. "Crunk" hip-hop artist Al Kapone is shown to be a tough but loving father, bringing new urgency to the concept of rapper as "role model." Troubadour of heartbreak Harlan T. Bobo is portrayed impressionistically, through stop-motion animation, allegorical fantasy and other conceits.

Whatever the focus or style, the direction of Alan Spearman, an award-winning photographer/filmmaker with The Commercial Appeal, ensures that each segment is as visually assured as it is musically irresistible. "$5 Cover Amplified" was co-produced by Spearman, Andria Lisle and John Hubbell, and edited by Eileen Meyer; their familiarity with the Memphis "scene" ensures unprecedented authenticity as well as access.

John Beifuss- The Commercial Appeal