This weekend, Bluegrass-meets-hip-hop phenomenon, Gangstagrass will bring their unique high-energy, roof-raising show to the UK for two special festival appearances, as Friday night headliners at Shrewsbury Folk Festival on 23rd August, as well as a special set on The Interstate Stage at The Long Road Festival in Leicestershire, also on 23rd August. Taking full advantage of the improvisational aspects and virtues of both hip-hop and bluegrass, including frequent three-and four-part harmonies, MCs Dolio the Sleuth and R-SON the Voice of Reason will trade verses and freestyle, alongside Rench on guitar and beats and the unparalleled skills of the UK’s OWN Chris Lord on banjo and Laura Nailor on fiddle.
As the pioneers who made history as the first-ever band to bring real hip-hop MCs to the #1 spot on the Billboard Bluegrass Chart, Gangstagrass is well-acquainted with challenging norms. Their groundbreaking work led to them receiving UNESCO’s “International Innovator” award. Particularly noteworthy is their creation of the iconic “Long Hard Times to Come” — which served as the opening theme song for every episode of the hit FX show Justified — earning Gangstagrass a 2010 Primetime Emmy nomination in the “Outstanding Original Main Title Theme Music” category. The group also saw recognition on America’s Got Talent in 2021, as judge Howie Mandel praised Gangstagrass as “the recipe that America has been looking for until now,” ultimately reaching the quarter-finals.
The new UK dates follow the release of the band’s latest album “The Blackest Thing On The Menu”. With the album, Gangstagrass once again seamlessly melds the rich American traditions of bluegrass and hip-hop, delving into the foundational elements of each genre. As No Depression underscored: “While 2024 is the year of ‘Cowboy Carter,’ Gangstagrass has been plying the junction of country and rap since 2007. This takes the pressure of breaking new ground off ‘The Blackest Thing on the Menu’ and allows it to be what it is: a solid collection of summer jams.” “The Blackest Thing on the Menu” marks the band’s seventh full-length album.
The conception of the album’s title came about last year while the band was eating dinner at a “blues-themed restaurant in my hometown,” MC and vocalist Dolio the Sleuth explains. “There was a Juneteenth-themed menu that had a bunch of ‘blackened’ spicy items. One of us asked the server for ‘the blackest thing on the menu,’ and it turned out to be blackened shrimp and cheese grits… which, of course, we all ordered.” Brought up again while on the road a few months later, “That ‘eureka’ look struck over all of our faces, the rain stopped, and I kid you not, TWO rainbows appeared in the sky,” Dolio continues. “We then had no choice but to acknowledge that the heavens were blessing the moment that the title appeared.”
As time passed, the title acquired an entirely new significance, “especially at this moment of conversation about race and country music, after we have played so many bluegrass and folk festivals where the Black influence on country music was not represented except by us,” producer, founder, and vocalist Rench details. “We were trying to find an album title for a while, to the point where we were really throwing in all kinds of funny ideas, and this one seemed funny for being so brash at first, we were in the tour van laughing. But then we stopped laughing and it sunk in how appropriate it is.”
Dolio concludes, “We recognized that when we’re at festivals we are indeed the spiciest thing on the menu, the one with the most intense flavor. This album is bringing the heat, the spice, the flavor and the down-home cookin’ all in one.”
Gangstagrass has been praised in a wide variety of leading outlets including The New York Times, Forbes, Rolling Stone, NPR, Vice, HipHopDX, and The Wall Street Journal, as well as a national broadcast feature on PBS. With more than a decade of shattering barriers and global touring, this rebellious collective has achieved unparalleled success in crafting an innovative sound rooted in historically significant heritage.
These two sub genres of music controversially used over the years to depict and represent the political unrest between black and white America, and beyond, are able to break down these futile walls and integrate all colours to enjoy two very different types of music in a gumbo pot of gangsta fusion. It’s just glorious and needs to be seen and heard to be believed.
As a taster of what to expect, check out the band’s videos for the funk-infused ‘Good At Being Bad’ or recent single ‘Mother’.
