[Harp-L] Harp-Hop



Jonathan Metts writes:

"You should check out G. Love & Special Sauce. He plays a resonator guitar with rack harp, and the music is a combination of hip hop and traditional blues."


I've heard him, and have an album somewhere (my collection is a true mess). But I always felt he was more blues in focus with a bit of hip-hop, like some of the others I mentioned, rather than primarily a hip-hop artist. Part of the difference for me is the emphasis and style of beat, and the way the harmonica is being used in that. Also, hip-hop tends to focus less on straightahead playing (as G Love does, and does fairly well, IIRC, and as a few bands such as the Roots are known for) but more cutting and pasting things together, which is where I feel Bad News Brown is being rather innovative--he's playing harmonica, but then using that playing as an element of hip- hop, rather than on top of it, as it were.


Still, I see G Love as both an innovator and a precursor to someone like BNB's usage of the instrument and genre.





 ()()    JR "Bulldogge" Ross
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