Buck 65 preview

Buck 65
Reggie’s, Chicago
Wednesday, November 21, 2007

If Buck 65 looks kinda geeky for a rapper, it’s because he is. Or maybe he isn’t really a rapper at all?

That’s what the Canadian-born Buck 65 (born Ricardo Terfry) infers in his biography, saying hip-hop is a “very conservative genre and my take on it is very liberal to say the least,” which means many of the artists he cites as his biggest influences (Townes Van Zandt, Captain Beefheart, Iggy Pop) aren’t hip-hop at all, at least not according to most definitions. Whatever. Buck 65, whose father has called him such since birth though Buck has no idea why, and his latest, Situation (Strange Famous), sound like friggin’ hip-hop album to us and a pretty good hip-hop at that thanks to Buck’s folksy storytelling ability and Skratch Bastid’s throwback, sample-based production. If you hadn’t guessed already, Buck 65 isn’t a bitches-and-hoes rapper, but he also isn’t your typical anti bitches-and-hoes backpack rapper. History rapper, maybe? Situation is a concept album about the year 1957, which is why you’ll hear references to Ed Gein, Bettie Page, the Brooklyn Dodgers, the Little Rock Nine, and Beatniks among the 17 (16 and one remix) tracks.

Skratch Bastid and Bernard Dolan open.

– Trevor Fisher

Click here to download Buck 65’s “Shutter Buggin.'”

Category: Stage Buzz, Weekly