Fans of the TV shows “Justified” will be able to see the group that performed the theme song when Gangstagrass comes to Holland Music Club this Friday, Nov. 8.
Omaha Magazine spoke to members of the bluegrass/hip-hop band via Zoom ahead of the show. The group has been around since 2006. They’ve been Emmy-award nominated, made No. One on the Billboard charts for bluegrass twice, played the theme song to the aforementioned “Justified,” and made it to the quarterfinals of Season 16 on America’s Got Talent.
Bluegrass and hip-hop may seem like an odd combination, but at their hearts, both genres are rooted in storytelling. The band was formed by mastermind and guitar player Rench (pronounced like the tool “wrench”) as a way to try and show people that we have common ground in music.
“When I was first getting the idea for Gangstagrass, I was listening to a lot of Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys—stuff from the ’70s, when he had Keith Whitley and Ricky Skaggs in the band,” Rench said. “And they were just, they were super-great. And Earl Scruggs for sure, coming in there. And then I was also listening to some of the Union Station stuff, which had that Jerry Douglas dobro.”
Even the band members have learned to love each others’ music through the band. R-SON the Voice of Reason, MC and self-described “crazy cat man,” said Rench and former fiddle player Dan Whitener introduced him to bluegrass culture and music, which he hadn’t heard much of prior to joining this band. “They really brought me into the into the culture, and to the whole whole scene,” R-SON said. “They introduced me to a lot of the stuff that I dig now.”
As for the hip-hop side, MC and vocalist Dolio the Sleuth said he has been influenced by performers such as “Chuck D from Public Enemy, Bun B from UGK (short for Underground Kingz)” as well as other Southern hip hop performers and ones who were heavily into storytelling. R-SON prefers the sounds from his native Philadelphia while Rench is a fan of the 1990s rap scene such as Cypress Hill.
The band attracts audience members from children to 80-year old adults, because, as R-SON said “This is all very inner-connected, and the cultures are very interconnected in ways that people don’t even realize.” He noted that if people were to take politics out of their lives and sit down for a discussion, they would find themselves to be similar—everyone trying to live their lives as best they can.
The group hopes that all attendees, whether fans more of the bluegrass side or the rap side, has a great time at their show, and realizes that, at their roots, these genres are similar.
Gangstagrass is proud to be an independent group producing art that sends a great message through this unique blend of genres.
“I think it’s probably the only way to really say and do what we want,” R-SON said. “To say and do and create the music the way we as individuals as a group want to do it. Dolio and I have talked many times about how we could make some…music that fits the paradigm of what people think rap music is right now, how it should be, but there’s a part of both of us that (says) it’s not who we are.”
Rench said they are excited for the Omaha show because “We are going to give a party. We give celebrations. It’s meaningful for us and the fans to come away from it with joy, having participated it in together.”
Tickets to Gangstagrass are $26 each and are available at ticketomaha.com
