Buck 65

Philadelphia Weekly
November 14, 2007

Opening Riff

by Joshua Valocchi

The Buck Stops Here

On Buck 65’s MySpace Music page, a solitary word occupies the “Sounds Like” section: “nothin’.” It’s a surprisingly apt and impossibly brief summary of what the Paris-by-way-of-Halifax country-punk-philosophical white rapper is all about.

“When I’m writing songs and sampling beats, I never consider how it will be defined by the music world at large,” says Rich Terfry, Buck 65’s government-issue offstage persona. “Whenever I start worrying about mixing genres too much, I think about how Afrika Bambaataa incorporated Kraftwerk into hip-hop and brought it to the South Bronx in the early ’80s. If there was room for that back then, surely there’s room for my stuff now.”

Apparently Terfry’s blatant disregard for boundaries extends beyond his beats and lyrics, permeating the themes and imagery that dot his musical landscapes. Defying the age-old practice of glorifying thugs and gangstas through odes to bling, Terfry paints some pretty bleak portraits on his sonic canvas.

On his newest disc Situation Buck 65 marks a slight departure from the trails blazed on his previous efforts in a loosely constructed concept album that hinges on a more stripped-down hip-hop frame than his typically dense fare.

The tracks on Situation lazily revolve around the theme year of 1957, with mentions of Ginsberg, Sputnik and Bettie Page thrown in for scenery.

Predictably Terfry brushes off any intimations that his latest project may not “fit in” with the heavily textured aural collages of his past releases. “Hip-hop has become such a broad genre,” he notes. “The level of open-mindedness and spirit of musical adventure is constantly growing throughout the fanbase. There’s always room for something else.”

Buck 65 performs Sat., Nov. 17, 9pm. $10. With Bernard Dolan. Johnny Brenda’s, 1201 Frankford Ave. 215.739.9684. www.johnnybrendas.com