What happens if you take the energy of Punk, the musicality of fusion-jazz, and spirituality of reggae with just a sprig of soul singing thrown in for good measure? Well the answers is Bad Brains, and they have been ripping things up for the last 24 years whilst influencing bands such as Rage Against The Machine, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and the Deftones. They have also been bringing racial unity/indifference to the hardcore punk scene by being on of the first black bands to play it fast, loud, and aggressive. And, because these guys have a lot on their plate, they also helped put the aggression into rap with H.R., their energetic back-flipping frontman, spitting out lyrics at a velocity that is still barley touched these days.
An important band, to say the least, but the fact that you quite possibly haven't heard of them has more to do with them being almost utterly uncommercial in outlook, and H.R. being utterly bug-house crazy (but then again he encouraged Ian MacKaye to invent Straight Edge and Henry Rollins to become a singer so he can't be all that bad) and quitting the band every 5 minutes. To say they have had a very stop/start approach to their music making is an understatement but 8 albums later and they are still going strong, producing records that continue to be as musically diverse as from the day they started.
Anyway, enough from me. here's something from the band themselves!
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