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Buck 65

Hello. I'm Buck 65 and this is my bio…

I was born with the name Ricardo Terfry. My dad started calling me Buck 65 the day I was born. I don't know why. That's the truth. A lot of stories have been made up about where the name comes from, some of them by me. I've lied about it. But "where does the name come from?" is a boring question. And the truth is, I don't even know myself.

I also get asked all the time, "how would you describe your sound?" I don't have a good answer for that either. I could say "hip hop", but a lot of people would disagree with that. Why would they? Well, best I can figure is that it's a very conservative genre and my take on it is very liberal, to say the least.

I've long argued that the roots of hip hop music go all the way back to folk and blues �" even minstrel music that pre-dates the birth of both those genres (take a listen to a song called 'The Gypsy' by Emmett Miller to see where I'm coming from, for example). But I can understand how that could be seen as an unpopular and controversial idea. Also, I have a broad definition of the genre that includes a lot of records most others probably wouldn't include.

Hip hop (and especially the teachings and ideals of Afrika Bambaataa) is very important to what I do. But maybe in fairness, it should be seen as some kind of starting point for me. I write songs on a wide variety of topics �" many of which are not common ones in hip hop, admittedly. When writing a song, considerations of hip hop or street credibility never cross my mind. That being the case, no point of view, emotion, or instrumentation is off-limits for me. If I find an idea, memory, or emotion interesting enough to want to write about it, I just try to turn that into music in as clear and honest a way as possible. There have been cases where that's meant being very un-macho and putting a banjo player to work (both decidedly anti-hip hop notions, generally speaking).

I'm a big music fan. I have a massive record collection. And there's no kind of music I'm not interested in. We all fall under the influence of artists we admire and respect. I'm no different. I worship Bambaataa, Townes Van Zandt, Leonard Cohen, Captain Beefheart, Skip James, Johnny Cash, Iggy Pop, Radiohead, Jacques Brel, Serge Gainsbourg, David Lynch, Egon Shiele and countless others. But I try as hard as I can to carve out my own place confidently and leave those influences behind when putting the pen to paper or entering the studio or stepping onto stage (I can't claim to have been 100% successful in that so far...).

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Buck 65: Situation

Read "Buck 65: Situation" reviewed by Jeff Dayton-Johnson


Buck 65 Situation Warner Music 2007

Buck 65 is a rapper well past 30 from semi-rural Nova Scotia, Canada. His earlier Talkin' Honky Blues (Warner Music Canada, 2003) was a masterpiece. Indisputably a hip hop record, its banjos and pedal steel guitars, overlaid by Buck's gravelly voice, had listeners reaching for Hank Snow, Tom Waits and Jimmy Stewart as possible antecedents. These references are helpful to a point, but even more so ...

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Situation

Warner Bros.
2007

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Buck 65: Situation

Warner Bros.
2007

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