ALBUMS

GANGSTAGRASS

“There are a lot more people out there with Jay-Z and Johnny Cash on their ipod playlists than you think.” says Rench, mastermind behind the genre breaking sensation Gangstagrass.

He should know. He’s spent the last couple years travelling the country, performing for them with a groundbreaking band that gives them the best of both.

Rench produced honky-tonk hip-hop recordings on his Rench Audio imprint for the last decade,  while making beasts for local NYC rappers and hosting country music nights in popular NYC venues. In 2007 Rench had a musical itch that needed to be scratched – he was listening to 1970s recordings of Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys and couldn’t help imagining what classic bluegrass would sound like with rap vocals and beats. The result was a genre-demolishing blitz called Rench Presents: Gangstagrass. He put it up for free download and people took notice. Hundreds of thousands of downloads followed creating an intense underground buzz.

FX Network soon came to Rench looking for the Gangstagrass sound for the theme song to their new series Justified. The result was Long Hard Times To Come, garnering an Emmy nomination in 2010. Four studio albums and a live album later, Gangstagrass tours the world and blows minds with an incredible stage show. Get familiar with their extensive catalog and see them live if you can.