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Freeplay: Bushwalla
By Brandon Martinez
bmart106@mscd.edu

Courtesy of kmfdm.com Bushwalla Live at Highlands Grounds, Los Angeles 3-15-2005

If Matisyahu and G. Love had a child out of wedlock, the little bastard would sound a lot like Bushwalla.

Born and raised in Cleveland, Bushwalla’s talent has always been on the stage. At age nine he enlisted in the Kids of Broadway theater group. His ventures brought him to the Big Apple, where he studied musical theater but ultimately called it quits and headed back to Cleveland. There he became a professional clown and announced for the WNBA. After a couple of years he moved to sunny California, where he became what he calls a “Gypsy MC.” Bushwalla set out to create his own hip-hop-meets-acoustic style, which he calls “dumpster funk.”

Bushwalla’s EP Live at Highlands Grounds, Los Angeles, is shockingly good. It is only seven songs long, but every minute is worth it.

The first song, “Ghetto Blaster,” is quirky, to put it plainly. The delivery strays from hip-hop, but the lyrics bring it back. This is the driest song in terms of content, but from here it only gets better.

On the next track Bushwalla injects a little flavor with “Deprecating Hip-Hop.” The soft beat mixes with the twang of the guitar to make the song eerie yet smooth. His lyrics are mostly freestyle with a chorus, and he complements the beats with the timing and delivery of his passionate raps.

A deep, funky bass line leads into the next song, but it is this track’s five-minute jam session that gets the head nodding. Once again Bushwalla’s freestyle is nothing to scoff at, with creative lyrics like “givin’ the belly of the beast a c-section.”

The slower “Sava” is the flaw on the EP. It slows the set down dramatically, and his timing is not on point with the tone and structure of the beat. He also goes into an ill-advised bout of speaking French that throws the listener completely off.

In concert, Bushwalla is extremely goofy and likes to involve the audience. Far from mundane, he is a breath of fresh hip-hop air.

Download Bushwalla’s EP Live at Highlands Grounds, Los Angelos 3-15-2005 at
http://www.archive.org/details/bushwalla2005-03-15.flac16