Gangstagrass is a New York City bluegrass hip-hop band founded by producer Oscar "Rench" Owens and perhaps best known for their Emmmy-nominated theme for the FX television series Justified, "Long Hard Times To Come." Had you heard of Gangstagrass before reading this question?

If the idea of fusing hip-hop and bluegrass/acoustic country into a single genre seems counterintuitive, arench would disagree. On Gangstagrass' website, he argues that many people have rappers and country or bluegrass acts in their playlists (or collections of physical media), and he wanted to bring them together. Even if they may not be hi-hop and bluegrass, do any of your playlists and.or your record/tape/CD collection contain disparate styles you might want to hear merged into one unified sound?

Rench has described his band's sound as honky-tonk hip-hop; though there are differences between what most country enthusiasts would consider honky-tonk music and what G'grass does, it makes enough sense, at least for its alliteration. More importatly, the band has garnered more critical respect than much of what have preceded them in terms of rapping backed by country-adjacent music. Certainly, Gangstagrass has earned greater esteen among critics than most any act associated with the country rap/hick-hop movement. Among my guesses as to why G'grass are held in higher esteem listed below, which do you think explain the respect they recieve?

Gangstagrass' long-players have charted on bluegrass album sales and radio play charts. Rapping can be heard on mainstream country radio (more so several years ago, it seems, granted). Do you think G;grass' music would make a good fit for commercial country radio nowadays?

I have my nephew to thank for reminding me of Gagnsatagrass, as he spoke at my family's Mother's Day get-together of having seen of having sen the band open for traditioally hip-hoppy rapper Waka Flocka Flame at an end-of-semester concert where he attends college. Would that he had asked me to join him there!,,but so goes it. Would you like to see or--at least-- could you imagine G'grass on the same bill as a rapper more rooted in r&b/soul music?