Article: Introducing… My Son The Hurricane
An eleven headed brass leviathan spewing flames of funk and hip hop emerges from the bowels of Southern Ontario. Named after an obscure Charlie Hunter Trio song, My Son The Hurricane embodies the party spirit of New Orleans, always ready to get down and have a good time, even in the face of disaster.
An eleven-headed brass leviathan spewing flames of funk and hip hop emerges from the bowels of Southern Ontario. Named after an obscure Charlie Hunter Trio song, My Son The Hurricane embodies the party spirit of New Orleans, always ready to get down and have a good time, even in the face of disaster.
Music: My Son The Hurricane – Ain’t My Style
The band, barely six months old, is the brainchild of drummer Danno O’Shea and Saxaphonist Nelson Beattie. Much like Ocean’s Eleven (O’Shea’s Eleven if you will), they compiled a dream team list of musicians to create a brand new funky sound. Surprisingly everyone they wanted said yes (or recommended a capable replacement), and the band was born. The band is made up of “jazz schooled, army schooled, and street schooled musicians” with a horn section boasting three saxophones (alto, tenor, baritone), trumpet, trombone, and a sousaphone, inevitably oozing brass funk on every track. That funk is backed up by guitar, drums, keyboard, and bass… then exposed to the playful rhymes of MC Jacob Bergsma.
It was essential for the band to acquire the lyrical services of Bergsma to complete the Hurricane steeze. Danno O’Shea said, “It would be too easy to front this band with an amazing female vocalist… There’s already one Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings.” And the collective sound is indeed unlike anything in the hip hop, jazz, or funk scene. The closest comparison would be the Galactic album ‘From the Corner to the Block‘, but that still doesn’t really compare to the grooves emanating from the Hurricane. My Son The Hurricane’s ‘beats’ can stand alone as funk breaks and probably wouldn’t be considered hip hop without the MC. This creates a more unusual type of sound for hip hop to explore. Bergsma’s rapping is definitely unique as he bounces around the funk beats dropping hilarious pop culture references and clever wordplay…
“And its just like in that Cool Runnings movie, cause right now you see a bad ass mother who don’t take no crap from nobody” – from ‘Back Pocket’
” All the shirts in your closet couldn’t cover my body of work.. Hand stitch the gitch so you can cut the crap.. Cause cats these days ain’t said nothing new since Suckerin’ Suckatash” – from ‘Big Red’
In its infancy the band has played with acts like Shad K, Grand Analog and Ubiquitous Synergy Seeker (USS). At a Hurricane live show the band erupts into a volcano of funk, fusing original material with groovy covers to bring the house down. So if you feel like a good time, don’t miss My Son The Hurricane if they come through your town and check out the iTunes EP, recorded at the prestigious Grant Avenue Studio in Hamilton. As Bergsma described, the recording was “just like carpet installation, everyone just laid it down”.
So check out a new unique force in the world of hip hop bands, this is not The Roots or Stetsasonic, this is not Heiruspecs, ArtOfficial, or Crown City Rockers, this is a monstrous eleven-headed funky beast of progressive hip hop.
