Blues and hip-hop purists must have thought it was Armageddon when a white skinny kid from Philly named Garrett Dutton broke out under the alter-ego G Love. Turning out a chill, sloppy blues sound spiked with scratchy R&B;, hip-hop overtones; G Love and his two man band, Special Sauce, delivered a new sound flavor in the mid 90’s. Soon this fresh sound would be coined “Hip Hop Blues” by G. Love himself, as his self-titled debut featuring hits like “Cold Beverages” and “Baby’s Got Sauce” showcased this groundbreaking fusion and soon became certified gold.
So who was this guy anyway? And just how did he sound so fresh, amidst a plethora of 90s alternative rockers and rap stars. From the streets of Philadelphia to the clubs in Boston, G Love just did what came naturally and as he puts it – “just doin’ my own thing.” What he was doing was taking cues from Bob Dylan, John Lee Hooker and De La Soul and crafting it into accessible recordings that weren’t overly serious nor slouchy and fabricated. This was music from the street, molded into a playful blues that a college kid could comprehend, separated from the genre’s more grounded roots.
A decade and five albums later with his Special Sauce mates – Jeffrey “The Houseman” Clemens and James “Jimi Jazz” Prescott – G Love has returned with The Hustle. His first release on his friend Jack Johnson’s Brushfire Records label, and his most diverse recording to date, showcasing a new side to his music that is both eclectic and matured. The Hustle features touches of reggae (“Give It To You”), 60’s psychedelia, (“Love”), Jack Johnson surf rock (“Waiting“), folk (“Sunshine“) and all out everything in the first single, “Astronaut.” It’s been ten years since the debut of G Love and Special Sauce and The Hustle recaptures the excitement of the band’s groundbreaking sound. We caught up with the hip-hop bluesman at home just before hitting the road on a late summer tour with Johnson and fellow surf rocker Donavan Frankenreiter to fill us in on what’s happening.
A solid harmonica player, cemented in the blues, can you tell me about your evident appreciation for the old blues tradition?
Well it’s just the whole reason why I really got serious about my harmonica abilities, and wanted to become – at first I started writing songs, but it was my love of the blues that made me want me to become much more of a player and a performer than just a songwriter. That came about from first learning the harmonica and checking out Bob Dylan and Neil Young, and I kind of took it to a certain level, and I was like ‘man, there must be someone taking this to another level.’ I mean, I love Dylan’s harmonica playing, and I got turned onto John Hammond who also played acoustic guitar, harmonica player and from there it was Jimmy Reed and Little Walter and all the other blues guitarists as well.
And ten years ago, on your self-titled debut album, you crossed the blues with hip-hop and people took hold of it immediately. Was throwing the old blues in with a bit of the Beastie Boys and Run D.M.C. a way to get noticed?
I can remember the exact moment it happened. I was playing out in Philadelphia and it was the end of the night and I hadn’t had a very good day that day, and I was playing, and maybe had a little buzz cooked up, and I was strumming a shuffle blues beat, and I stared rapping the lyrics to the Eric B & Rakim song “Paid In Full” over this shuffle beat and I was like ‘damn, that’s so fresh.’ And that week I wrote my first rap called “Rhyme For The Summertime,” which basically was kind of a city story about bicycle couriers over a slide riff. Then I kind of caught street side blues and kept developing it. It was at that point that I started getting more heads turning on the streets and figured I was onto something, and kept with it and felt like I had a real voice, a real original way to express myself. I was just trying to be original and felt I found it.
90’s artists like yourself and Beck really pushed the boundaries of adding the singer/songwriter thing to hip-hop. But if you debuted your hip-hop blues today, how do you think it would be received in comparison to 1994?
I don’t know. I’d like to think I’d do alright in whatever era I was in, whether it was the 50’s, or coming out now. But so much of a musician’s experience is based on timing and luck though.
Well you came during an interesting time, during the H.O.R.D.E. tour and Lollapalooza, with people looking to expand their horizons.
Yeah man, and hip-hop was just on the tail end of what I refer to as the “golden age of hip-hop.” And nowadays, well, I feel if my first record dropped today it would be kind of ground breaking. Nobody’s really… people have emulated it and definitely drawn from it, but I don’t think it’s gotten quite the notoriety it deserves.
Now you’ve got bands like The Roots taking a backwards approach to what you were doing, playing live music over hip-hop.
Well, we’re more like peers. We came out about the same exact time. It’s kind of interesting that we were doing the same thing and a band called The Goats out of Philadelphia, I was from Philadelphia and right around ’93 and ’94 it was The Roots and The Goats making this kind of unique sound with hip-hop and live music and it was all coming out of the same neighborhood in Philadelphia. There must have been something in the water, ya know (laughs).
What about the band Special Sauce. Obviously most people are aware of your name, but what makes up the Special Sauce?
Well Jimmy Jazz is on upright bass and Jeff “The Houseman” Clemens is on drums. When I met Jeff I was 20 years old and didn’t know anybody in Boston, and was just trying to pound down the doors to get anybody to give me a chance to play a gig somewhere. I was having some alright luck, but things weren’t jumping off till me and him got together and started gigging. Immediately, like every gig we got, turned into another gig or two and then we brought Jimmy Jazz into the band and we immediately had this sound. It was beautiful, unique and it was its own thing. Again, I think I would have been able to do my thing, but my thing ended up a certain way by being affiliated with those two cats. And through the years, we’ve gone through our own phases. As a trio, every guy has to carry their own weight, but that combination of the trio has been a magical chemistry for us and kept us honest and kept us raw and kept us funky.
You’re a very proud Philadelphian, but from those early days, do you sense the city of Boston as an influence in your sound?
Definitely. When we were coming out, Morphine was just coming out and it was like an 80’s Boston rock thing with the Bosstones, and Pixies. There was a lot of good shit and we tried to maintain that rock club feel to our live shows. I think that’s been important and we’ve also all been street musicians in Philadelphia and Boston at different times in our lives. Actually the summer I was playing at Harvard Square, Jimmy Jazz was playing in a band at Harvard Square. We never crossed paths but it was interesting, we were all out there. We all paid our dues, you know what I mean? So many bands coming out, they just get put into someone’s hands and the next thing you know they’ve never even played a show and they have a record deal and they are on MTV.
There’s also the entertainer part of your show – where you definitely get the crowd amped up and dancing. Is this a true part of you personality, or more a stage persona?
Since I started writing songs I’ve always wanted to be in front of people, but not necessarily sitting around playing for my friends at home. I wanted to be on stage playing. And when I’m home playing with my friends I don’t really play a lot of my own songs, I play cover songs or jams. I’ve always had that urge to get on stage, and when I get on stage I have that combination of incredible nervousness and that catch and release thing. I’m lucky I have such a great band, that they hold it down. But my rules are to never ever ask the crowd to dance. I like to address the crowd sometimes during a show about a song and bring them into “my world” or whatever, but never ever try and ask the people, ‘oh come up front and dance.’ That’s like half cheesy.
Well the tour you have coming up with Jack Johnson and Donavan Frankenreiter, that’s going to be pretty low key anyway right?
Well, I still think we’re going to go out and do our thing, but that’s one thing I’ve also learned, that no matter who you’re playing with or what show you’re at, it’s just important to do what you do, ‘cause if I go out to a blues festival and try and play all blues, well people are going to be like “well, he’s not really so great at blues.’ But if we just go out and do our own thing, then they’ll be like “wow, they just do their own thing and are great.”
The Hustle is being released on Brushfire Records – your friend Jack Johnson’s label – so has that changed the way you make records, in terms of you being able to call your own shots?
Well honestly, we’ve always been able to call our own shots, but the bottom line is that we had to call the right shots in best of what the record label wanted. And also, if we would call our own shots, they would they say, “oh we don’t like it.” It got to be such a bad place that you’d be almost scared to go in and be yourself. Signing with Brushfire Records has been the best creative thing to happen to me in years, because now a good friend of mine and musician is my A& R person. Their job is for us to make a record and “you, Jim and Jeff come in and keep it simple, keep it raw and just do what you do. Don’t try and make a radio song or do any whack at all.’ It was a place where we finally had the confidence to go in and record live again and have a producer that was able to make the music jump off the stage and us not sacrifice any artistic whatever – to just be able to throw it down.
We’re not great at making polished music. I listen to Top 40 shit or whatever, like Good Charlotte and No Doubt, and those guys are fucking awesome and could really deliver. For some reason we don’t really excel at that, but we do excel at raw, off the cuff spontaneous stuff.
It sounds like you’re not trying to top a previous record, but rather let each one speak for itself.
I think every one of our records, this is our sixth record, I think everyone tells a story where we were at, at that time. I can really say., I’m really feeling great about The Hustle. On the business side, it’s a new opportunity as a new label, and on the creative side, it’s a re-introduction of me. I wanted to make a personal record and say “yo, this is me.” Actually, a lot of my vibe inspirations come from artists like Snoop Dogg and stuff like that. Whenever you listen to his records, whether you agree with his shit or not, you know who he is, his friends, his posse and his neighborhood and all the shit they get into. That’s kind of what I wanted to express, I had a bad breakup, and coming out of that breakup and having fun again. Just want to be up on my front porch having a glass of lemonade and pulling out my guitar and bust it out.
On a final note, how far do you see the Sixers’ going this year?
Well they kind of systematically destroy the Sixers year after year, but I really love Allen Iverson and I just hope they can somehow put together a show – it’s a team that can do this. It can’t be that hard, but that’s my take.
