finetune artist: Busdriver

b. Regan Farquhar, California, USA. Despite professing an indifference to hip-hop, Los Angeles-based MC Busdriver produces a bewildering but satisfying take on the genre. He forges an absurdist hip-hop that is, in its creator's words "a jumbled up mix bowl of ideas". At the age of 13, Busdriver's interest in hip-hop led to the group 4/29 (named after the date the Los Angeles uprising in support of police brutality victim Rodney King began in 1991). He was subsequently tagged with the Busdriver label because "I was always on the bus when I was a teenager and I always used to battle the rap guys on the bus.' Busdriver's skills (including his distinctive dense flow that often requires repeated play for any sense of comprehension) were honed via the Goodlife Caf sessions that had previously spawned west coast lyricists such as the Pharcyde and Jurassic 5, and through a serious of self-released albums. His first album for the Ninja Tune Records offshoot Big Dada, 2004's Cosmic Cleavage, was recorded with producer Daddy Kev and Invisibl Skratch Piklz" D-Styles. The album was inspired by the idea that "when men meet women they stare at their cleavage and it distracts them from the person in front of them." While Busdriver's creations are undeniably idiosyncratic, Farquhar rejects the idea that he is offering an alternative to rap: "Unique works should empower hip-hop not distract from it." Busdriver has notably worked with Aceyalone, Abstract Rude, Mikah-9, 2Mex, Xololanxinxo, Fat Jack, Daddy Kev, Paris Zax and Omid and collaborated with Daedelus and Radioinactive on The Weather.

Listen to Busdriver at Finetune.

Casting Agents and Cowgirls
Kill Your Employer (Recreational Paranoia Is The Sport Of Now)
Pompous Posies! Your Party's No Fun
The Troglodyte Wins
Dream Catcher's Mitt