Hey, there are rappers in Nova Scotia. Who knew? There’s a
couple, actually. Like Sixtoo, Josh Martinez (a frequent collaborator
of Portland’s Sleep), and Buck 65. Buck started making rap records in
the early 1990s and he rapped a lot about baseball and wack emcees in a
funny fake voice. Eventually Buck hooked up with the burgeoning Anticon
“experimental” hiphop clique and his 1999 album Man Overboard proved to be a keystone in the group’s signature style.
As time went by he got sick of rap and started singing. Then in
2004, he said, “I now hate hiphop” in an interview with Kerrang! magazine. In response, Sage Francis said Buck “has had his head up his
arse for a long time now.” Then Buck 65 apologized and said he actually
really, really likes hiphop, and this year he made another rap record,
Situation.
Jumping around from song to song and album to album in the Buck 65
discography is a bit like vicariously experiencing an identity crisis.
You feel the angst, you feel the confusion, and you can almost smell
the desperation. Sleuthing through tracks you can see that at some
point in the late ’90s, after rapping conventionally for a decade, Buck
65 decided he wanted to be Tom Waits. He even put a cover of a Waits
song on Man Overboard. Talkin’ Honky Blues (2003) in
particular sounds like one long Waits homage, with more rhymes and less
believability.
It’s almost sad listening to bits of Buck’s records back to
back—you want to just give him a hug, hoping it’ll make him stop,
but then you realize he actually gets paid to do this stuff. Well,
conceivably. He’s experienced a fair bit of C-level celebrity in Canada
for a while now. He even appeared on a Canadian music awards show in
2006 alongside what is left of Pamela Anderson! Now there’s something
for your fucking resume. It all kind of makes me shake my head. Maybe
it’s because he’s from Canada. Secondhand probably sounds more original
up there.
Perhaps the oddest thing about my feelings for Buck 65’s music is
that—despite sensing that he’s a pompous prick and thinking that
most of his more recent catalog is derivative and self-indulgent
crap—I kind of like some of his work in spite of myself. 2005’s
Secret House Against the World is probably Buck’s most melodic
work to date and features some actual catchy songs. And his newest
record, Situation, his semi-triumphant return to rap or
whatever, isn’t that bad either.
When you get down to it, Buck 65 does have some pretty interesting
lyrics and even when he was spitting rhymes in a pseudo-1920s gangster
voice at the beginning of his career he could still flip a decent punch
line. And I could never fault the guy for a lack of effort. I mean,
Buck 65’s discography plays out before your eyes like a desperate
prop-comedian’s bag of gags: He’s trying really hard to please us. Give
him a hand and tell him you appreciate his style—otherwise he
might get miffed and decide his true artistic voice is best spoken
through klezmer or some shit.