Fist off, has it really been 127 days since my last post? Amazing. Time really does fly when you are living.
Last night I was sitting in a bar in SoHo when a truly amazing folk cover of Rhianna - Umbrella came on. My girlfriend and I looked at each other and just started laughing, but as the song progressed we both found ourselves singing along and enjoying it. This isn't the first time it has happened where I hear a popular hiphop/R&B/funk song covered by a folk singer and found it good to the point where I like the cover better and would probably like it as the original song, not a cover. Right when we got back to my apartment I hit Google to find the track and found that there are many covers of this song, mostly folky. The cover we heard at the bar was by Biffy Clyro, whom I have never heard of, but then again I had never heard of Obediah Parker before I heard their cover of Hey Ya.
This got me thinking... remember those Punk Goes Pop or Punk Goes Metal albums? I think a Fold Goes Pop or HipHop needs to be made. There are already plenty of tracks out here that fit into this category, we just need to encourage more folk artists to cover pop songs, but cover them well. I know that I personally will be creating said playlist on my itunes and trying to acquire as many of these tracks as possible. I will now direct you all to a website that lists the "Top 5 Folky Covers of Rap & HipHop Songs."
http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/11294
ENJOY and please, please, share with me your favorite folky cover songs, hip hop or not.
My Trusted MOGs
oh wow, I just found this.... Just another one of those songs that I would like even if it wasn't a cover. I feel that some of these are better done than the originals.
My Trusted MOGs
I love Scott Simons' cover of Umbrella as well: http://www.scottsimonsmusic.net/umbrella.html Have you heard "Of Montreal"'s cover of M.I.A.'s Jimmy? http://hypem.com/track/471310 That's an amazing cover too.
It's always good to hear a cover that takes the original song completely out of context and gives it a brand new feel, I think that's what every cover should do. Not much is worse than hearing a cover that sounds almost identical to the original, just with a different singer. If I wanted that, I would go to a karaoke bar.