Gangstagrass?

I recently became incredibly intrigued by the FX show, Justified. To clarify, by 'intrigued' I mean that I watched almost the entire first season in one night.

The show itself is great. Timothy Olyphant plays Raylan Givens, a badass U.S. Marshall who moves back to his native Harlan, Kentucky to help rid the town of criminal organizations. Add to that lots of shooting, tight jeans and awesome cowboy hats and you can imagine why I was so easily hooked.

But ironically, it wasn't the tight jeans and cowboy hats that caught my attention, although they certainly didn't lose my attention.

The attention grabber was the theme song or, more specifically, the band's name: Gangstagrass.

These New York boys, along with their Brooklyn producer, Rench, have created a whole new genre of music that combines authentic bluegrass with rap to create a very unique sound.

Well, it might not be considered a whole new genre. Around 2006, Cowboy Troy came out with his version which was "Hick-Hop," but that was more rap mixed with country music rather than bluegrass.

But technicalities aside, I think the best part about this genre of music is that it is a perfect representation of southern progressiveness. Accepting this type of music is the south's way of progressing, or at least I think it is.

So, for me, seeing rap successfully mixed with country or bluegrass music shows a move in the right direction. A combining of passions and histories.

Bless Gangstagrass's hearts!