Bad News Brown

The Hip-Hop MC along with his signature sound has taken him from his humble beginnings as a teenage busker in the streets of Montreal to touring 250+ venues, opening for Snoop Dogg, Sean Paul, Kanye West, 50 Cent, Lil Jon, Aerosmith, The Eagles, N.E.R.D., Soulja Boy, Ciara, Common, Lloyd Banks, Jadakiss, Common, John Legend, Gym Class Heroes, Booba (Fr), Sinik (Fr) etc.. and accompanying on stage Nas, Ice T, Cypress Hill, LaFouine (Fr), Lee Oskar and De La Soul.

Born in Haiti, Paul Frappier moved to Montreal at a young age with his adopted family. He left home in his teenage years, and quickly discovered that his natural born-talent for the harmonica could earn him a living by busking on the street and in Metro stations. “Busking was the smartest thing I ever did in my life,” he says. “It paid my bills, bought me my studio, and within two years I estimate 50 per cent of the city knew I existed.”

Not one to conform, Bad News Brown developed his sound by playing in the streets, combining his skill as a blues/jazz harmonica player with his love of Hip-Hop. With harp in hand, Paul adopted his stage name from the suggestion of fellow Montreal rapper, Misery, which coincidentally was the name of his childhood favourite WWF wrestler, Bad News Brown. Bad News Brown quickly became accredited as the best busker of Montreal from the popular Weekly Arts & Music Magazine, The Montreal Mirror. His reputation as the city’s best street performer even led him to be chosen as the host for the 2004 National film board documentary, Music For a Blue Train, a bluesy portrait of the musicians who busk in Montreal’s metro.

On the debut album, “Born 2 Sin”, Bad News Brown vividly displays the skills he has been sharpening over the past decade. His eclectic musical approach makes it very difficult to categorize Bad News Brown’s unique style, but BNB terms it... “Harmonic Hip-Hop” or “Electronic Triptronic Melodic Harmonics”. His fluent and melodic harmonica sounds weave in and out on the album, giving “Born 2 Sin” a genuinely fresh sound. “Intelligence” is a classic Hip-Hop track featuring beats, scratching, and a cinematic production sound, while “Back On It” possesses an irresistibly sexy and laidback vibe. The title track "Born 2 Sin", a fusion of Hip-Hop and soul, is catchier than swine flu, while the triphoppy “Too Deep” is a tune Massive Attack could proudly call their own.

Bad News Brown crafted the tracks on Born 2 Sin with production assistance from the likes of Haig V, Primal, Parafino, C4, Made By Monkeys & Edi Burgz. “Haig is one of the main producers on the album, with six tracks,” says BNB. “He’s a long-time friend who has worked with the likes of Bran Van 3000 and Muzion. I used to listen to and watch him in his studio back in the day, and I used a lot of his instrumental tracks on this album. I went through his archives, picked out stuff I liked, went home, worked on them, brought them back, and we worked it from there.”

“I’m known as the Hip-Hop guy who’ll take the harmonica and rip that show to shreds. Now I’m the first Hip-Hop artist to release a predominantly harmonica-driven album,” - Bad News Brown.