.Best Multigenre Band: With lyrics that show they care

The Flipsyde

Although they’ve toured with the Black Eyed Peas and the Pussycat Dolls, the members of local hip-hop-rock group Flipsyde say they have no desire of writing bumptious, celebratory songs about, well, My humps, my humps, my humps, my humps. Rather, their lyrics include excerpts of letters written to soldiers serving in Iraq,
spoken-word-style raps that recast US history as a tale of manifest destiny and paternalism, and an earnest, self-deprecating testimonial about abortion. The combination of Dave Lopez’ flamenco-style guitar, Steve Knight’s blues-rock vocals, Jinho “Piper” Ferreira’s theatrical rap lyrics, and DJ D-Sharp’s deft scratch techniques (yes, a lot of their songs begin with the old-school sound of a DJ cutting records), makes it difficult to shoehorn this band into a single section at Amoeba. Yet the compelling arrangements and trenchant rap lyrics on their debut album We the People proved that such genre-bending impulses can be artistically viable, even if they don’t have commercial staying power.

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