Scene | Rapper Action Bronson Bringing Crude Humor To House Of Blues
At first glance, Action Bronson, who performs at House of Blues on Jan. 22, doesn’t look like he’s one of the best emcees in hip-hop right now. In fact, he looks more like a slightly unkempt version of Henry VIII. He’s the consummate poster child for that old adage about judging a book by its cover. When he opens his mouth to rhyme, he has the delivery and tone that hordes of rappers could only wish to have. Yes there’s a bit of similarity between Action and Ghostface Killah in the voices and subject matter — especially when it comes to his seemingly endless zany exotic food references and stream-of-consciousness lyrics that tend to fly in from left field. But the crude humor that can be found on songs like “Jackson & Travolta” and “Flip Ya” help to differentiate the two emcees.
In a recent interview with French website Booska-P, Bronson delivered a lengthy list of influences that included not only Ghostface but a bunch of other artists that run the gamut from typical to astounding. Such names included Cam’ron, Kool G. Rap, Raekwon, GZA, Prodigy, Miguel, Bobby Womack, Prince, Billy Joel, Michael Bolton, Yoyo Ma and Yanni. Quite the lineup.
Action Bronson was born as Ariyan Arslani and hails from Flushing, Queens in New York City. He made a splash on the scene with 2011’s Dr. Lecter. Powered by the hit “Shiraz,” the Tommy Mas-produced album helped to thrust Bronson into the limelight. Arguably, one of the components of Bronson’s success has been only working with a sole producer for each of his releases, giving each project a more cohesive sound. Following Dr. Lecter, Bronson collaborated with Statik Selektah for Well Done, Party Supplies for Blue Chips, Alchemist for Rare Chandaliers, Harry Fraud for Saaab Stories and back to Party Supplies for the second installment in the Blue Chips series. Released in November of last year, Blue Chips 2 ended up on plenty of year-end lists as one of the stellar recordings to come out in 2013.
