Bad News Brown may be Montreal’s next big thing

Hip hop may be synonymous with many things, but harmonica has not traditionally been one of them. The street? Yes. Bling? Uh-huh. Drugs? About as much as Lindsay Lohan’s nose. But the little sorrowful instrument that calls to mind lonely Hoover-era hobos train-hopping from Oklahoma? Not so much – until now, that is. Bad News Brown, born Paul Frappier, has been matchmaking harmonica and hip hop over the course of the last decade and has made a name for himself by creating a unique fusion of diverse genres that are typically as divided as a grade seven dance.

Starting out as a hustling busker, Bad News Brown’s skills have taken him from the streets to the stage, affording him the opportunity to share the limelight with some of the industry’s biggest acts. In addition to collaborating with people such as Nas, Cypress Hill and De La Soul, the musician has opened for Snoop, The Eagles, Aerosmith, Tom Cochrane, 50 Cent, Ciara, and hip hop’s front man, Kanye West.

 “I’ve opened for everybody, whether they know it or not. I don’t always try to meet them and converse, but I try to just do my thing, step by step,” Bad News says while hanging out backstage at his album release party. “What happens is that guys like Cypress Hill and Nas will take me on with them, and those moments have been the highlights of my life. But now my highlight is releasing my album and starting to push it.”

The album, Born 2 Sin, is a big step for the musician. He has been playing harmonica for nine years, and for the past several years has been travelling the world with his music and learning the ropes with some of the best teachers in the game, but this is the first full-length he has officially released. The result is an accomplished record, the product of years of foundation-building laid down in a single release. In short: an impressive debut.

“I’ve released this album with all the information I’ve collected from doing all these shows in front of different crowds, and performing with all these big artists. I got to soak up a lot of information and a lot of flavour from a lot of people just to see how to do [it] – what’s the mathematics of controlling the show, the stage, the business, the crowd.”

Bad News fell upon the harmonica quite by accident, stumbling across one that had been tossed aside in a drawer. He started fooling around with it, soon discovering that he could make a sizable sum playing it on the street. Taking in an average of $150 a day helped him stay out of the kind of trouble that otherwise might have fallen easily into his lap.

“I’m called Bad News Brown because I was Bad News – I used to show up and steal mics all the time, wreck shit. But I’ve changed my ways and [become] a very humble person, and just trying to do something the right way while having fun and living life and enjoying it at the same time.”