The arts possess the sublime power to inspire, engage, and transform. Just as a solitary note holds the ability to captivate, a single voice, gesture, or melody possesses the ineffable power to carry us away.
We invite you to embark upon a new journey with us this season at The Noorda Center—home to inspiring events and an exciting hub for the arts in Utah County. Our mission is to produce and present artistic excellence, which would not be possible without the generous support of our donors and sponsors. We thank them and express our deep gratitude to all patrons, supporters, and friends of The Noorda Center.
Thank you for journeying with us this season to experience the profound and transformative power of the arts!
Courtney R. Davis, J.D., M.A.
Dean, School of the Arts
Gangstagrass is a multi-racial collective of musicians who demolish every preconception you have about country music and hip-hop music. These string pickers and MCs create a shared cultural space for dialogue and connection between folks that usually never intersect. The boundaries are gone and Gangstagrass is out there doing things nobody thought would work but when you hear it you know, down in your soul, that it does work. Gangstagrass is here to help us party together with an irresistible blend of America's rural and urban music traditions.
Integrating banjo and fiddle with hip-hop beats and rapping may be something Gangstagrass does for the love of the music, but it has led them to face a history of racialized genres and deeply ingrained sense of cultural incompatibility. Creating music that turns what some would consider opposite musical styles into a rollicking party that suddenly makes sense, they found a byproduct of their disregard for traditional sense of genre was that they got people who normally would consider themselves to have nothing in common dancing to the same beat. Forget everything you thought you knew about our cultural divisions: when Gangstagrass starts playing, those preconceptions are relegated to the dustbin of history. Banjo and fiddle seamlessly meet verbal acrobatics from skilled MCs. High lonesome harmonies flow over block-rockin’ beats.
“There are a lot more people out there with Jay-Z and Johnny Cash on their playlists than you think,” says Gangstagrass Mastermind Rench, who had previously made a name for himself as an in-demand Brooklyn country and hip-hop producer and singer/songwriter. He should know – he’s toured the country and abroad with a band of bluegrass pickers and hip-hop MCs to the delight of standing-room crowds everywhere. Initially known for the Emmy-nominated theme song to the hit FX Network show “Justified”, the band has become a formidable force in live performance, touring extensively in the USA, Canada, and Europe.
When the band’s fifth studio album No Time For Enemies was released in 2020, Americana Highways proclaimed Gangstagrass “America’s Band” because they take so much of what’s amazing about this country -- the ingenuity, creativity, the strength and struggles of such different people to forge a path into the unknown -- and distill it into a message of common ground and unity across differences. The album quickly rose to #1 on the Billboard bluegrass chart, the first time in history that hip-hop MCs achieved that top spot.
More recently, between appearances on America’s Got Talent and PBS’s The Caverns Sessions that made everyone's highlights list, and a glowing full-page article in the New York Times print edition headlined “This Is the Music America Needs,” the band is geared up to get us all dancing on common ground for their national and international tours and their forthcoming full-length album release in the summer of 2024.
“Gangstagrass fuses string instruments with hip-hop artists, resulting in arguably
the best argument yet for a rap and country music marriage”
-Rolling Stone
“This Is the Music America Needs” -The New York Times
“Gangstagrass may blend bars and banjos, but their music also feels a little rock n’ roll, a little rebellious”-Vice
“Rench and his friends have done nothing short of creating a new form of music. Gangstagrass
takes two types of music that are opposites and mixes them together brilliantly in
a way that is natural and enjoyable.”
-Elmore Leonard
“Gangstagrass is Good 'Ole Southern Hick Hop” -Noisey
“Gangstagrass melds authentic bluegrass with rap and hip-hop. It's a concept that may look jarring on papern but the band does it so effectively that it's a much easier idea to sell once music fans see or hear them.”-Forbes
“Gangstagrass, an experiment that proves, at least to me, that hillbillies and emcees can get along swimmingly." -Mother Jones Magazine
“Favorite theme song … Long Hard Times by Gangstagrass”
-The Wall Street Journal
“Bluegrass and hip hop are rarely spoken of in the same context. And the fusion of
the two forms puts the band Gangstagrass beyond those borders in the strictest sense.
Indeed, this intrepid ensemble has managed to make a bold statement by plying banjos
and fiddles with rap and beats.”
-Bluegrass Today
“Throwing some bluegrass grooves and insane banjo licks in some hip-hop flavor and flipping that into their own unique concoctions.” -HipHopDX
“If only all country-rap songs were so well executed” -Rolling Stone
“Gangstagrass’ blending of bluegrass and hip-hop textures may sound revolutionary in times as polarized as these, but it’s also downright necessary.” -No Depression
“This is the recipe America has been looking for!” -Howie Mandel
It is thanks to community members like you who make experiencing the wonder at Utah Valley University’s The Noorda Center for the Performing Arts possible.
The arts inspire us to engage with others, discover new ways of thinking, and provide us with hope - in short, we believe the arts transform you.
As a hub for the arts in Utah County, hundreds of performances are produced by talented students, faculty, and world-renowned visiting artists at UVU. We invite everyone to join in connecting through the arts.
As part of UVU’s EverGREEN comprehensive fundraising campaign, please consider making a gift to UVU’s Noorda Center for the Performing Arts today.
Your gift impacts students and everyone who comes to The Noorda Center by ensuring programming and artistic creation continues.
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