It’s no secret that hip-hop’s influence — from rhythmic vocals and creative beats to innovative production styles — is felt in many genres of contemporary music.
Country music is getting into the act with the likes of Jason Aldean’s current single, “1994.”
But the country act that may be pushing hip-hop the furthest as a new influence on country music is Florida Georgia Line. On their debut album, “Here’s to the Good Times,” the duo of Brian Kelley and Tyler Hubbard fuse hip-hop into several songs.
The hip-hop dimension isn’t a gimmick, Kelley said.
“We both grew up listening to a lot of rap and hip-hop, and obviously country music, for sure, and rock,” Kelley said. “You know, we just don’t want to sound like anybody.”
Florida Georgia Line plays July 14 at Aaron’s Amphitheatre at Lakewood, opening for Luke Bryan.
Creating a unique sound has been a priority since Kelley, from Ormond Beach, Fla., and Hubbard, from Monroe, formed their duo three years ago, after meeting as students at Belmont University in Nashville.
“That’s what we’ve wanted to do from day one is have a sound that people that haven’t heard us say, ‘Well, who is that? I need to know,’” Kelley said. “So we wanted to be ahead of the curve and create music that’s fresh and create music that’s real.”
And Kelley thinks it’s not just a touch of hip-hop that is enabling Florida Georgia Line to bring something different to country music.
“I think it’s a lot of things that come together,” he said. “I think it’s our voices. I think Tyler as a lead guy doesn’t sound like anybody else. I think the harmonies, and (producer) Joey Moi, he created us a sound that doesn’t sound like anybody else, and we’re writing songs that are different than other people and recording songs that are different.”
The sound is obviously registering with country music fans.
“Cruise” holds the No. 1 slot on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, while “Get Your Shine On” recently topped the Country Airplay chart and went top five on the Hot Country Songs chart. In addition, “Here’s to the Good Times” has taken over the top spot on Billboard’s Country Albums chart.
If that’s not enough to declare them hot, in April the duo won two Academy of Country Music awards — for new artist of the year and new vocal duo or group.
“It means everything,” Kelley said of the awards. “Man, we’ve had a dream year, and the coolest thing about those two awards is they are fan-voted.”
It was a climb for Kelley and Hubbard from their days at Belmont University. Afterward, the two stayed in Nashville, writing songs and playing acoustic duo shows. That didn’t pay the bills, and for two-plus years they did everything from installing bathroom stalls to mowing lawns.
Slowly, their local audience grew. The duo put out a 2010 debut, “Anything Like Me,” that included a song, “Black Tears,” later covered by Aldean on his “Night Train” album.
As word about Florida Georgia Line spread, the duo landed a high-profile booking agent, Buddy Lee Attractions; a publishing deal with Craig Wiseman’s Big Loud Shirt; and eventually a record deal with major label Republic Nashville. What had been a self-released EP, “It’z Just What We Do,” was reissued last May and then “Here’s to the Good Times” came out in December.
Kelley said the band’s set in Atlanta will be short, sweet and full of energy.
“We just go out there and try to rock it. We call it the party set and pretty much everything’s uptempo, and we just try to get everybody fired up and everybody is pretty much ready to party by then anyway. It’s not too hard. We just go out there and do our thing.”
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