Transplants

The Transplants are a hip-hop/punk side project of Tim Armstrong, Rancid's vocalist/guitarist, and Travis Barker, Blink-182/Box Car Racer's drummer. The other vocalist is Rob Aston, a former AFI roadie who's some sort of rapping skinhead, and is attempting a solo career in the near future. All of the Transplants grew up listening to rap and hip-hop, but ended up playing in punk bands and never got to experiment with it. They solved that problem by getting together to form this band.

Transplants (2002) 8 Thumbs Up

I'll be honest with you; I don't listen to rap at all. That said, I can assure you that despite some punk influence, this doesn't fall into the eternally lame rap-rock genre. It's mostly actual rapping, but with a guitar beat in the background instead of a bass beat or something. The entire CD was compiled on Pro Tools after being recorded in Tim's basement, so it has a smooth sound to it without seeming fake. The vocals on this album are amazing - Tim's rough crooning mixes perfectly with Rob's angry rapping to create a sound both rap and punk fans can enjoy.

The Transplants have had two singles off this album, "Diamonds and Guns" and "DJ DJ," and as a result, have been accused of being formed as a way for Travis, who is already rich, to make more money, and for Tim to get rich off Travis' popular image without officially selling out Rancid's indie cred. Regardless of the motivations behind this album's recording, it's still really good. There are guests on a whole bunch of songs - some good, like rapper Diablo, and others bad, like the horrible-sounding Brody Dalle (The Distillers) and Davey Havok, (AFI) who screams just as hoarsely as Brody. But songs like "Tall Cans In The Air," "Sad But True," "California Babylon," and "Down In Oakland" are all solid hip-hop tracks with a bit of punk influence. A great album from a band that's just supposed to be a side project.

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