To say they have a diverse portfolio would be an understatement of how one might explain The Soul Rebels and how many artists they have collaborated with or the wide range of music they incorporate into their performances.  If we want to get down to the real nitty-gritty of it, in fact, there are very few musical acts that can say that they have done what this band has.  Over the years, they have forged creative partnerships with an eclectic roster of artists, spanning genres, generations, and geographic boundaries that would fill pages - captivating audiences across the globe tour after tour.   

Fresh off weekend two of Jazzfest, easily one of the bucket-list festivals of millions, DC Music Review got to speak with trumpet player Marcus Hubbard about the next amazing tour that kicked off and makes its way through DC next week at historic The Howard Theatre.  Worn out but ready, Hubbard summarized the festivities in the Cresent City as a great way to wrap up in their native city and say a little goodbye to home.

“This is Tuesday, and I'm still in recovery. I just got out the shower because I was trying to wake myself up, but I'm still tired from Jazzfest.  You know, we do so many shows - we do a lot of shows with Soul Rebels, plus a lot of the members are doing stuff with other collabs and other people during that week, so we're constantly busy. We might have about three or four gigs per day, we didn't have any late ones this year, so that worked out in our favor. Also, usually this is the time when we are kind of saying our final goodbyes to home, because we know we're going to be out for a nice little while after this. So yeah, we looking forward to hitting the East Coast, West Coast, wherever we are taken. For us, we're ready to go and we're looking forward to it be really fun.”

With a tour schedule that ranges from Japan to California and everywhere in between, connection to not only the city, but the music of DC is something that is an added bonus when having the Nation’s Capital on the schedule.  

“One thing we always talk about DC, because of the Go Go culture, is that it kind of reminds us of the New Orleans, like brass band cultures from the neighborhood - just it comes strictly out of the streets. That's why we feel like the connection with hip hop is music that came out of the streets, and at the beginning, wasn't accepted by mainstream, and after a while it started getting accepted. So DC is pretty cool and just super unique.  That’s the blessing - that we get to go to these different places and experience different cultures and stuff like that.”

Anyone familiar with the music of New Orleans and the world-famous musicians it has birthed, know how much of voice and influence that The Neville Brothers have in the city that sits along the Mississippi River.  That means the world when you find out that The Soul Rebels, were in part, named by the legends themselves.  

“The thing about it is, they looked out for us early on, you know, they kind of looked at it as a younger group that's not trying to just do what everybody else is doing.  It was refreshing for them to see that somebody's trying to step out on their own, on merit, you know?"

"One of the guys was a family member of The Neville Brothers, so they were willing to give us a shot opening up for em at Tipitinas.  For a band with the amount of years we had been in existence, that was unheard of. You know, the band was probably about one or two years old and we were about to open up for the world famous Neville Brothers - it was a really good thing."

"We went on stage, we were doing a lot of stuff that they weren't expecting from the brass bands and they were like, ‘Man, you guys are doing your own thing - y'all like, rebelling against this, this ring, but it got like some soul to it’ - Cyril Neville was like, ‘Man, you guys are like, some soul rebels.’  When he said that, it just stopped. It was like, ‘that’s it, that's going to be the name!’"

"At the time, we were spit balling all kind of different names, I couldn't even tell you all the crazy names that were coming out, but when he said that, it just, we knew - this is incredible.  Once he said it, it just stuck and it fit with what we're doing. It's not that we're rebelling, we just wanted to be our own entity.  We wanted to make our own mark in this music, you know.”

Make their own mark is not even a worthy definition of what the members of this band have managed to do with their musical diversity.   The Soul Rebels' collaborative approach to bringing audiences something new and original, is their unmatched commitment to authenticity and mutual respect. Whether collaborating with legends like Marilyn Manson or Erykah Badu or giving an up-and-coming artist a shot to share the stage, the group approaches each collaboration as a dialogue, a meeting of minds and musical sensibilities. Rather than imposing their own vision onto their collaborators, they embrace the diversity of perspectives and experiences, allowing each artist to bring their own voice to the table.

"When you get in the room with them, it's like the conversation is musician and musician, you realize we're all the same people, we just play a different genre of music and we learn a lot when we do those collaborations.  Like with Metallica, just from a creating music standpoint, it was good to sit down and talk to them because we were learning music, that's what we do, too. When we learnin music, we gain a lot bigger respect for the different genres of music that we play. To hear how the music is written, it was like they explained to us how they approach creating music, which is - we found out - can be completely in the reverse of how we do it. "

It's just the actual interaction with these different artists, is the big part of it that the fans don't even get to see.  Like I wish you guys could be in the room for the conversations we had after we did the show with Marilyn Manson in Japan. We were in the dressing room two hours after the show, and he was talking about all kind of different things. The same thing happened with DMX. It's like, you start learning about these people, and you start having a real appreciation for the opportunity that you got to actually collab with these guys.  Lot of these people are where they are because they're serious about music and it helps us channel that.  Look, man, to be successful in this, you gotta really lock in, you know? And it's good to talk to those guys, and it's been a great experience, it really has"

As The Soul Rebels continue to push the boundaries of their music and explore new avenues of collaboration, one thing remains certain: their journey is far from over. With each new project and partnership, they continue to cement their status as pioneers and blaze a trail into uncharted territory time and time again.  The Soul Rebels are leading the way with their unmatched commitment to diversity, creativity, and collaboration and DCMR can't wait to have them back in our city with two of hip-hops favorites to shine bright on the stage at Howard Theatre.

Ghostface Killah

GZA

To learn more about The Soul Rebels, please see the following web resources:

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• YouTube
• TIDAL
• Spotify
• Soundcloud

To learn more about Ghostface Killah, please see the following web resources:

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To learn more about GZA, please see the following web resources:

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