Though there's a rich history of African American motorcycle clubs, you'd be forgiven for conjuring up images of burly, bearded white dudes when someone says "Harley rider."
Slick of Hindu Mafia Family knows that, but on Black Harley Riders Volume 1, the Phoenix-based rapper hopes to expand the traditional biker image.
"When you say 'motorcycle music,' they don't expect it to sound like this," Slick says, clad in a black leather vest. "A lot of people are surprised and shocked when they hear it. Coming out of Arizona, you don't usually hear this sound coming out of AZ."
Joined by J Stone and Bombay, Slick's Black Harley riders debut is inspired by his MC, vintage soul, and classic West Coast hip-hop.
"We're part of a motorcycle club, we got the Hindu Motorcycle Family," Slick says. "The motorcycle scene actually trickled over from California over this way. You know, we gotta show love to the Soul Brothers and the Chosen Few, those are two of the main two bike clubs in Arizona. They pretty much started the scene. Once they started throwing their annuals and getting pretty big, everybody started catching up, like, 'Man, that hog looks pretty good.'"
"We focus on the motorcycle set, because it's a community inside of a community," Executive producer Paul "Uncle Pauly" Franklin If you're not really affiliated with the community, you never know it exists. One of the things we wanted to do with this record is kind of give exposure to that underground world that so many people overlook. We wanna bring that to the mainstream."
"It's a lot of fun," Slick says of the MC. "You're just riding your bikes with your brothers, and there's a lot of brotherly love."
Download: Black Harley Riders, "She Wanna Be a Rider" Black Harley Riders, "She Wanna Be a Rider"
Visit Black Harley Riders' official website for more info.
