The Bike Rapper

A new generation of carbon-free musicians brings pedal to the people

sweet inspiration.


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"... A fresh undercurrent of musical culture is reinventing what’s cool — and taking gasoline out of the equation. Around the country, musicians are embracing pedal-power, biking from show to show, city to city, even nation to nation.

The movement arrives as a reaction to the trends of global hip-hop and mass-produced rock, worlds in which stars may preach socio-political and environmental righteousness yet indulge in glamorous, grossly extravagant limo lifestyles."

But not the Ginger Ninjas. In April, this folk-ska band from North San Juan, California (fronted by Xtracycle co-founder Kipchoge Spencer) completed a fully pedal-powered tour of 5000 miles from Lake Tahoe to Chiapas, Mexico. The Ninjas’ tour — called Pleasant Revolution — included 80 dates. So did the Rolling Stones’ 2006 Bigger Bang Tour, but the tired supergroup’s tour also included 80 semi trucks, a jet plane and 37,000 barrels of oil — each incinerated, of course. The Ginger Ninjas, who employed a pedal-powered sound system at most shows, estimate they expended a third of a barrel of oil on their journey.

In San Francisco, Fossil Fool, “The Bike Rapper,” has achieved an unlikely alchemy. Known more casually as Paul Freedman, the innovative vocalist and tech wizard has blended the shadowy realm of streetside rap with the gentle notion of the bicycle. He rides a massive, self-designed pedal-powered chopper from gig to gig. It’s a bike mean as hell and cool as night. It glows when pedaled and serves as a human-powered P.A. system at Fossil Fool’s mobile street parties, and it gets great gas mileage between venues — which is to say none.

“My character when I perform is a rapper born in an alternate universe where bikes are cool and cars are lame,” says Freedman. “There’s no doubt we live in a car culture, but I also have no doubt that bikes are way cooler. People are sick of the hip-hop culture where the rapper has the newest Mercedes.” sweet inspiration. - (link/article for full story) ... more

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