CHARLIE FARLEY
Hog Heaven
Call him a country rapper, a disciple of hick-hop, or -- here's a thought -- forget about
labels altogether. But understand one thing: Charlie Farley's songs tell the story of his life
the way he's lived it and run the gamut from wild abandon to ... even more wild abandon.
Yet some also touch on tougher, more intimate themes, giving him a chance to slow
down his rapid-fire rapping, if only a little bit. But, as Charlie keenly observes on one of
the turbo-charged tunes from his debut album, Hog Heaven: "When the tailgate drops, the
bull---- stops." That line could apply to the "play" button just as easily as to the tailgate.
Whether you're hanging out at the "Stabbin' Cabin," or staying "Jacked Up" with the
"Backwoods Boys," Hog Heaven supplies some mighty heavy beats, breath-defying
rhymes, and a great big slice of unfiltered country life to accompany the occasion.
Charlie Farley's musical journey began in the tiny town of De Queen, Arkansas, where he
was raised. "It's a little bitty town," he says, noting that country singer Collin Raye also
hails from De Queen. "It's gotten bigger now but we had just one light in the town. It
wasn't a red light. It was just a flashing light at a four-way."
At 12 years old, Charlie started writing poetry to help him cope with the death of his
sister. "I felt like I couldn't tell anybody what I was going through because nobody
understood me," he reflects. "There wasn't anybody else going through that at my age. I
would just put it down on a piece of paper and I would feel the weight lifted off of me.
Any time I got down I would just write and that turned into poems. Then poems turned
into songs."
One of Charlie's earliest influences was southern country-rap trailblazer Bubba Sparxxx.
"When he came out with the 'Ugly' video in the hog pen with hogs wallowing all around
him [rapping], 'It's getting ugly UP IN HERE,' I was like, 'What the hell? This is some
bad-ass sh--!'" Charlie recalls. "He was doing that country-rap before anybody ever
thought about it. He made it marketable. Everybody from every walk of life could feel
it." One of the songs on Hog Heaven, a remix of "Jacked Up," features Sparxxx and
Charlie's labelmate on country-rap powerhouse label Average Joes Entertainment, Colt
Ford.
By the time he was 16, Charlie was a writing/rapping machine, filling stacks of
notebooks with his observational lyrics. Inspired by some buddies who were making
music, Charlie took his "anything they can do I can do better" mentality and quickly
began spending time in the recording booth himself. After sending an e-mail to Atlantabased duo Phivestarr Productions (producer J Fresh and DJ KO), to find out how much
they would charge per track to record an album, Charlie followed up by sending them
three songs of his songs. At the end of May in 2012, even before his spring semester at
college was over, he headed to Atlanta and recorded his 13-track disc in just two days.
Thanks to the proliferation of country-rap, and the success of Colt Ford -- who penned
the Jason Aldean smash "Dirt Road Anthem" with Brantley Gilbert and scored a No. 1
album of his own in 2012 with his Declaration of Independence, Charlie has found a
spiritual home with a Nashville label that understands who he is an artist, and, more
significantly, as a native son of backwoods Arkansas, where the simple pleasures involve
finding a good time wherever you can, and expressing yourself the best way you know
how.
"It took Colt Ford rappin' about the country for people to go back to what it was supposed
to be about," says Charlie. "And in rap, the same thing. You don't have any Tupacs [now].
Eminem is still here, but on the rap side it seems like everybody's trying to make a dance
song to have one hit [and then] be gone. Country ain't country and rap ain't rap. Music is
missing artists who talk about real life things, stuff that really goes on in life, the hard
times, the good times," he notes. "Not everything is about a party, though. Sh-- happens
in life to where you want to listen to something else besides that. I don't know any artists
that are doing that. Of course, every generation there is going to be people who say, 'Well,
that ain't country,' even though to me it is."
Those hard times he mentions are chronicled in the semi-autobiographical ballad "What's
Good for the Goose," which opens to the strains of acoustic guitar before delivering the
ominous line "If you can lie, I can lie, too." Although some of the details are fictional, the
sordid tale of cheating, gunfire and bittersweet revenge hits an emotional bulls-eye at
point blank range. Charlie, however, remains mindful of the karma that may await him,
now that he has a young son of his own, addressing his concern in "Backwoods Boys,"
which features the Daniel Lee Band. Other guests on Hog Heaven include singersongwriter Noah Gordon, who adds his hardcore twang vocal to "Average Joes," his
labelmates the Lacs (on "Backroads Life") and fellow Georgia native Danny Boone of
Rehab on "Stabbin' Cabin," a song whose title sounds like a horror movie -- although the
only horror that awaits you is likely to be a dirty mattress. At least the beer is cold. The
real-life cabin, owned by his grandfather, is in nearby Gillham, Ark., the town where
Charlie spent his first three years. "In the song, I say it's like my Days Inn. I go stay there
to get away from everything, to clear my mind or to party. I don't live but a mile from
there. My brother is two or three years younger than me and he did the same thing."
Although Charlie grew up on country music, he has always listened to, and been
influenced by, a number of rap artists. For him, the genres meet at a creative crossroads
where he began kicking up dust during his adolescence. "I got more into it the older I got
and was rebelling," he acknowledges. "You turn 16 and it's like you think you're the man.
You ain't gonna do anything your parents say. I listened to Tupac, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg,
Xzibit, Eminem, Nappy Roots, Nas. I listened to all kinds of artists -- Nickelback, Creed.
But then on the country side, I still listened to Garth Brooks … Hank, Willie, Waylon,
Johnny. I really do love all the styles coming together and I think the more open-minded
people are about it the better it will get. Just listen to the words and listen to the music;
it'll just get bigger and better until it's just amazing."
Charlie also hopes his album, his live performances and his numerous YouTube clips will
inspire people unfamiliar with his music to come away with one thought about him: "I
don't know him but he's wild as hell. I want his ass at one of my parties!"