The Missing Link Between Public Enemy and Louis Armstrong
When Cyril Neville — a member of the first family of New Orleans funk — gave the Soul Rebels their name, he wasn't just being poetic. He was identifying exactly what this band does: rebel against the boundaries between traditional New Orleans brass band music and everything else.
The Soul Rebels formed when percussionists Derrick Moss and Lumar LeBlanc, both alumni of Harold Dejan's Young Olympia Brass Band, decided to see what happened when you ran hip-hop, funk, rock, and pop through the brass band format. What happened was one of the most exciting live acts in New Orleans — a city with no shortage of exciting live acts.
The Village Voice nailed it when they called the Soul Rebels the missing link between Public Enemy and Louis Armstrong. That's the band in a sentence: the revolution meets the tradition, the boom-bap meets the second line, and somehow it all swings.
They've performed with Metallica, Green Day, Nas, Kanye West, and Macklemore. They were the house band for the NFL Honors on CBS. They've appeared on BBC Two alongside Metallica and Lou Reed. They play over 250 shows a year, and every Thursday night, you can catch them at Le Bon Temps Roule on Magazine Street — a weekly residency that's become one of the essential New Orleans nightlife experiences.
The Soul Rebels prove something that New Orleans has always known: the brass band tradition isn't a museum piece. It's a living, evolving art form that can absorb any genre thrown at it and come out sounding like New Orleans. When you put a tuba and a trombone in a room with a hip-hop beat, something magical happens. The Soul Rebels have been making that magic for decades, and they show no signs of stopping.
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