Could Johnny Cash be the father of hip-hop?

I have a CD in my car that I keep listening these days, a country mix with Johnny Cash, Kenny Rogers, Dolly Parton and Willie Nelson. I really enjoy that CD, honestly.

While listening Johnny Cash, I realized on some of his songs he doesn’t actually sing much, me kind of tells a story on a particular rhythm and on a musical background, like for example The Cadillac song or Big Bad John. I couldn’t actually help myself comparing it to modern hip hop…

If you think about it, they do the same, tell a story on a musical background. Even the themes of the songs are a bit “outlaw-ish”(is there such a word?!). Listen the following song and pay attention to how JC puts the words in there, just like an authentic hip-hop, the measure of some lyrics forces him to end a sentence in the middle of the verse and start another sentence that will be finished somewhere later on an other verse. Pretty familiar…

I really think that if one of the hip-hop artists would cover one of the songs of JC would go great, word by word. Plus a lady on chorus…

What do you think?

Later edit: take a look at this version of Big Bad John, sung by Charlie Daniels Band.

Interesting…

By the way, the initial theme, on guitar sounds so much like Cats in the cradle of Mr Big. Is this some kind of traditional theme in country music or what?

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