Sublime
40oz. To Freedom

Orange County, Long Beach California. Sun that cracks stones, there's a buzz in the air, you can smell sweat, sea, beach bonfires, parties, alcohol, and drugs, the smell of the street, of brawls and punches, of friendships written in blood, of promises to keep and never kept, the smell of prison and humiliation, the scent of the desire to live, and the aroma of a life lived to the fullest.
Died at 28 from an overdose in 1996, Brad Nowell and his Sublime managed in just a few years of career to convey a new way of approaching music. They took funk, hip hop, ska, punk, reggae, creating a hybrid of styles magnificently fused together, tracing back a part of rock history.

In Long Beach, there's the scent of Frank Zappa, the Clash, Bob Marley, Miles Davis and Vandals, KRS-One and Fugazi.
40 oz.To Freedom is Sublime's debut from 1992, a band that had so much to say it filled an album with 22 songs, a band with so many ideas that it's still raided by many artists today who have a record contract breathing down their necks and few ideas going on in their heads.
A journey into the California sun with Brad's splendid voice telling us stories of drugs ("Smoke Two Joints", a splendid fusion of funk and hip hop), of prison ("5446 That's My Number/Ball And Chain" where a sudden rhythm change takes us through soul and ska atmospheres), stories of rape ("Date Rape", the song that early No Doubt always wanted to write), hopes (the splendid "Hope"), and promises (the splendid "Krs-One" with just voice and acoustic guitar).

The Sublime knew how to be angry and in love, dirty and combative, but above all, they had a desire to live, perhaps too much of a desire to live.
40 oz To Freedom is an essential album because it contains at least 20 years of truly lived music, and to understand today who's really behind those pimpled kids in heavy rotation on worldwide networks.