The Soul Rebels started in the 1990's as members of the Young Olympia Brass Band, playing at jazz funerals and parades in their native New Orleans. Lumar Leblanc and Derrick Moss parted ways with The Young Olympia Brass Band to form The Soul Rebels, partly out of a desire to play music in the style of Parliament Funkadelic and Public Enemy, groups that they grew up admiring. The now eight man group has released seven studio albums, and tours the world with top tier MCs joining them as their guests.

Rock The Bells connected with the Soul Rebels to discuss their upcoming residency at The Blue Note and to delve into their journey of becoming one of the most unique and acclaimed bands in Hip-Hop.

"Being from New Orleans you're always around music," band member Marcus Hubbard explains. "The first music that you hear is the local musicians, the brass bands and New Orleans Music, then you have your family playing the typical Maze, Earth, Wind & Fire, and my dad was a big Steel Pulse fan, so I was into reggae. Later, when Hip-Hop exploded, it was Rakim, Public Enemy, 2Pac and Biggie. Being from New Orleans and part of a marching band, we got to play the Michael Jackson and Earth, Wind & Fire songs."

Founding member Lumar Leblanc cites New Orleans' rich community of music, including brass bands and Hip-Hop, as his early inspiration as well.

The Soul Rebels credit a collaboration with Slick Rick The Ruler as their first collaboration with a Hip-Hop artist.

"Slick Rick was our first Hip-Hop collaboration as far I can recall," explained explained band member Julian Gosin. "This was in Washington D.C. and he pioneered the whole Soul Rebels Hip-Hop collab and its just been a trickle down effect. The MCs that we've been fortunate enough to work with all have a background in working with live bands. We are a little different than The Roots and other Hip-Hop bands being all horns, but its a benefit to the MCs because they get to hear their music in its most raw form."

That raw form is jazz, which Hip-Hop has always incorporated into its soundtrack, whether it was the early usage of Bob James and Grover Washington, Jr. breakbeats in Hip-Hop's earliest days, or the signature horn samples of Pete Rock and the upright bass of many 90s Hip-Hop classics.

"Most of those tunes derived from jazz music, and we are the essence of jazz music," Gosin continues. "They are getting the firsthand experience of what that record would have sounded like without the samples and drum breaks."

The group says that the word of mouth from their Slick Rick collaborations ed to collabs with Rakim, DMX and some of the biggest names in Hip-Hop.

"People are approaching us to collaborate now because they've heard through word of mouth what we can do," Hubbard explained. "We are the only group doing it with our instrumentation. You can't like what we are doing and then go try it with another band. The only way that you do what we are doing is to do it with us."

Because sample-based production can sometimes involve unorthodox time signatures and sample chops, it can be hard for a band to replicate. Lumar Leblanc says that the high level of musicianship in the band prevents them from running into such challenges.

"The musicianship is so high in the band that re-creating is not a challenge, especially for the drummers because we just have to lock in on one beat, and loop that manually by continually playing it. The horn players may have questions because the horns might come in a different key than the original, but it's not a challenge to them, they can do it pretty easily. The whole thing is the vibe that the musician has with the artist, and knowing their flow. Again, that's a testament to the band giving it to the artists in a way that they can flow with it, and it still comes off authentic with high energy. It's been in the making for a long time, and we've perfected it."

The Soul Rebels have released seven full length albums and Julian says that he prefers working in the studio to onstage.

"I think in the studio you get a chance to display all of your talent," he says. "On stage, you only get to display one side, and that's performance. In the studio, you display your performance, production, and engineering skills. That's more gratifying for me personally, because there are so many avenues to touch musically that you can't touch live."

The group has held several residencies over the years, and from Sept. 21-24, the band has a residency at New York's legendary Blue Note with Rakim, Big Daddy Kane, Ja Rule, G-Eazy, Louis Cato, acclaimed flutist Elena Pinderhughes (Common, Chief Xian aTunde Adjuah –formerly Christian Scott—), Ray Angry, and James Carter, joining them as guests.

"We've been kickin' around artists that we wanted to work with for awhile," Marcus Hubbard says. "We've worked with Rakim a few times and we are big fans of each other. We've wanted to work with Big Daddy Kane for awhile because we want to work with pioneers of this music. Ja Rule is definitely someone who I listened to coming up, and I'm looking forward to playing with him. G-Eazy went to college in New Orleans, and he comes from the Bay Area. We did a song with him and Lil Wayne, and we did Vodoo Fest with them a few years ago. We are looking forward to doing something with him in an intimate setting like the Blue Note. We do lots of festivals, but we like doing intimate shows like the Blue Note with them."

Purchase tickets to the Soul Rebels Blue Note Residency at The Blue Note here.