Bad Rabbits
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Bad Rabbits is an American band from
Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...
, Massachusetts, founded in September 2007. The band consists of Fredua Boakye (vocals), Sheel Davé (drums), Salim Akram (guitar), Graham Masser (bass), and Santiago Araujo (guitar). All five members of the band originally played in the Boston-based band
The Eclectic Collective The Eclectic Collective was a crossover band from Boston, Massachusetts Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Fin ...
, which in 2007 they reworked and renamed Bad Rabbits. The band released a demo in 2008 entitled ''The Bad EP'' which was followed up by their debut EP, ''Stick Up Kids'', in December 2009. Their first album ''American Love'' was released on May 14, 2013, and on July 19, 2014, Bad Rabbits released ''Dusted'' – an acoustic EP. They have won four
Boston Music Awards Founded in 1987, the Boston Music Awards are a set of music awards given annually that showcase talent in the Boston, Massachusetts, area. Past shows have featured such notable talent as Aerosmith, Paula Cole, Esperanza Spalding, Boston (band), ...
, including Pop/ R&B Live Artist of the Year in 2014. Bad Rabbits also won the 2010 Phoenix Music Poll Award for Most Downloaded Band. From 2007 to 2010, they performed as the backing band for rapper
Slick Rick Richard Martin Lloyd Walters (born January 14, 1965), better known as Slick Rick, is an English-American rapper and record producer. He rose to prominence as part of Doug E. Fresh & the Get Fresh Crew in the mid-1980s. His songs " The Show" and ...
. They have been a part of five national tours, including the 2011 and 2014
Vans Warped Tour The Warped Tour is a touring rock music festival that toured the United States and Canada each summer from 1995 until 2019, and returned in 2025 for its 30th anniversary. By 2015, Warped was the largest traveling music festival in the United S ...
, the 2013
Don Broco Don Broco are a British rock music, rock band formed in Bedford, England, in 2008. The band consists of Rob Damiani (lead vocals), Simon Delaney (guitar), Tom Doyle (bass and programming) and Matt Donnelly (drums, lead and backing vocals). The ...
Priorities UK tour, the 2014 Allen Stone US Tour and their own UK tour in 2014.


Early history

The five members of Bad Rabbits first came together in 2002 while attending
Northeastern University Northeastern University (NU or NEU) is a private university, private research university with its main campus in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It was founded by the Boston Young Men's Christian Association in 1898 as an all-male instit ...
and Audio Institute in Boston, MA. Boakye and Akram were performing as a duo and their childhood friend, Davé was a member of experimental metal band Irepress. Masser & Araujo were playing in a jam band, covering Phish & the Grateful Dead songs. At the time Davé, Akram & Boakye started writing music for a new band. In need of more musicians to complete their band, a friend introduced Masser and Araujo to Davé at the
YMCA YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organisation based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It has nearly 90,000 staff, some 920,000 volunteers and 12,000 branches w ...
dormitory on Northeastern's campus. The group performed their first show as
The Eclectic Collective The Eclectic Collective was a crossover band from Boston, Massachusetts Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Fin ...
on January 16, 2003, at All Asia in Cambridge. There were various lineup changes which primarily included Akram, Boakye, Davé, Araujo, Masser, RP Thompson (keys), Geoff "DJ Special Blend" Ford, as well as singer Noni Kai on vocals, trumpet player and rapper Peter "Afrodzak" Shungu, and saxophonist Robert Oswald. After two independent album releases and a tour in the Fall of 2007 with artist
Gavin Castleton Gavin Castleton is a musician/songwriter/producer from Providence, Rhode Island. Originally known for his work with Gruvis Malt as keyboardist and singer, Castleton has released nine full-length albums and seven EPs as a solo artist. He has als ...
, the group decided to call it quits. Not happy with the direction
The Eclectic Collective The Eclectic Collective was a crossover band from Boston, Massachusetts Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Fin ...
had taken, founder & drummer, Sheel Davé led the change of its name and overall direction. Davé took the name, Bad Rabbits from one of
Gavin Castleton Gavin Castleton is a musician/songwriter/producer from Providence, Rhode Island. Originally known for his work with Gruvis Malt as keyboardist and singer, Castleton has released nine full-length albums and seven EPs as a solo artist. He has als ...
’s songs, which the group performed while on tour with him.


Career

In the fall of 2008, the band self-released a four-song demo titled ''The Bad EP''. The EP contains the song "The Bad", which became the song now known as "She’s Bad". In spring 2009, the band entered the studio with producer Jayson Michael Dezuzio to record their debut EP, ''Stick Up Kids''. The album was completed in fall 2009 and released independently that December. The band also entered into a relationship with Boston-based online retailer Karmaloop.com, who distributed and promoted the album through their website. A remix compilation of the ''Stick Up Kids'' EP was released in the fall; it included remixes from
Clinton Sparks Clinton Charls Sparks (born September 18, 1979) is an American DJ and record producer from Boston, Massachusetts. He initially started his career as a rapper, dancer, producer, and DJ who gained notoriety by making Bootleg recording, bootleg re ...
,
Crookers Crookers is the musical project of Italian DJ and producer Francesco "Phra" Barbaglia. Crookers was originally a duo consisting of Phra and fellow producer Bot, who worked together from 2003 to 2012. When the two artists met, both were trying to ...
, Roxy Cottontail, Hot Pink Delorean, and Alex Suarez. Tracks on this release include "Booties", "Neverland", "Stick Up Kids", "Girl I'm Like Damn!" (featuring
Travie McCoy Travis Lazarus "Travie" McCoy (born August 5, 1981) is an American rapper and singer-songwriter. He is the co-founder and lead vocalist of the rap rock band Gym Class Heroes, which he formed in 1997 with then-fellow teenager Matt McGinley, afte ...
of
Gym Class Heroes Gym Class Heroes was an American rap rock band from Geneva, New York. The group formed in 1997 when Travie McCoy met drummer Matt McGinley during their high school gym class. The band's music displays a wide variety of influences, including h ...
), "She's Bad", "Advantage Me" and "Can't Back Down". On May 14, 2013, the album ''American Love'' was released. It reached No. 1 on the iTunes R&B album chart and No. 35 iTunes album chart. The album also reached No. 10 on the ''Billboard'' Heatseeker Chart, No. 12 ''Billboard'' R&B Albums and No. 29 on the ''Billboard'' Hip-Hop/R&B Album Chart. The first single from ''American Love'', "We Can Roll", is a one-sided 7" vinyl single, with the iconic "BR" logo hand-printed onto the blank B-side. Each copy came housed in a jacket that was hand screen printed with a 3D spot glitter and each record was individually numbered. The band released three more albums; an acoustic album titled ''Dusted'' (July 9, 2014) and the albums ''American Nightmare'' (November 21, 2016) and ''Mimi'' (August 9, 2018). Keyboardist RP Thompson plays on most of the band’s recordings but only plays live on rare occasion. From 2011 to 2015, Ramon Narvaez, a longtime friend of the band and multi-instrumentalist began filling in live on bass as well as rhythm or lead guitar when necessary. When the band parted ways with Araujo in the fall of 2015, Narvaez would take over his position as a touring member and would do so until early 2020. He would also contribute musically to both “Save Yourself” and “WWYD” off 2017’s American Nightmare. In 2018, Masser would leave the band and would be replaced by Mike Landry in a touring capacity. Mike had been a fan of the band and a mutual friend of drum tech Brian Cauti. In 2020, the band celebrated the 10-year anniversary of ''Stick Up Kids'' with sold out shows in Boston, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. In 2020, the founding and remaining members, Boakye, Akram & Davé formed their new record label, Coco Bvtter records and plan to release the next Bad Rabbits record in 2023.


Members

* Fredua Boakye – vocals * Sheel Davé – drums * Salim Akram – guitar


Discography


Albums

*''American Love'' (2013, Bad Records, P-Vine Records, Enjoy the Ride Records) *''American Nightmare'' (2016, Mind Over Matter Records) *''Mimi'' (2018, Mind Over Matter Records) *''Garden Of Eden'' (2019)


Remix albums

*''Stick Up Kids Remix'' (2011, self-released)


EPs

*''The Bad'' (2008, self-released) *''Stick Up Kids'' (2009, self-released, Mind Over Matter Records reissue) *''Cover Sessions'' (2011, self-released) *''Dusted'' (2014)


Singles

*"Can't Fool Me" from ''American Love'' (2013) *"We Can Roll" from ''American Love'' (2013) *"Fall in Love" from ''American Love'' (2013) *"Doin' It" from ''American Love'' (2013) *"Dance with You" featuring
Teddy Riley Edward Theodore Riley (born October 8, 1967) is an American record producer, singer, and songwriter credited with the creation of the R&B and hip-hop fusion genre, new jack swing. Musical artists who utilized Riley's production and songwri ...
and
Clinton Sparks Clinton Charls Sparks (born September 18, 1979) is an American DJ and record producer from Boston, Massachusetts. He initially started his career as a rapper, dancer, producer, and DJ who gained notoriety by making Bootleg recording, bootleg re ...
(2013) – an extended version of the song is used in the music video *"Better Days" (2014) *"Feels Good" (2018)


Other songs

*"Stick Up Kids" (demo) (2008) *"Advantage Me" featuring Brandon Wronski, from ''PacSun Summer Music Mix 2010'' (2010) *"Kassius Ohno Theme" featuring
Florida Championship Wrestling Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW) was a professional wrestling professional wrestling promotion, promotion based on the former National Wrestling Alliance member promotion, Championship Wrestling from Florida, which operated from 1961 until ...
Audio Team & Jim Johnston (2010, unreleased) *"Booties" (Big Chocolate Remix) (2011) *"Can't Back Down" (Blunt Sinatras Remix) from ''Turnt, Volume 1'' (2011) *"Way with Words" from Bad Rabbits
SoundCloud SoundCloud is a German audio streaming service owned and operated by SoundCloud Global Limited & Co. KG. The service enables its users to upload, promote, and share audio. Founded in 2007 by Alexander Ljung and Eric Wahlforss, SoundCloud is ...
(2015) *"How High" from Bad Rabbits SoundCloud (2015) *"Mysterious" from Bad Rabbits SoundCloud (2017)


Collaborations

*"Gangsta Party" featuring
Ninjasonik Ninjasonik are a Brooklyn-based rap duo composed of frontman Telli and DJ-turned-vocalist Jah-Jah. Biography Ninjasonik started in late 2006-early 2007 when fellow DJ's Jah Jah Brown and Kevin Ross began writing and recording songs in Bus ...
from Cody B. Ware's ''Welcome Home'' (2011) *"Sailboats" from
Chuck Inglish Evan Ingersoll (born October 7, 1984), better known by his stage name Chuck Inglish, is an American rapper, producer and songwriter most known for being part of the hip hop duo The Cool Kids with Sir Michael Rocks. His debut album '' Convertible ...
's ''Wrkout'' (2011) *"Made", as Bad Rabbits x
Vince Staples Vincent Jamal Staples (born July 2, 1993) is an American rapper. Born in Compton, California and raised in Long Beach, California, he first became known for his appearances on projects by Odd Future members—''Earl (mixtape), Earl'' by Earl Sw ...
, from Converse's ''Cons, Vol. 2 – EP'' (2011)


Awards

;Boston Music Awards *2010 – R&B/Pop Artist of the Year – WON *2013 – R&B/Pop Artist of the Year – WON *2013 – Artist of the Year – WON *2014 – R&B/Pop Artist of the Year – WON *2014 – Live Artist of the Year – WON ;Phoenix Music Poll Awards *2010 – Most Downloaded Band – WON


TV appearances

*''
Jimmy Kimmel Live! ''Jimmy Kimmel Live!'', sometimes shortened to ''JKL'', is an American late-night talk show, created and hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, and broadcast on ABC. The nightly hour-long show tapes and is based out of the Hollywood Masonic Temple in Hollywo ...
'' **Performed "Can’t Fool Me", "Fall in Love" and "We Can Roll" on May 18, 2013. *''
The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson ''The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson'' is an American late-night talk show hosted by Scottish actor and comedian Craig Ferguson. This was the third iteration of the The Late Late Show (American talk show), ''Late Late Show'' franchise, airi ...
'' **Performed "Can’t Fool Me" on May 31, 2013. *''
The Arsenio Hall Show ''The Arsenio Hall Show'' is an American syndicated late-night talk show created by and starring comedian Arsenio Hall. There have been two different incarnations of ''The Arsenio Hall Show''. The original series premiered on January 3, 1989 ...
'' **Performed "Dance with You" and "We Can Roll" on Sept 24, 2013. * Polartec Big Air at Fenway **Performed on February 11, 2016.


Tours

;2010 *Support for Foxy Shazam and Young Veins *Support for Mike Posner and Far East Movement ;2011 *Vans Warped Tour *Support for Taking Back Sunday and The Maine ;2013 *Karmaloop Verge Campus Tour supporting Kendrick Lamar and Steve Aoki *American Love Headline Tour *UK Tour supporting Don Broco ;2014 *Vans Warped Tour *UK Headline Tour *Support for Allen Stone


References


External links


Official websiteFacebookTwitterYouTube
{{Authority control American pop music groups Musical groups established in 2007 Musical groups from Boston Mind Over Matter Records artists