HighDro’s jolt comes note for note

When he speaks about his music, his words are so charged, it’s as if they should be described in terms of volts rather than syntax.

“I’m an emotional dude about it,” rapper-promoter HighDro says of his socially aware, positive-minded hip-hop, “because I really feel the words I say to the fullest.”

Every musician will say that, of course, but when HighDro does the same it resonates because of how he says it: Sitting in a home studio, long dreads spilling out of the back of a San Francisco Giants ball cap, his voice is a roller coaster of emotion and his eyes widen to the diameter of D batteries as he explains how he got here after starting freestyling at age 10.

“I got in a lot of trouble,” he says, surrounded by keyboards and recording equipment, framed by Rage Against the Machine and Johnny Cash album covers mounted on the wall behind him. “I went through jail, counseling classes. I learned how to be a better person. And I said, ‘Man, if there’s one thing I really want to do with my life it’s help other people.’ ”

Initially, he wanted to be a counselor, but then turned back to his childhood passion: hip-hop.

“I realized that I can counsel not just one person at a time, but massive amounts of people through my music,” he says.

Since then, HighDro has become a fixture in Vegas hip-hop circles, hosting the weekly “Hip-Hop Roots” series for close to five years now and trying to build bridges between various scenes by collaborating with artists outside the rap realm.

Which brings us to his latest project, an album with Vegas reggae-rockers Goldfish Don’t Bounce (GDB). HighDro, a serious reggae fan, recruited the band to play with him on an opening gig for the Wu-Tang Clan last winter. From there, they clicked, reworking a handful of tunes from HighDro’s back catalog, with the band infusing the songs with a funky, horn-abetted swing.

It works well, despite everyone’s different backgrounds.

“We just decided right away, ‘I’m not going to change anything I’m doing,’ ” HighDro says. “ ’I’m not going to come and try and rap Jamaican style or do what the other singers in the band had done before. I’m going to do me, and you guys do you.’ ”

HighDro and GDB will commemorate the release of the disc with a show this Saturday at the Las Vegas Country Saloon. They’re already tentatively planning another one.

“I want to challenge myself with music,” HighDro says. “I want to make people think. I want to make people listen.”

Hear that?

Contact reporter Jason Bracelin at jbracelin@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0476. Follow him on Twitter @JasonBracelin.