Pawn Shop - Sublime - MP3 instrumental karaoke

“Pawn Shop” is a song from Sublime’s self-titled third album. The trio consisted of vocalist/guitarist Bradley Nowell, bassist Eric Wilson, and drummer Bud Gaugh. Sublime’s musical style included ska, punk, surf music, dancehall, hip hop, and dub music. The band was instrumental in creating a third wave of ska by combining a raw punk element with the Jamaican music genre. Sublime had been recording the album, which was their major label debut on MCA, for a period of three months at Willie Nelson's Pedernales Studio in Austin, Texas. The lyrics deal with relationships, riots, prostitution, addiction, and on this song, pawn shops. “Pawn Shop” is a reworking of “War Deh Round A John Shop” by the reggae vocal group Wailing Souls. Nowell suffered with drug addiction and often sold his guitars to pawn shops for drugs. The band manager Michael "Miguel" Happoldt would go buy Nowell’s guitar back before his show. Things got so out of control during the recording that Nowell was asked to leave the recording process before the album’s completion. Sadly on May 25, 1996 the tortured singer was found dead of a heroin overdose at the age of 28, two months before the album was released. The backing track for “Pawn Shop” is available as an instrumental on Karaoke Version.