"Growing up, I really misinterpreted hip-hop," says Richard Terfry, the thirty-two-year-old Canadian who records and performs as Buck 65. "But what the hell do you expect? I'm from Nova Scotia, for chrissakes." For more than a decade, Terfry has been misinterpreting hip-hop with great success. His albums are vivid beatscapes full of dirt-road narratives and grizzled rhymes, from up-tempo bangers such as "Wicked and Weird" to impressionistic slow ones including "The Centaur," a truly amazing song about a half-man/half-horse who likes classical music and has a bigger private part than you do. Terfry speaks French, was an outstanding shortstop who was scouted by the Yankees, plays a mean tuba, was once homeless and is obsessed with David Lynch, Anton Chekhov and fashion designer Vivienne Westwood. He may also have the largest record collection of any hip-hopper in history. "I have anywhere between 20,000 and 25,000 records," he says. "I'd put my iPod up against anyone's." This fall, V2 Records is set to release This Right Here Is Buck 65, a compilation of his older material.

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