High on the “Well, this isn’t going to end well” list in regards to music is “acoustic covers of popular rap songs.” I’m sure that every one of you have those kinds of lists, and I’m sure quite a few of you have listened to some particularly awesome acoustic covers of popular rap songs. Dynamite Hack’s “Boyz -n-the-Hood” and Ben Fold’s “Bitches Ain’t Shit” are timeless classics done right, but after that, the trail runs cold.

And by “it runs cold,” I mean “the rest of the stuff sucks.” I almost always ignore something that looks like it’s going to be anything of the sort, and always make sure to avoid any compilations in that vein as well. More than that though, I tend to avoid covers by unknown artists, ever since I decided to check out NOFX’s cover of “Vincent” by Don McLean. I wasn’t familiar with them at the time and it was possibly the worst thing I’ve ever listened to.

Anyway, when a buddy of mine posted this video on his Facebook, I didn’t think it was much of anything. I’m a pretty big fan of Dr. Dre, and I didn’t want somebody trying to cover his music and not doing it justice. But, for some reason, I clicked the seemingly high-quality video. It’s a video of Zach Heckendorf singing “Forgot About Dre” acoustically in the middle of Mile High Stadium, where the Denver Broncos play.

I don’t quite get why that venue, but I believe I brought it up because I saw that it was at the stadium. Don’t know. But I started listening and … wow, this guy has an amazing voice. His voice is low with that soft rasp that really sounds like …. sounds like an acoustic, white Dr. Dre. He definitely has the quality to his voice and I don’t know how else I should put it. He raps it all well (or sings fast, really) and doesn’t skip a beat. It’s pretty darn amazing.

Check out the video below .. I’m off to go locate his EP.

Picture via Zach Heckendorf’s MySpace page.