Mellowhype
“Right so let’s scratch all that dreams shit and talk about music.”
“Dreams are gay.”
OFWGKTA are doing their very best job of running and reinventing rap in tandem.
Sat at the top of a mountain of rap crews recycling the rap rulebook in vain attempts to cut it that little bit better than the rest, Odd Future remain unperturbed. They are literally laughing at the other guys. Not arrogantly, but in a fashion that simply reaffirms the apparent ease in which they find themselves at the summit. We are talking seamless, insurmountable movements skyward that have taken them from skateboarding the streets of LA to private jetting around the globe.
If you ever find yourself lucky enough to be in such a position you soon grow to realise that the biggest fish not only makes the rules, but also has license to re-write the rulebook, tear out the pages, basically do whatever. In this respect, among the tired pillars of the hip hop fraternity, OF represent revolution.
“Who am I to say anything? But if you’re not succeeding then just give up.” - Hodgy Beats
“Skating. Fucking bitches. Smoking weed, making music and eating donuts. We fucking litter. Fuck the world. Fuck global warming. Live life.” - Leftbrain
Mellowhype (AKA Hodgy Beats and Leftbrain) are living the dream and they know it.
This is not to say that they got here by chance. For the past two years both Odd Future and Mellowhype have crafted a movement that has gone toe-to-toe with each and every pocket of the foul US hip hop machine (and won). This is what the kids are digging. All of their official releases to date (20+ albums and mixtapes) have been available for free download via the OFWGKTA Tumblr page. They have actually made rap music fun again. Verses about rape and gratuitous cop killing violence aside, which are commonplace but comedic, do not take away from the fact that as breaths of fresh air go, they represent the most significant inhale in many years.
Hodgy and Leftbrain are best friends and musical brothers. The music they make comes about because they spend almost all of their time together and this camaraderie beams within their records.
If Tyler’s rise to solo superstardom in Earl Sweatshirt’s absence (just two stories within a patchwork of events that place OF where they are today), Mellowhype are the guys stood just behind the front row of goons, waiting patiently for their opportunity to explode. Two crew releases deep, along with Hodgy’s Dena Mixtape and the third Mellowhype record ‘Numbers’ to follow suit before the end of the year, it is fair to say that Hodgy and Leftbrain already have a stronghold in the game through prolificness alone. Not bad for two guys in their early 20’s.
What do you do and why do you do it?
LB: “What do I do and why do I do it? I do a lot of shit. I might do a hundred things in one day or I might do two things in one day. So I do this shit cause I’m alive and I have the energy so it’s what I’m gonna do cause I’m living. I don’t know; I just do the shit my brain tells me what to do.
Describe yourself?
LB: “Describe myself?”
HB: “A peeled apple.”
LB: “I’m like when you pour syrup on bacon.”
(HB proceeds to spit an entire mouthful of water across the room)
(mad laughter)
HB: “That was a good one though.”
What was the last dream you had and how did it make you feel?
LB: “I always dream about sex.”
“What takes you to cloud 9?”
HB: “Weed.”
Formal interview and photoshoots aside, it isn’t until we found ourselves back in Mellowhype’s hotel room that Hodgy and Leftbrain really let their hair down. From Leftbrain throwing around bags of skunk to Hodgy sharing unreleased bars from the new LP, this was where they steadily began to detail more about their plans for total domination…