Q&A with Hodgy Beats from MellowHype, Odd Future

SHARE Q&A with Hodgy Beats from MellowHype, Odd Future

Hodgy Beats and Left Brain, members of hotly debated rap group Odd Future — appearing Sunday afternoon at the Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago’s Union Park — also work together under the name MellowHype. The duo’s self-released 2010 album “Blackendwhite” was reissued this week by Fat Possum Records with extra tracks, and a new album, “Numbers,” is expected later this year.

We caught up with Hodgy Beats last week following Odd Future’s performance at the T in the Park festival in Scotland, the last of a string of dates for the group across Europe. When we weren’t rehashing the controversy about the group’s violent lyrics, there was other stuff to talk about …

Q: How have the shows been in Europe this month?

Hodgy Beats: Europe is pretty wild, yo. The festival shows have been very, very intense. The crowds are really in love with Odd Future. Musically, people out here are more into it.

Q: How did you and Left Brain meet?

HB: We’ve known each other, sh–, probably since the second semester of 10th grade. So, 2007-ish.

Q: What clicked between you?

HB: I was just waiting for someone else to come along to make music with.

Q: You work together as MellowHype; within Odd Future, do you also work as a unit?

HB: We work together and with other people. He makes a lot of beats. Left Brain drops a beat and it’s, there you go.

Q: With up to 10 people onstage at Odd Future gigs, how do you keep it from getting too confusing?

HB: Before shows we remind each other, hey, everybody’s excited and into it and everybody wants to be on stage, but let’s try to keep it minimal. It’s three people max at all times. That doesn’t work out all the time.

Q: What should we expect at this show?

HB: A bunch of niggers rocking the f— out.

Q: Will there be some MellowHype shows in the future?

HB: Actually, there will be. When “Numbers” comes out, we’ll do our own tours.

Q: How will they differ from the whole group’s shows?

HB: It’ll be more personal, more hands-on. We’ll actually pull a different crowd.

Q: Why do you think that?

HB: We’re just different, dude. We’re just different.

Q: Is there going to be an Odd Future album?

HB: Definitely.

(Someone in the background then shouted “No, tell him no, Hodgy!” and laughed.)

Q: Who’s that?

HB: That’s my counselor.

Q: How was it lying in a coffin full of snakes for the “64” video?

HB: It was crazy. Actually, it was cool. I never thought I’d be doing something like that.

Q: That video has some dark imagery. How much of that is your idea and how much is the vision of the director (Matt Alonzo)?

HB: It’s all my decision. It just looks cool. It’s not dark to me.

Q: You and Left Brain are cranking out a lot of music. What inspires you to be so creative and so fast?

HB: It’s just what we do. It’s a living. We’re getting paid for it now, not that it matters. But music is our passion and our joy. We enjoy doing it, that’s why we make a lot of it.

Q: “Not that it matters”? You could take or leave the money?

HB: I’d still be doing it, trying to get where I am, with or without someone’s money.

Q: You have plans for a solo album, too?

HB: Yeah, called “Damien.” There’s no set date or any stress on it.

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