Odd Future (Wolf Gang Kill Them All) are running and reinventing Hip Hop in tandem right now. We are talking total domination and unrivalled rewiring. Odd Future are sat at the very top of a mountainous pile of rappers, and they are literally laughing at the other guys. Not arrogantly, but in a fashion that simply reaffirms the apparent ease with which they find themselves at the summit – seamless, insurmountable, Concorde-vapour-trail movements skyward that have taken them from skateboarding LA street corners to running this thing called rap… If you ever find yourself lucky enough to be in such a position, you soon realise that the biggest fish in the pond is not only allowed to break the rules but, moreover, to rewrite the rulebook, tear out its pages, and basically do whatever. Within a scene peppered by so many fortified and historical pillars that must be adhered to, Odd Future represent revolution.
MellowHype have gained a bit of a reputation as the trickiest members of the Odd Future gang to corner and interview. Before making their way down to the West London hotel lobby where we interviewed them, their tour manager Christian had already warned us that it is all about the mood you happen to catch them in… And they didn’t take too well to questions regarding their success, neither did they care to talk much about Earl’s absence or what they’re working on in the future. No, what most interested MellowHype were questions surrounding dreams and the music that the UK can be proud of inventing, grime especially.
So, formal interviewing processes and photo shoots aside, it wasn’t until we found ourselves back in their hotel room that Hodgy and Left Brain really let their hair down. From Left Brain swinging around at the camera to Hodgy polishing his gold grill and kicking unreleased bars from Numbers, that was the cotch. It was only amongst the discarded bits of music production kit, grills and Nando’s wrappers that MellowHype began detailing the full extent of their dreams to take over the world. “When Earl comes back,” prophesises Hodgy, “Odd Future is taking over the world. We gonna be writing everybody’s songs, we gonna be producing everybody’s songs – psyche! We gonna be making a smash man. We’re young, we gotta lot of talent, we feed off each other and other artists. It’s just art and music, we can bend it, flux it, make it look whichever way we want it to.
See the full article in The Dreams and Aspirations Issue!
Text: Thomas Hawkins
Photography: Christina Smith
Film: Johannes Schaff
