[Interview] Hodgy Beats: Find Your Own
RubyHornet: This isn’t your first time working with Thelonious, right? He did a couple songs on your EP, and even a MellowHigh cut.
Hodgy Beats: Yup.
Rubyhornet: How did you first link with Thelonious? What do you like about his records?
Hodgy Beats: I don’t know. He’s just got this signature sound when it comes to sampling and shit. When I heard it at first, I was just getting out of high school. Actually I was still in high school. I was a senior. I hit him up over the Internet, next thing you know, we’re in the studio and shit, making music. I just like to make music, especially with people that I feel work hard. It doesn’t necessarily have to be up to my ability, but if I see ethic showing through your production, or lyrics, or a stroke of a paint brush…
RubyHornet: That seems to be a common thread with your whole crew. Always making things and putting stuff out. You have Odd Future, MellowHype, and MellowHigh, and you also mentioned your own solo stuff. It’s a constant thing.
Hodgy Beats: Yeah. I just like to keep shit different. It’s like a Cobb Salad. You got to throw the blue chess in there, the tomatoes, you need the variety in order for the shit to really be good. Me as an artist, I like doing different projects with different people. Me and Dom’s project is definitely going to be different than a project like my solo or some MellowHype shit. In a way, when I’m in the studio working on one project, I look at it differently. I normally work on two projects at one time just because if I get tired of one project then I can just bounce to the other one to give it that offset.
Rubyhornet: I interviewed you last year around the time that the first MellowHype album was being re-released on Fat Possum.
Hodgy Beats: Oh yeah.
Rubyhornet: You said that you still hadn’t really adjusted to the fame and how everything had taken off so fast. A year later has it calmed down a bit? Are you more comfortable with everything?
Hodgy Beats: Yeah, I’m comfortable. I mean, I don’t even feel famous. The only time I feel famous is when I’m on stage, or somebody’s talking shit to me on Instagram. Just the little things, like someone coming up and asking me to take a photo, I think it’s weird. ‘OK, you want to take a photo with me? I ain’t nothing special.’ This is my 9-9, I work this shit 24 hours. We’ll be on the tour bus for 2 months straight. I got a Cal King bed at home, I still don’t feel famous at all. I’m around the same fucking people I’m around everyday. We’re just regular n***as just doing what we believe in.
