While Tyler, the Creator may be Odd Future's outspoken mouthpiece and (currently missing) Earl Sweatshirt the group's most intriguing member, MellowHype's Hodgy Beats and Left Brain are no less talented and the pair are primed to start making a lot of noise themselves.
MellowHype consists of producer Left Brain and rapper Hodgy Beats, and they performed alongside Tyler during OF's watershed moment on "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" in February.
The duo first met in high school and went on to release two albums, YelloWhite and BlackendWhite, last year, while Hodgy released his solo The Dena Tape in 2009. Both MellowHype projects were well-received and they plan to re-release a re-mastered version of BlackendWhite through their new label, Fat Possum. And that's not all. When MTV News caught up with the duo in Austin during South by Southwest, Hodgy said they planned to drop a lot more material.
"We're trying to put out, like, two albums this year, even if it's not put out, we're trying to make two albums. I'll have my solo album, so for me it will be like three albums," Hodgy said. "We're pretty much already finished with the new MellowHype project, which is called MellowHype Numbers. We have 2 more songs to record and then it's done."
Hodgy said they had been working out of the studio in engineer Syd's house for the last four years, typically crank out three songs a day.
"I'll sit there, we'll build and the next thing you know we have a song. We have the chorus, we have the ad-libs finished, we have the hook, we have everything we want. It's not hard, because I'm not working. I'm just enjoying my task."
Despite the whirlwind Odd Future has been swept up in over the last few months, Hodgy said he was shocked by the impact their music has made. The L.A. group has appeared in and on the cover of several magazines, got "signed" in a Funny or Die video and arguably made the most noise coming out of Austin for SXSW.
For Left Brain, the highlight of his time in Texas was when the group enjoyed some "good-ass tacos" with Jay-Z. (The group first met with Jay, weeks ago, during their brief East Coast tour.)
"It was hard for me to look at Jay-Z for 10 minutes. Like, real sh--, this is the godfather of music," Hodgy said. " 'I just shook his hand in his house.' Honestly, it made me want to work harder. Jay-Z is amazing."
