MellowHype was an American

hip hop Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide range of musical techniques. Hip- ...

duo from

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

, that consisted of rapper-producer

Hodgy Gerard Damien Long (born November 9, 1990), better known as Jerry (formerly Hodgy and Hodgy Beats), is an American rapper and record producer. He is best known for being a founding member of the hip hop collective Odd Future. Music career Long ...

(Gerard Long) and producer-rapper

Left Brain Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All, better known as Odd Future and often abbreviated as OF or OFWGKTA, was an American alternative hip-hop Musical collective, music collective formed in Los Angeles, California in 2007. The group consisted of rap ...

(Vyron Turner). Both were members of hip hop collective

Odd Future Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All, better known as Odd Future and often abbreviated as OF or OFWGKTA, was an American alternative hip-hop Musical collective, music collective formed in Los Angeles, California in 2007. The group consisted of rap ...

. They have released two studio albums which both charted on the Billboard 200 albums chart and four mixtapes.

History

Early years (2006–2010)

Left Brain and Hodgy Beats were already making music independently of each other when they first met and began collaborating around 2006 or 2007. MellowHype consists of Left Brain (Mellow) producing and Hodgy Beats (Hype) rapping. Although Hodgy Beats and Left Brain were both featured on the first two

mixtapes, their debut as MellowHype came with their debut mixtape, '' YelloWhite''. The mixtape was released on February 24, 2010. The group was later featured on Domo Genesis's debut mixtape '' Rolling Papers'' on the track " Basic Bitch". Their debut studio album, '' BlackenedWhite'' was released on October 31, 2010, for free online.

BlackenedWhite re-release (2011–2012)

In early 2011, MellowHype gained massive popularity, along with the rest of Odd Future following the release of Tyler, The Creator's single, ''

Yonkers Yonkers () is the List of municipalities in New York, third-most populous city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York and the most-populous City (New York), city in Westchester County, New York, Westchester County. A centrally locate ...

''. On April 5, 2011, MellowHype performed the song "64" with Mississippi-based grunge labelmates

Bass Drum of Death Bass Drum of Death is an American Garage punk (fusion genre), garage punk band from Oxford, Mississippi, United States, currently signed to Fat Possum Records. History The band's frontman, John Barrett, formed Bass Drum of Death in 2008 as a ...

on the

Fuel TV Fox Sports 2 (branded on-air as FS2) is an American sports-oriented pay television channel owned by the Fox Sports Media Group, a unit of Fox Corporation. The channel is based at the Fox Sports division's headquarters on the Fox Studio Lot in ...

program The Daily Habit. They also performed their song "65" alongside

Tyler, The Creator Tyler Gregory Okonma (born March 6, 1991), known professionally as Tyler, the Creator, is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He has been cited as an influential figure in alternative hip-hop during the 2010s. Tyler beca ...

for the BBC music showcase. On July 12, 2011, the duo re-released a remastered version of '' BlackenedWhite'' on

Fat Possum Records Fat Possum Records is an American independent record label based in Water Valley and Oxford, Mississippi. At first Fat Possum focused almost entirely on recording previously unknown Mississippi blues artists (typically from Oxford or Holly Sprin ...

along with a music video for the lead single, "64".

Numbers and MELLOWHYPEWEEK (2012)

On August 16 of the same year, a song titled "67" was released through Hodgy Beats' Tumblr. They began to hint at an album titled ''

Numbers A number is a mathematical object used to count, measure, and label. The most basic examples are the natural numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and so forth. Numbers can be represented in language with number words. More universally, individual numbers can ...

'' and released several more songs containing numbers in the titles. On January 4, 2012, MellowHype digitally released the song "45" through Hodgy Beats' Tumblr. On July 13, 2012, MellowHype released the song "FAKUOY" through Hodgy Beats' Tumblr. The song was speculated to be on ''Numbers'', however, it was later revealed to not be on the track listing. It was later announced that ''Numbers'' would be released on October 2, 2012, however, the release date was pushed back to October 9, 2012, the same day as the release of fellow Odd Future Records members

Trash Talk Trash talk is a form of spoken insult usually found in sports events, although it is not exclusive to sports or similarly characterized events. It is often used to intimidate the opposition and/or make them less confident in their ability to wi ...

's album '' 119''. The first official single for ''Numbers'', "La Bonita", was released on July 18, 2012. The album features

Frank Ocean Frank Ocean (born Christopher Edwin Breaux; October 28, 1987) is an American singer and songwriter. He has been credited by several music journalism, music critics as a pioneer of the alternative R&B genre. Ocean has won two Grammy Awards and a B ...

, Mike G, & Earl Sweatshirt. On August 5, 2012, Hodgy announced a MellowHype mixtape set to release September 11 via Twitter. It was later revealed that MellowHype would instead be releasing one track per day for 7 days starting on September 11, 2012. The songs released were "Decoy", "Greezy", "Wasabi", "Godsss", "F", "LP" & "WHAT".

Domo Genesis Dominique Marquis Cole (born March 9, 1991), known professionally as Domo Genesis, is an American rapper, DJ, and songwriter. He is best known for being a member of Los Angeles hip hop collective Odd Future. He has since continued his solo career ...

and

Juicy J Jordan Michael Houston III (born April 5, 1975), known professionally as Juicy J, is an American rapper and record producer. Originally from Memphis, Tennessee, he is a founding member of the Southern hip-hop group Three 6 Mafia, established ...

made guest appearances on the tracks "Greezy" and "Wasabi", respectively.

MellowHigh album, ''Ineedsomeanswers'' and break up (2013–2015)

On April 20, 2013, MellowHigh, which is a trio consisting of Hodgy, Left Brain and

, released their first single and music video entitled "Troublesome 2013". On August 24, 2013, it was revealed their debut album by the group '' MellowHigh'' will be released on October 31, 2013. The group also released promotional vlogs leading up to the release, showing footage of them on the Odd Future European tour 2013 and recording the project. Over the following months they periodically released songs via

SoundCloud SoundCloud is a German audio streaming service owned and operated by SoundCloud Global Limited & Co. KG. The service enables its users to upload, promote, and share audio. Founded in 2007 by Alexander Ljung and Eric Wahlforss, SoundCloud is ...

. On October 10, 2013, the music video for "Yu" was released. It was revealed ''MellowHigh'' will contain guest appearances by Tyler, the Creator,

Curren$y Shante Scott Franklin (born April 4, 1981), better known by his stage name Currensy (stylized as Curren$y), is an American rapper. Born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana, he signed with the local record labels Cash Money Records and Young Mo ...

, Smoke DZA, Earl Sweatshirt, and Remy Banks. Upon the release, the album debuted at number 89 on the US ''Billboard'' 200. On June 9, 2014, MellowHype announced their next mixtape ''INSA (I Need Some Answers)'', would be released on July 4, 2014. On January 18, 2015, Hodgy Beats confirmed that MellowHype will no longer exist. Although he and Left Brain will continue to make music together, just no longer under the name MellowHype. Hodgy states in the interview, "Nah, we ain't breaking up. Nah, this ain't no weirdo shit. It's just some real shit. It's a refocus. Going from boys to men this is what it is. So it's either understand it, 'cause it will be explained–cry about it, talk shit, applaud us–we still moving."

Reunion (2017–present)

On February 6, 2017, MellowHype announced they were working together again for Left Brain's ''Mind Gone Volume 1''.

In popular culture

The soundtrack from Madden 12 features MellowHype's song "On Ya Mind". Hodgy Beats stated on

Tumblr Tumblr (pronounced "tumbler") is a microblogging and Social networking service, social networking website founded by David Karp in 2007 and is owned by American company Automattic. The service allows users to post multimedia and other content ...

that the song was made with Left Brain in high school.

Discography

Studio albums * '' BlackenedWhite'' (2011) * ''

'' (2012) Mixtapes * '' YelloWhite'' (2010) * '' BlackenedWhite'' (2010) * '' MELLOWHYPEWEEK'' (2012) * ''INSA (I Need Some Answers)'' (2014)

with Odd Future

Studio albums *'' The OF Tape Vol. 2'' (2012) Mixtapes *''

The Odd Future Tape Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All, better known as Odd Future and often abbreviated as OF or OFWGKTA, was an American alternative hip-hop Musical collective, music collective formed in Los Angeles, California in 2007. The group consisted of rap ...

'' (2008) Compilations * '' 12 Odd Future Songs'' (2011)

with Domo Genesis as MellowHigh

Studio albums * '' MellowHigh'' (2013)

References

{{Authority control Odd Future members Fat Possum Records artists Musical duos from California American hip-hop duos Musical groups established in 2008 Musical groups disestablished in 2015