MellowHype
MellowHype was an American hip hop duo from Los Angeles, California, that consisted of rapper-producer Hodgy (Gerard Long) and producer-rapper Left Brain (Vyron Turner).[1] Both were members of hip hop collective Odd Future. They have released two studio albums which both charted on the Billboard 200 albums chart[2] and four mixtapes.
MellowHype
Los Angeles, California, United States
- 2007–2014
- 2017-2018
- 2022-present
History[edit]
Early years (2006–2010)[edit]
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 Odd Future mixtapes, their debut as MellowHype came with their debut mixtape, YelloWhite.[3] 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)[edit]
In early 2011, MellowHype gained massive popularity, along with the rest of Odd Future following the release of Tyler, The Creator's single, Yonkers.
On April 5, 2011, MellowHype performed the song "64" with Mississippi-based grunge labelmates Bass Drum of Death on the Fuel TV program The Daily Habit.[4] They also performed their song "65" alongside Tyler, The Creator for the BBC music showcase.[5]
On July 12, 2011, the duo re-released a remastered version of BlackenedWhite [6] on Fat Possum Records[7] along with a music video for the lead single, "64".
Numbers and MELLOWHYPEWEEK (2012)[edit]
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 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[8] 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's album 119. The first official single for Numbers, "La Bonita", was released on July 18, 2012. The album features Frank Ocean, Mike G, & Earl Sweatshirt.
On August 5, 2012, Hodgy announced a MellowHype mixtape set to release September 11 via Twitter.[9] 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 and Juicy J made guest appearances on the tracks "Greezy" and "Wasabi", respectively.