RSSInterview: 2 Hungry Bros
Sep 06
Interview 2 Hungry Bros, 8thW1, AOK Collective, Fresh Daily, Homeboy Sandman, interview, No Room For Dessert 3 Comments
After telling you about 2 Hungry Bros and 8thw1′s album No Room For Dessert (you can check out my review here) I now have the great pleasure to present you an interview with Deep, one half of 2 Hungry Bros, who kindly took some time to answer my questions and tell me more about the group, their projects and their philosophy. I want to thank him for these interesting and very original replies! Without further delay, discover the wonderful world of 2 Hungry Bros…
First of all, for people who have never heard of 2 Hungry Bros, could you introduce yourself by telling us about how it all started and what you’ve been working on so far?
The 2 Hungry Bros are two banana eating gorillas from the jungle of the L.E.S. in Manhattan! We’re swinging on stereo wires to bring the people some Donkey Kong barrel throwing Hip Hop. Eventually we’ll advance to that Sonic the Hedgehog steez and start running into coins!
We’ve put out some fun projects like Table Manners which was a dope compilation featuring lots of everyone’s favorite independent rappers. Don’t Sleep. We just put out No Room For Dessert which is pool side funny without the chlorine to burn your eyes. We’ve done some fine work on Homeboy Sandman’s album, Good Sun,that came out this summer. Look us up because we’re all over Itunes and Amazon.
You are a group of two producers and that is quite original. You’ve known each other for like forever and really seem to be ‘brothers’ indeed, which must make your collaboration quite natural. But do you have set routines and well-defined roles when working on a track or an album?
Here’s what makes us hungry – digging for records in new cities and towns. After carrying away 30 pounds or kilos of wax from the thrift shop, an appetite is very present. So it’s good eats and then we’re off to make good music. Back when we were both living in the Lower East Side, Boogz would cook some scrumptious meals while I was chopping sounds on the MPC2000. I would eat it quickly to get a head start on the beat before he was done washing the pots and pans.
Your music is really reminiscent of the ‘Golden Era’ of hip-hop, but with a modern and eclectic twist. Is it important for you to stay true to the spirit of hip-hop and do you focus on this aspect, or is it something that comes naturally when you are producing?
It’s important for us to keep true to ourselves. We collaborate with artists who we feel share our perspectives, humor, and relative experiences. We compose beats with samples that suit the way we feel on that particular day. Hopefully that beat later finds an emcee that relates to the same emotion and heart put into the beat. Yes we were lucky to have grown up in the 90’s when variety, funk, and soul were prevalent. It’s obviously influenced our style but we’re always looking to take it forward.
There is an apparent lightness to your music and collaborations, a clear desire to have fun and enjoy yourself. You seem to try and not take yourselves too seriously and just spread positive vibrations. Could you tell us more about that?
Ben and I were class clowns in elementary school. Bullies take themselves too seriously and sometimes it may be due to some sort of complex. There’s a bundle of personality disorders that plague the game. There’s a bunch of plagues that deform the human experience. We don’t want to remind people how awful their lives have a potential to be. We have a solution for enjoying themselves. Don’t get me wrong, if you think it’s all light, please check out Jak Progresso, Random Violence (on itunes.com and/or amazon.com).
A perfect example of this spirit is your latest project, No Room For Dessert, with 8thw1, which is the embodiment of feel-good music but retains an inspiring and food-for-thought dimension. How did you get in touch with 8thw1 and how was the album born?
We are in the same crew as 8th. AOK Collective. We didn’t have the opportunity to work with him on Table Manners due to scheduling. We did the mixtape My Crew’s All Thinner, and he contributed so much funky flows and spirit into it. We decided to do another, Back For Seconds and get into an album. I’m glad it made you feel good. There’ve been a few reviewers out there not embracing 8th’s good spirits in this project. They want to see a brother down and hear how he spits then. We had a lot of fun making this project and it conveyed. It’s a spring, summer and autumn, back to school album for sure. But it’s no winter death rattle.
You are in touch and working with several MCs as part of the AOK collective, including Fresh Daily and Homeboy Sandman, who are doing big things these days. How did you make the connection with them and what do you have in store for our ears’ pleasure?
Well the album Good Sun is in stores right now!!! Fresh Daily’s Super Spectacular off his album Gorgeous Killer in Crimes of Passion is also in store. We have something in the works with Dub Md. That might just be free for everyone. And you know we like to keep the covers and videos charged so the eyes can get some entertainment and pleasure too.
I was listening to your previous project Back For Seconds earlier, which was a prelude to No Room For Dessert and I have to say I was impressed and really appreciated the wonderful and eclectic atmospheres you created [eclectic is officially my favourite word now]. Is it important for you to diversify your talents and not limit yourselves when it comes to genres?
It’s important to be yourself at all times. Ben and I grew up around lots of music, being Puerto Rican, from NYC. House music was a big part of our lives especially with Hip House pumping though the speakers of the neighborhood’s cars. Songs like Break For Love by Raze and Groove is In The Heart by Deelite were in heavy rotation as well as other dance classics. We also grew up in the 80’s which was very electric and inspiring. As a producer, it’s essential to be eclectic. I doubt Timbaland would be as successful had he not appreciated Virginia and Baltimore’s house scene.
You are obviously expert and passionate crate diggers, in an age when record shops are closing and most people are becoming ‘digital diggers’. What are your thoughts on the evolution of the way people listen to music and share it?
We’re not expert diggers or crate nerds. There’s dudes who know if Earl Klugh was playing on this record or that record or if Sly co-produced for Mary Joe and Peter. You get me. We buy records with funky covers and sit back and listen. We find great sounds and make beats or groove mixes with them. We don’t spend days in the studio trying to perfect a drum sound. That’s what we hire engineers for. We go out and take out respective women to dinner. As far as digital digging is concerned, it’s not digging unless you poured a pound of dust and dried specs of rat faces on your computer keyboard. Digging whether it’s for corpses or wax or action figures or comics implies getting down and dirty. I heard vintage record stores are doing well because of the hipsters. Our Fat Beats closed and we are very disturbed and saddened by this loss. I hold those bootlegging bloggers responsible for that. There’s copies of our albums and we’re not even that popular or have a multicorporate, Nazi gold, football player investor fund behind us. These guys are claiming they’re giving us promotion but they’re living vicariously through the hard work of indie artists. Buy our music off Napster or stream it on Spotify if you want to hear it so badly.
What’s next for the 2 Hungry Bros? Do you have projects and collaborations you can talk about? And are there people you would like to work with in the future?
Of course we can talk about it, we’re not Mi-6 or CIA. Hey World look out for Grace. Our album collaboration with Likwuid!!! If you need a sample of what that could be like, make sure to cop GUMMY BEARS and CHAMPAGNE by Likwuid (On Itunes and Amazon and EVERYTHING)
For your fans and supporters across the globe, would you be interested in and/or are you planning on having shows overseas?
The 2 Hungry Bros want to rock the world. Promoters buy plane tickets and we’ll eat off the crowd and push merch so easy. Press up those flyers, play us on the radio shows. We want in!!! 2 Hungry Bros with 8th, Likwuid, and/or Fresh. Pick one or package deal it! You won’t be sorry. The footage is floating on the internet. The masses will reward you for blessing them with US!!!!
Anything else you would like to add?
Thank you for taking interest in our music and in our brand. Thank you for the beautiful review. I hope we never disappoint you in the future.
