Him-Lo – The Unkut Interview

Him-Lo has been dropping music on these here internets for the past couple of years, but it wasn’t until his Horsepower mixtape that I really paid attention. Turns out this Philly Lo-Lifer has been deep in this here shit since the golden era of Philadelphia hip-hop, and his brand of non-progressive, anti-social rap is just what the city needs right now.

Robbie: How did you get started?

Him-Lo: We’ve been rhyming for a long time, ever since we were teenagers. We were part of a few different crews before we cut it down to just me and Clever One – The Buze Bruvaz. We were also in a group called Bermuda Triangle at one point with a few other members, we grew up with them also. Clever One, that’s my brother, and those other dudes we were at grammar school with, so we’ve been rhyming for a long time. Matter of fact, when we started rhyming the game was completely different. Now everybody’s rhyming. We would go somewhere and when people found out we were doing this they were excited, “Oh, you rap? Kick a rap for us!” It was so different at the time. So we were doing it at a young age, and I’m 40 now. We were so heavy into hip-hop at such an early age – not just the rapping, all aspects of it – we grew up as graffiti writers, battling people and breakdancing, deejaying, doing everything. That’s why even at this age now we still do it, just for fun. It’s what we do, we can’t really shake it!

So you grew up around Schoolly-D and Hilltop Hustlers?

All of that stuff – Schoolly-D, Steady B, Cool C. Matter of fact, one of the dudes who does the cutting and scratching for us was in an old school Philly rap group called the Tuff Crew back in the days – DJ Too Tuff. We’ve been hanging around him for years, and every now and then he adds scratches on our records, cos that’s one thing we try to do, we try to make sure the scratching is kept alive. I don’t know if you’re familiar with the group Three Times Dope?

That’s my shit!

We used to see them come around the way on our block when they were first doing their thing, trying to get on. I remember being young and first hearing Schoolly-D, sneaking into spots to see these dudes performing and stuff like that. There was a spot in Philadelphia back then called Dates and Skates, it was a skating rink where they had a dance floor and a lot of groups from Philly used to come in there and perform. We were a little younger but we still used to sneak into these things and see performances. I remember being maybe 8 years old and Sugarhill Gang had a song out, I think it was called “8th Wonder”, and I sat down one night and just played it, played it, played it and then I went to school the next day and I kicked the whole rap like it was mine! I was frontin’, I was a biter, and all the other kids weren’t familiar with it. I was kicking it and they were looking amazed at me, but after a while I was like, “I gotta write my own raps!” Hip-hop just got in me at a very young age, and I just can’t get away from it.

What was your first MC name?

I didn’t really have an MC name because I was trying to experiment with graffiti and come up with the right name for graffiti. There was a graffiti writer named SEEN, and I figured he’s got one of the illest names you can have for a graffiti writer, so I named myself HEARD at one time. I was running around with that name for a second before I changed my name to DRIP. My first actual MC name was given to me at the time that we we used to be boostin’ Polo really heavy and boostin’ Hilfiger and stuff like that. They took the name Tommy Hilfiger and they called me Slimey Illfingers. I ran with that for a long time.

So you were part of that whole ‘Million Man Rush’ era?

We did a lotta boostin’ and running into stores and stealing Polo and various different clothes. So my first MC name was called Slimey Illfingers, and after some years went on I grew tired of it. I knew some people in this one neighborhood I lived in, they were going around calling people “him.” When they were calling me that it stuck to me, and people kept calling me Him. It didn’t go away. So I took it, and what it really means is Having Illegal Money, and I threw the “Lo” on the end as far as the Lo-Life culture, so it became Him-Lo. Clever One, that’s self-explanatory, cos at the time he was coming up with so many different lines in his rhymes. Before that he was just MC Pu.

How did you get down with the Lo-Life crew?

I was introduced to a Lo-Life who moved to Philly from Brooklyn, named B-Bill. That was in ‘92 or ‘93. Me and homie Ant used to go out boostin’ and stealing cars and going into leather coat stores and stealing all the leather coats and stuff like that. He started dealing with a girl named Big Shirley, and she was stealing too – she was a crook, she was a thief – and we would sometimes go check her out. She introduced to B-Bill, and that’s when we started doing missions with B-Bill and rolling with Lo-Lifes. We would boost in stores and take a whole bunch of clothes, and then come back to the hood and we would sell most of the stuff but then keep all the Polo stuff.

You must have a crazy collection by now.

We had a crazy collection. I’ve lost a lotta things over the years, because in the past we were going to jail for a lotta different things, and when you do that your family members try to steal your clothes! We’ve still got a good collection, but a lot of that stuff is gone. I wouldn’t have fit into half of it anyway, so it’s aiight.

In the mid 80’s, all the best rap that wasn’t from New York was coming from Philly. Why do you think that was?

We’re just an hour-and-a-half from New York, so when they were doing things we were right there, catching right on to it. We had our own thing we were already doing over here, because the graffiti culture was already over here also. It’s a common misconception – a lotta people think graffiti started in New York – they don’t know that there were already graffiti artists here in Philadelphia. As far as the music and the emceeing? They mighta kicked it off, you can’t deny that, but anybody who does any history on that will see that there were already graffiti writers here. You can go on the internet and hear about a guy named CORNBREAD. One of the benefits of being raised in Philly is everything New York was doing, we heard it! But we had our own different sound and artists that they didn’t hear. We had our own brand of emceeing that was popping here that they didn’t really have access to, but we had access to their stuff.

Plus all the best DJ’s came from Philly back then.

That’s hands down! MC-wise, they had so many more MC’s, so I couldn’t take nothing away from that, but DJ’s? We got Jazzy Jeff, Cash Money, Tat Money, DJ Miz, DJ Too Tuff. We got some swift hands! We always stood tall when it came to deejaying. When they started having all those DJ battles, the first few years only Philly DJ’s would win it!

What was the first project that you released to the public?

We just started doing that, believe it or not! The first one may have been a year [back], on Chopped Herring Records. A project called Cheesesteakz N Beat Breakz. We had so much music but we didn’t know the alleyways as far as putting it out. We weren’t all that concerned with that, we rhyme cos we like rhyming. A lotta people started saying, “Yo, you need to push that, get it out there.” At one time when we were starting to really get into the game, maybe ‘93, we didn’t do what we needed to do. There was more of us at the time and a lot of different issues between the group, everyone had their little demons they had to deal with. But now we more focused and the way that the internet is set-up we can push it out there. Bob from Chopped Herring reached out to us, which we appreciate greatly. He helped get us out there a little bit more. We’ve got a lot of projects finished and done right now, with covers and artwork. Everything’s done and pressed-up but we just never pushed it. We just done it and had it as our own collection of music.

How did connect with Dallas Penn?

My good friend Marc Spekt, he introduced us. He came to Philly for a sneaker event, and I’m a sneaker head too, so we built and we took it from there. Dallas Penn looks out hardbody, and Marc Spekt – same thing. They ridin’ for us.

If you could make your own version of “The Symphony,” who would the other three MC’s?

Wooo! I’mma tell you someone that’s always someone I’ve rocked with – they’ve been fronting on him for some reason lately – Method Man is always my man. I love his rhymes all the time, I always rock with Meth. Big Pun was always my man, and then I gotta put Clever One.

Do you know what happened to the guys from Three Times Dope?

I think EST is in Atlanta, I know he writes songs for R&B singers. I think he even writes songs for Beyonce, so he goin’ in, he’s making some major moves out there.

I feel like he never got the recognition he deserved.

He was dope, just like a lotta other MC’s in the 80’s. The problem was we didn’t have any major hip-hop labels in Philadelphia, so you had to deal with either New York labels or other labels that weren’t used to having hip-hop artists, so they didn’t know how to push ‘em the way that they should have. They did the best that they could, but like you said, he shoulda got more recognition cos Three Times Dope was killing it. Their first album, Original Stylin’, had some classics on it. They were on Arista, and at the time that hip-hop stuff was new to them, so things didn’t work out the way that they should have.

Who are some good local crews that never really put records out?

The early 90’s, there was a group called Tainted Minds that I used to listen to, they was pretty dope. There was a group called 100X who I always liked. There was an MC back in the 80’s named Jewel-T who was pretty dope too.

Jewel-T put a single out on an indy label back then. What are your top 5 Philly rap anthems?

The Tuff Crew had one called “My Part of Town,” that’s classic all day. Schoolly-D had a song called “Parkside 5-2” about 52nd and Market, or around that area – 52nd and Parkside out West Philly. Even though it wasn’t all the way just strictly about Philly, I love “Summertime” from Fresh Prince and Jazzy Jeff, that’s always classic. Beanie Segal had one with Eve called “Where I’m From,” and mine! I got one called “Philly Fanatic” on Chopped Herring Records, my solo project. Late Nite Dinners At The Brothel. I feel like I described my city to a tee.

What’s the next project from you?

We got Buze Brovaz EP called the Sinna’ City Pickpocketz. It’s about seven songs on there, that’s gonna be a free download similar to Horsepower. Then after that I gotta see what I can do to try to get some bread! [laughs] The next project gotta count, cos we’re doing this stuff and we invest a lot in this. You’ve gotta sit down and write the rhymes, you gotta select beats, you gotta come-up with hooks, you gotta pay for studio time, you gotta pay to get the artwork and the covers done. There’s only but so many free download projects we can put out there.