G.O.O.D. Music's HXLT Wants to Be the New Iggy Pop

Before leaving our interview, HXLT was jumping and telling me about how crazy his live show is, the sheer carnage he's able to inspire in people through his own levels of energy on stage. "I'm going to be this generation's Iggy Pop," he says. After a pause, he laughs, saying "alright, that was probably a little too arrogant, right?"

It might've been, and yet when talking to HXLT about anything from his time skipping a Foot Action shift to be in a movie, to actually doing the stunt on his album cover, it's easy to be mesmerized by his confidence. It's a kind of confidence and self-assuredness that makes it very obvious he'd be one of G.O.O.D. Music's newest signees. Before joining up with the label's roster, he made strictly rap music under the name "Hollywood Holt" and was heavily involved with Chicago's burgeoning rap scene. Instead of staying in the insular environment, he started to pull out every influence coursing through his head to create something different for himself. Last week he released his debut record, the self-titled HXLT, which brought a unique mix of post-punk injected with production elements from hip-hop. The record thrives on creating utilitarian songs rich in both atmosphere and fun. The opener "Reaper" creates an atmosphere with sparse kind of bass over a few drum kicks, slowly building up to a great moment where HXLT sings the refrain to Blue Oyster Cult's "Don't Fear The Reaper."

The record picks up, like in the Kathleen Hanna co-starring track "Together." A pulsing, synthy drumline create a frenetic pace and push his vocals into yells, all over a mosh-friendly chorus. Throughout the record, you can hear HXLT really explore these different types of music, forcing the listener to trust him in the 12-song journey. In addition to vocals, he's also responsible for the album's production sans one, which was produced by his cousin Mano. This kind of self-produced solo project on a stage like Kanye West's G.O.O.D. Music would probably frighten some musicians. But in hanging out with HXLT for an hour, all you can hear is the sheer excitement that people will get to finally see what he's been up to, and what he's built for himself.

NOISEY: I want to know about your parents, and your music taste at a young age.
HXLT: I grew up in a really musical family. I’m kind of like Nas in a sense where outside the house was crazy, but inside the house was really nice. I was lucky enough to have two parents who love each other, still, they’re happily married. My father was an incredible musician, and his favorite band was Led Zeppelin, and he loved Nirvana and all this new dope shit. And then he loved a lot of old classic rock so that was always accessible to me. And my mom liked everything. She liked hip-hop, old Prince, The Time, everything. And because my parents didn’t want me listening to rapping with cuss words when I was little, I’d sneak Wu-Tang and Redman from my brothers. To play music in the house we couldn’t put any of that shit on, so it forced me to listen to different types of music which really broadened my taste.

I liked all of the music, but I never got into metal when I was a shorty. Like, we from 107, we ain’t bumping that shit. But like, Ice Cube, I grew up when West Coast rap was really popping like Dre and all of them. And then of course Wu-Tang and I liked No Limit, I listened to everything. I was a huge 3 6 Mafia fan. I’d listen to any music that was aggressive. Like when DMX came out, I was like, “This is the illest nigga of all time! I can relate to this shit, whoopin' ass and being mad as fuck.” I used to bump the fucking shit out of Onyx! But the only time I heard music that matched my energy level was Onyx or DMX or old Wu-Tang and shit where they’ll be talking about how they’ll fuck you up. And that was in my heart, you know?

Did rock hit you that same way?

Nah, at that point all I heard was Led Zeppelin. But one day I was watching MTV or whatever the fuck, and they had The Clash and “Rock The Casbah” video. And I was just like, “This shit is dope!” And the video was mad funny with the sheik and the boombox, and it was mad fun where he’s a mad ugly nigga and he’s singing and you could just feel the real fun vibe to it. So this was back in the day before the internet, like to hear a song you had to go to the store and buy the shit. So I had to go to Sam Goody, found the CD with the song on it, and bought the album 'cause you couldn’t buy singles back in the day. So I got the album, went to the crib, and it was number four on the

Combat Rock

album. I listened to number four all the time, just that song because that’s what I bought it for. And then one day, I put it in and played and forgot to play number four and the first track that played was “Know Your Rights.” And when it comes on, I’d never heard music that fast. It was funny, and then it was hard because they’d talk about how the cops would kill your ass, they was talking about all this shit and I’d never heard music that matched my energy level like that. It was so geeked and I listened to the whole album, and under genre it said “Punk Music.” So I was like, “Well, I guess I’m into punk music.” But in my mind, it was such a diverse album and was the best possible thing to listen to if you wanted to listen to punk. There was ska, slower punk, the influence of punk was all on this album. So when I started listening to their self-titled album and

London Calling

, the self-titled I was just like “this is my shit.” So after I bought all their albums I started buying ones that were next to their albums, like, “Okay, Minor Threat, this sounds cool!”

It was the only way to do it, you sort of had to just guess on the band name or album cover.
Yes. One of my favorite bands is Plasmatics. And to me, they’re the right in between of punk and metal. Because it was fast and hard as fuck. She influenced me a lot because she did all of her shit. She was on top of a bus that drove into a bunch of TVs with all of its explosions. She was fucking chainsawing cars on stage, like that shit is raw. But I only found out about them 'cause I found a patch and thought it was an ill patch. So I bought it, but wouldn’t wear it until I knew the fucking band. I looked em up and found that Wendy O was the G of all Gs.

But I used to hide it, 'cause I was a little hood nigga and didn’t want anyone to front on me like, “Oh you on some white boy shit, what the fuck?” I’d literally make mix CDs with like, Tupac, Twista, and in the middle put two fucking punk songs. That way if a nigga jump in the mix, I’d be like, “Oh shit, must’ve been the radio." [Laughs] I must’ve had Suicidal Tendencies’ “Possessed Escape” next to “Ambitionz az a Ryda,” which to me was dope. That shows you my influences, like DMX and Suicidal. Like my favorite punk band is The Adolescents. They are the epitome of melodic, beautiful melodies, and hard as fuck. And it’s all really compact and digestible, but super complicated.
Yeah, and you get the feeling of the hardness but you also get the tune. It’s something you can whistle, but also something you can rage out to. So I dunno, I wouldn’t call myself a punk artist because my music’s all over the place, and I wouldn’t call myself hip-hop, but I believe if you try to moniker your own self it’s corny. I feel like I let the people tell me what the music is, usually they say “I don’t know what it is but it’s dope.” And I love that because it makes me feel like I’ve created something new instead of just making what everyone has always made. Like I love Daft Punk, the most incredible creative artists and on the last album they had an interview with Giorgio Moroder, and he was like, “Once you take the rules out and just make noise that sounds good, all you’re going to do is create amazingness." I play all my music out. It’s me and this kid Lefonz I bounce back and forth with. So any time I shoot videos or create any art, I have Chelsea with me doing that, or I have Lefonz. Whatever I’m doing, I have one person to bounce ideas off of because I know exactly what I’m doing, but I just want a second opinion or something to facilitate. And since Lefonz knows how to play instruments better than me, I can play the guitar solo bad and he’ll do it right. I don’t care if I’m hitting a table, or taking a plate and hitting it with a rubber band. If it makes a dope sound, I’m gonna use it.

Like, if there’s one thing I want you to put in this interview, it’s this: So many people will make you feel like you can’t create something because you don’t physically know how to do it. Like, I don’t know how to use Logic. But you put a keyboard in front of me, and I’ll be able to find the sound in a second. But my whole life, people have been “you can’t make rock records, you don’t know how to play guitar.” Fuck you! Fuck that, if you do that you stop someone like David Bowie from creating something. Like if I want violin on the song I don’t put it in because I don’t have violin on the song? Fuck outta here.

What was the turning point from being wholly in Chicago rap to the larger kind of genre you’re in now? What was that trigger?
First thing I ever got into heavy as fuck was breakdancing. Breakdancing and skating, I used to work at this skate shop in Chicago called Push. I was heavily into physically active shit, I would skate to breakdance practice. I’d go to breakdance battles and there’d also be like DJ and MC battling. I started rapping cause me and my cousin Mano was into all of that shit. He was a DJ, I learned how to DJ from my cousin. Everything I liked, I tried. I taught myself and created a good aspect of what I was doing. Now no one can tell me shit when I DJ. I can actually scratch and blend music dope as fuck, and because I have crazy musical taste, I can play everything. I started rapping with my man Mike T and Mano because we was all rapping and I’d just go from the top of my head. So I’d get into freestyle battles and got into rapping like that. So I was rapping but never taking it seriously, and then one day I saw this new genre of music coming out that was this new dance rap kind of thing. I always liked Special Ed and old school 80s shit, so I made this track called “Bang That,” which was about what’s now called the juke scene, but then I was in a footwork crew where we’d go to southside juking bitches and shit. That’s where Maino started producing and shit, he made these old school juke tracks. So I put it on Myspace on some whatever shit, and it popped. It was never like, “I’m gonna be a rapper one day!”

Even though I never thought of making punk music, I was submerged in that scene. Everybody always fucked with me and my cousin because we were involved in every scene. I wasn’t just a fan, I lived it. I loved punk so I was at shows, at bars beating the fuck out of fake-ass skinhead motherfuckers, I had serious problems with these people cutting faces and shit. So I was really involved in that scene and really respected in that scene. Same with hip-hop and club. We’d throw parties 'cause niggas in the punk scene and my hood respected me, they felt comfortable at those parties to be cool with each other. You got a nigga in an XXXL tee talking to a nigga in a mohawk, and he’d finally feel comfortable because he’d be at my party asking, “Yo, why y’all niggas do that shit?” Instead of being like, “Yo fuck that nigga.” So rapping took off, and I went to SXSW and saw black dudes in punk bands. I saw Bloc Party, all these different people making different music. I saw black dudes making dance. And all I could think was: “I could do this shit.” And I felt cheapened, because I’ve always had melodies in my head. It was like, “It’s that easy?” So ever since then, I kept rapping and shit, but I never felt like I was doing enough. I can write rhymes all day but I wanted to create real sound.

So talking to you is very fun, I have to say. And it’s really funny to me how excited you are, contrasted with how subtle the record is.
Yeah! [Laughs] I’m obviously mad hyper and full of energy and life and stuff, but the album is kinda chill, right? And I didn’t even do that on purpose. I can’t allow myself to try and make it anything that it isn’t. It just happened that those melodies spoke to me in that way. You would assume by talking to me that my album about to be fucking crazy, but it’s actually mad chill and mad deep. That’s just how it came out. But that should reassure everyone that what I’m making is honest, I’m literally just letting my mind go.

Was there ever a backup plan for you?
Fuck. No. I remember literally in third grade saying “I can’t wait till I’m grown so I can stop coming in this motherfucker. I remember clearly saying that. I never, ever was able to conform to regular shit. I got straight Fs! But I’m highly intelligent, I was super-self aware and didn’t understand why we wasted so much time at school, and spend the rest of my night doing homework. People try to hit me with the ADD shit, but I can sit for nine hours quietly designing clothes. It’s just my brain literally couldn’t hold onto that shit.

I guess in closing, what is your definition of punk?
Punk is the epitome of my personality. To me, punk is you do it or you don’t. You rip, or you don’t. To me, it’s a feeling. Punk is five people standing on a cliff about to jump into the sea because it’s fun. The first guy that jumps into the water. That’s punk. Not the people second guessing, the guy who’s like “boom!” and goes for it. That’s punk to me. Going “I got this idea right now, fuck it, I’m gonna make it happen.” That’s punk to me. Whether in music or fashion or whatever. I remember I was talking about making a video for my song “Work It Out” on my album, I wanted it to be one single following shot through the whole video. I told this kid who was a director my idea, and he was like, “Aw man, it’s gonna cost so much money, you need this this and this.” And I’m like “fuck that nigga!” and I got someone and was like “hold the camera and walk backwards,” and it came out perfectly. If I listened to that dumb motherfucker I would’ve been out of money or it would have taken forever to make. That’s punk to me, you telling me I can’t do something and then showing your ass so you’ll shut the fuck up.

John Hill isn't punk at all. Follow him on Twitter.