MellowHigh, an extension of Odd Future's MellowHype (Left Brain and Hodgy Beats), will take over the Waiting Room tonight, on tour for their self-titled debut album MellowHigh.

Read my exclusive buffaBLOG interview here, and peak inside the mind of the MellowHigh fellas, the wolfs from the gang: Hodgy Beats, Left Brain and Domo Genesis. Here are some quote snippets from the interview.

Left Brain on why he loves music: "Because, it makes me move, my body. I want to move my body. I don't know anything else, I want to move my body. It's a source of energy. When music turns on, people start moving. When you turn the light on, the fucking room is bright. It's like a source of energy. And I like it."

Domo on the OFWGKTA bond: "These are just my friends. These really are my friends, you know what I'm saying? Before we did music or anything we were all just hanging out, so it didn't really mean much more than just a normal friendship. These are the things we do. When it comes to money and distribution and stuff like that, we're gonna do it all fair and easy because these are my homies. We have stuff, but we all come together. And be like, 'yo, you guys are tripping.' We're homies and we're gonna stay that way."

Hodgy on MellowHigh: "There's like a chemistry or something in the air, and it just worked out. We all know each other."

Their story says it all, need I say more?



After Dark Entertainment presents the event. Opening the night will be performances from two local acts: Network and Koolie High.

Network, comprised by Derek Sullivan and Quinton Brock, set themselves apart by bringing an electronic instrumental vibe to their tunes. The duo has opened for names like Pusha T and Wale. Their EP Wake Up was released on Oct. 31 this year, and is available for pure listening and free download on their Bandcamp page.


Gaines and ToneyBoi lead the KooLiE HiGH gang. While youthful high schoolers they signed to Nickel City Records. Since, the "Krew" has grown, and includes Skateboard MctwistUp, Mr. H-n-F, XtraFresh, M.A.R., TeaPot, Alize' and more. Their motto is to "Live Life Be KooL," cooling out and twisting up. Verses and beats of theirs can be found scattered on SoundCloud, YouTube and one of my all-time favorite go-to websites, DatPiff.

Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All is a Los Angeles based collective of 20-somethings who have made music their hustle with a focus on friendship, many of them often with a blunt in hand. Crafted by rapper and multi-talented artist Tyler, The Creator, Odd Future is a growing organism; there is no definitive line for the crew's success and exploration. "It's been alive for like, 17 years," said OF member Hodgy Beats. "Tyler made it up when he was five, and it became official around high school." MellowHype is a duo project started by members Left Brain and Hodgy Beats. Domo Genesis joined the mix, and on Oct. 31, they released their debut album as MellowHigh.

Domo Genesis

"We made a couple songs, just me, Hodgy and Left on them. We were like, yo these are sick ... everybody else agreed," Domo said. "We had a little home studio so we started hanging out more, said you know what, we should just do a project, and started fucking with it." The self-titled album MellowHigh was supposed to be released as a mixtape, but turned album after receiving positive feedback, according to Domo.

"Well, I got trouble on my mind but no emotions on my sleeve,  

I heard that love'll get you killed, so who gone show some love for me?

Fucking never need it, push against the grain until my fingers bleeding. 

Smoking weed and tweaking trying to figure out a deeper meaning." 

He said the song is nearly two years old, the second oldest track on the album, next to "Nobody." He said this was a track to show the complexity of their writing. "It's something that we made, and we liked. We gotta put this on something and we finally had an album to drop it."

Mixing personal and business has every potential to backfire, but the crew seems to have it figured out. "These are just my friends. These really are my friends, you know what I'm saying?" Domo said. "Before we did music or anything we were all just hanging out, so it didn't really mean much more than just a normal friendship. These are the things we do. When it comes to money and distribution and stuff like that, we're gonna do it all fair and easy because these are my homies." When tensity comes in, they remember their bond. "We have stuff," he said. "But we all come together. And be like, 'yo, you guys are tripping.' We're homies and we're gonna stay that way."

The interview with Domo, Hodgy Beats and Left Brain clearly shows they take their business serious, but with trolls, jokes and sincere conversation, it's undeniable these guys know how to be good friends and live lightly. The phone was then passed to Hodgy, who proceeded to tell me I sounded like I like Sour Patch Kids. "I love Sour Patch Kids," I said. "You must be cool," he responded. After he asked me about which was my favorite color (I said green) he said "Aight, yeah the green and red are the best kind."

Hodgy Beats

One of the first members, from Trenton, N.J. and only 23 years old, I asked Hodgy if he ever saw himself getting to this level of fame. "Shit, I don't know what level of fame or anything I'm on. I try to keep it as normal as possible."

"There's like a chemistry or something in the air, and it just worked out. We all know each other," Hodgy said, and that he's excited to see what comes next for MellowHigh and the rest of the Wolf Gang. "I think me and Tyler are gonna work together a little bit more ... see what comes from that. Everybody works together, it's just hard to find time nowadays because people are busy."

As I heard him tell someone passing out food on the bus "the no tomato's is mine," I asked him what it's like being on tour. "It's awesome. There's not that many people at all. All the attention is on MellowHigh." For this tour, the select city's promoters arrange for the show openers. "Mhm, we have them niggas do it," Hodgy said. For future record tours, they plan on picking their own.

"Why do you love music?"
"I think it's because I've been around it for so long. My dad used to make music, some members in my family used to sing. So it's what I've gravitated towards," Hodgy said.

Odd Future has become much more than just music. In addition to record releases, cities have been hit with Odd Future Sweatshop pop-up stores, the crew gets weird in their show Loiter Squad on Adult Swim, has been featured at The Berrics for the entertaining Text Yoself Beefo Yo Wreck Yoself, ghost ride the whip for the Bay Area influenced "Hyphy" video, and apparently has an upcoming film release in the works, and that's just scratching the surface of their grind.


With a voice deeper than hell, Left Brain spoke to me last. He was playing Call of Duty: Ghosts as we talked about how he came into OF.

"Well, I had no friends," he said, as either Domo or Hodgy laughed in the background. "And we just became friends, since like, 2006."

Since the album dropped, he said he's not sure how the sales are but that the tour is doing pretty well. The best show, in his opinion, was the first show in Dallas, Texas. "There was a lot of people, it was a sold out show. It was turnt up, I was really surprised because the album wasn't out when we went and did that show ... and people still came out."

Left Brain

I asked him if he ever saw himself getting to their current level.
"Yeah, I did. Yeah I did. I know who I am. I know, who I am. People know who I am. We were on this level at first, then we bumped up to the next level. Now we've got our album. It's just levels. You can't really go down in the levels. You go down, you're moving backwards."

Left Brain had an unmovable certainty with his words. "We just wanted to know, to be out here in the industry a little bit. We got our own label, we our own bosses, so tryna get out in the industry, and just fucking take over. There's a lot of names that's hot right now, they're not bosses though. They're just working under people and shit. We doing our own thing, working your own business, tryna establish our own business, make our own money."

"Slow motion's better than no motion," he said.

"Why do you love music?"
"Because, it makes me move, my body. I want to move my body. I don't know anything else, I want to move my body. It's a source of energy. When music turns on, people start moving. When you turn the light on, the fucking room is bright. It's like a source of energy. And I like it."

I heard one of the guys yell in the background "I'm going in on this burrito" and Left Brain abruptly hung up after trolling that they were headed to Nevada and said "What is there to do out there in Reno, Nevada. I hope something out here is fun, we've never been out here. Pretty random."

MellowHigh will make a tour stop in Buffalo at The Waiting Room on Saturday, Dec. 7 presented by After Dark Entertainment. Odd Future was here last September and Tyler, The Creator soon followed in March. "Buffalo, N.Y.? Yeah I was there, it was so cold," Hodgy said. "As long as I'm not freezing my ass off, we're gonna have a great show."

Domo, Hodgy and Left Brain: if you thought that was cold, get ready for a December night in Buffalo.

It was a wild Wednesday at Town Ballroom when Tyler, The Creator from Los Angeles based crew Odd Future came through the 716. I had a hunch that the crowd was going to be just as rowdy as when they visited in September for the Camp Flog Gnaw tour; after immediately reaching the top of the walk-way into the venue and seeing the entire floor and tiers filled with people I found my intuition was spot on once again.

Thursday morning, I woke up with sore abs, arms and legs. OF member Taco opened the show with an incredible trap song which I actually tweeted at him, hopeful he'd share. I won't hold my breath. The moment Taco went on it was like a hand reached into shallow water and hundreds of minnows suddenly gathered in a clump and darted to a rock. Tyler finally came on the stage that was adorned with statues of baby-doll heads.

For the remainder of Tyler's set, it was utter madness. People were diving over the gate, hopping on stage only to stand next to Tyler for less than 10 seconds before the strong hand of security removed them. The amount of moshing was out of control. Mind you, I am 5' 2'' and less than 115 lbs. For the entire night, I was being tossed around, hitting people like the metallic ball in a Pinball game. There's something beautifully violent about that show; everyone releases their inner-animal. Besides my light-weight and short stature, I would use all my strength to push people off of me, laughing and screaming the words along with Tyler. No wonder trying to put my coat on the past couple of days has been a struggle. My friend was moshed away from me and we didn't reunite until the very end of the show. While separated from her, I stood on the right hand side of the stage in front of the speaker when out of nowhere, a fight broke out. After the man got about four hard punches in and I had already scooted as far away from it as I could (less than a foot) so not to be dragged in, security came over and dragged them out. Serious big ups to the security and bouncers at Town Ballroom for not being dicks and keeping that place semi-contained.

I wish I could tell you more, but honestly it was so insane I was afraid that my phone would get knocked from my hands the minute I took it out so I didn't get to jot down notes as per usual. His set was fantastic. Jasper and Taco were the only other two on stage with him. At one point, Tyler jumped and stood on top of the tall speaker on the right hand side of the stage, he hovered over the crowd and everyone went ballistic.

I did manage to get a nice video for you all so if you're at home kicking yourself that you didn't go, you can abuse yourself a little more and watch this. It's a little shaky and not at the ideal height; just think of it as seeing the world through my eyes for 32 seconds.

The line outside of Town Ballroom stretched back and security was tight as both men and women were patted down Sunday night. A giant floating cat head and technicolor lettering on the "The Camp Flog Gnaw" banner stretched across, setting the stage for Odd Future.

The room went from zero to ratchet the moment Taco came on stage to open. Before the show even started, the sweat already began to drip from people's bodies as the crowd intensely moshed about.  The bells dinged and as the trap drums dropped the mass began thrashing and all screamed in unison "THAT'S DAT SHYT I DON'T LYKE!"  Pushing hard, jumping and elbowing, I laughed wildly and although everyone's movements clashed with each other, somehow the group still dropped and dipped in an aggressively enjoyable way. The rest of the crew hadn't even came on stage and the energy was at a peak. Either the crew wouldn't live up to the high-energy expectations they opened with, or it was a message for the crowd to prepare themselves for what would entail; I expected the latter. 

There was hardly a dip in energy. Roaring, it was a pit of cheers and mirrored screams when they performed "Transylvania." Each performance was heart-palpitating and the packed floor added to the degree of intensity. The deepened rips in my Vans are physical proof of the magnitude. Each time someone took out their iPhone to snap a picture or tweet there was an undeniable fear that it would be knocked from their grip.

The word "Golf" was inscribed in yellow Gothic lettering on Tyler, the Creator's flat brimmed green hat. He and the OF crew scurried around the stage between songs to pick up the absurd "gifts" the crowd threw towards them. A Dairy Queen card, a strapless bra, a 50 dollar bill and a mystery object that had the crew members laughing hysterically after Tyler went around showing each of them.

"Someone threw their driver's license up here! You're a dumb-ass. You need your drivers license."

Hodgy Beats and Domo Genesis, a couple of my favorites in the gang, did phenomenal. During "Turnt Down" people pushed and shoved while crowd surfers were yanked down by security guards. Occasionally someone from Wolf Gang would take a running start at the crowd and dive into a sea of hands.           

The show got wildly ignorant during "Bitch Suck Dick," in a good way. They singled out a mother that was in the crowd and pointed out that it was a little awkward to be singing about "punching bitches" in front of her.  "My mom doesn't like the song either!" a crew member yelled, "my mom does" yelled Left Brain.  

Admittedly performing off-the-cuff they would goof around with each other as they do on their Adult Swim sketch comedy show Loiter Squad. "Flight of the bumblebee!" one of them yelled as they talked amongst themselves trying to figure out their next song then progressed into a Drumline joke ("One band, one sound!") Tyler grabbed a sign from a girl that had writing scribbled on both sides; the one said "Taco, it's my birthday!" the other side with a tye-dye background said "Tyler, I like cheese." After receiving the sign, Taco ran from the laptop to shake the fangirl's hand.

"I thought Buffalo was gonna be some kind of suburb," said Tyler. He said that as the crew was on their way into the Queen City, he had no idea how hood it was. After his voice was mostly gone, he began a Buffalo chant toward the end of the show.  

After their last song, each member went around with their phone snapping pictures of the audience and themselves. They all took their shirts off and tossed them into the crowd and each shirt landed on a small group that was jumping and grabbing at the air like bridesmaids and a bouquet at a wedding.
   

Radical Los Angeles hip-hop collective, Odd Future, is in Buffalo tonight.  This group of friends began by releasing their music for free over the internet, and after a quick rise they now have a sketch comedy show on Adult Swim, clothing brand, a nationwide tour and their friendship remains unmoved.  Since their start in 2007, the group has grown immensely.  Members have partnered up to form groups within the group, including MellowHype, The Internet, The Jet Age of Tomorrow, EarlWolf, and MellowHigh.