10 Essential Hodgy Tracks

With Hodgy's (formerly known as Hodgy Beats) debut album Fireplace: TheNotTheOtherSide out this Friday, now is a good time to take a moment to look back at his career so far. Hodgy was a founding member of Odd Future collective and enjoyed a particularly close musical bond with Domo Genesis and Left Brain. Together, they were known as MellowHigh. (Hodgy and Left Brain together are MellowHype.) Hodgy's talents were somewhat obscured by those of Tyler, the Creator and Earl Sweatshirt. Now that he is baptizing his solo career with his first-ever album, he may be entering his most exciting chapter yet.

This list includes five MellowHype tracks and five solo Hodgy tracks. Click through to listen.

In a video that may or may not have been the inspiration for Freddie Gibb's "Pronto," Hodgy lays in a casket and covers himself in snakes. "The crazy thing is I don't even think it's that dark," he told Pitchfork in 2011. "People have seen the video, but they haven't really watched it. Can you lay in a casket with snakes crawling over your fucking head and recite lyrics? I don't know. It was pretty difficult to do some shit like that."

One of the most popular songs on MellowHype's 2012 album Numbers, "65" was the song Hodgy and Left Brain chose to perform on BBC Radio 1. Hodgy MCs, Syd tha Kid DJs, and Tyler, the Creator and Left Brain show off some impressive coordinated dance moves. 

Though "67" is about loneliness, a favorite theme of Hodgy's, it ends on a surprisingly positive note:

"Now, if you've ever been alone in your life put your hands up
If somebody's let you down, put your hands up
If you need a lending hand sometimes then put your hands up
Now reach out, I can relate."

Though Hodgy's extended use of police numeric code to describe his illicit shenanigans, Tyler steals the show with his darkly comic account of an unsavory encounter with a crooked cop that basically amounts to his version of Jay Z's "99 Problems." 

"Primo" is Hodgy's contribution to the time-honored tradition of man declaring his love for the fairest lady of them all: Mary Jane.

Possibly Hodgy's greatest I-don't-give-a-fuck anthem, "Lately" finds him not turning a blind eye to his legion of haters and admirers alike but provoking them by lyrically slapping them in the face over a probing bass line by Flying Lotus. "I wasn't hollering at you girl, you're the ugliest one."

"In a Dream" appeared on Hodgy's 2012 EP Untitled. "I don’t believe that I should be titled anything," he told Mass Appeal. "You know how people try and put you in a stereotype or some shit? Well I’m against that. People feel entitled to things in the world, I feel the totally opposite way."

Though "Alone" begins with an admission of loneliness and depression, it quickly evolves into affirmation of his individuality. Hodgy seems to enjoy his solitude, away from the fuckboys and "self-centered women," where he can bask in the glow of his own awesomeness in peace.

"Da Man" is primarily an exercise in multisyllabic rhyme and wordplay, ("My lungs are black as ice / Asian eyes like a nigga rap for rice"), both of which Hodgy is quite fond of. It appears on Dena Tape 2, which he released six years after Dena Tape -- the first solo project ever released by a member of Odd Future.

"Barbell" is the lead single off Fireplace. In the video he goes fishing solo and seems to be having a grand time. "I’m just grateful to be here," he recently told Fader. "The light at the end of the tunnel looks so small sometimes, it’s like a star. It seems like a long way but you can get there pretty fast if you do the work."