It’s a extremely good tune, not solely due to the robust message, but in addition as a result of HOODLUM’s mumbly, leaned-out rap-sing sounds naturally chopped and screwed and provides his recollections the texture of a melancholic dream sequence. On his standout tapes, resembling 2023’s Southside Story and final 12 months’s Brown in America, with the simmering, sample-heavy Texas funk of his go-to producer, bigtexjohnny, because the spine, HOODLUM makes use of his stream—which, once in a while, is almost inaudible—to dig into nostalgic, hardened scenes of hustling, getting excessive, and hanging with family and friends amid fears of loss of life and going broke.
And “Higher Dayz (Freestyle),” isn’t the primary or final time HOODLUM has tackled political turmoil head on. A couple of years in the past, after the tip of the the primary Trump administration, he wrote “B.I.A (Brown in Amerikka),” the place, in a groove that remembers the heyday of G-funk, he sang, “And it was all good ’til ICE began rolling via the hood,” alongside tales of drug offers and crooked cops. The tune’s video apparently bought him his first YouTube strike. Then, this week, following the protests in opposition to ICE in Los Angeles that led to President Trump sending within the Nationwide Guard, and ICE’s ongoing sweeps at court docket hearings and on faculty campuses in San Antonio, he dropped a snippet of latest tune “Burn It Down” on his Instagram account. “Say they coming for us, they will’t take us all,” he says, fired up, over a dark piano riff. It’s not a protest anthem, only a second of rage and confusion that comes from watching your hometown get torn aside.
One night, earlier this week, I had a FaceTime dialog with HOODLUM. He smoked and spoke candidly whereas children performed within the background. We chatted about Texas rap, the impact ICE has had on San Antonio, and his position as a marquee rapper from a metropolis that doesn’t have too many, particularly in a social media local weather the place info is buried by algorithms trying to push and normalize the ultra-conservative political agendas of Silicon Valley and the Trump administration.
Pitchfork: What’s the principle distinction you’ve seen between dwelling in Houston and dwelling in San Antonio?
HOODLUM: Houston is extra blended. In my neighborhood, there’s solely, like, one different Mexican household. Everybody else is white, Black, Arab, or Asian. The place I’m from on the southwest facet of San Antonio, it was both Black or Mexican. It’s small and large on the identical time, and everybody is absolutely collectively.
I do know a big portion of the Black inhabitants got here to San Antonio after Hurricane Katrina, so did you’ve got a giant native scene rising up?
Not likely, however there was some. There was this man named J.Randle. There was King Kyle Lee and Liveola. Typically Chamillionaire would come down from Houston and go to the flea markets on the southside, signal individuals, and throw them on CDs. However it was by no means a giant scene; it was at all times on the backs of Houston.
Did you develop up listening to a variety of Houston rap?
Some, however my first CDs have been most likely OutKast’s Southernplayalistic and that one AZ album [Doe or Die]. I at all times wished to go to New York. I favored 2Pac. Wayne. Bankroll Contemporary. Plenty of Latin music, too. I favored stuff with a variety of samples. I at all times wished to pattern stuff like Curtis Mayfield, the Isley Brothers, and Sunny Ozuna.
What’s the final tune you heard that you simply thought would make a cool pattern?
In all probability Frank Sinatra, “Jesus Is a Rock.” There’s this one half that I really feel like me and John [aka producer bigtexjohnny] may make actually darkish, flip it into some “I Really feel Like Dying” sort shit.
Who’re your favourite Texas rappers of all time?
Z-Ro, due to the melodies and beat selections. He would rap on fuckin’ Sade or no matter. Devin the Dude, I’d at all times take heed to his Biggest Hits (Screwed). He’s the one particular person I actually need on my subsequent album.
The place does your stream come from? The sluggish, croakiness of it’s so excessive. Was that instantly impressed by anybody?
At first, it type of simply occurred and I began simply pushing it even additional. However I used to be actually into Wayne and I simply began making an attempt to tug my voice out so long as attainable over all these Curtis Mayfield samples or no matter.
I can see that, particularly the Wayne of Tha Carter III periods or perhaps a tape like Dedication 3 when he simply sounds so gone.
One in all my favourite Waynes is when he rapped on “Expensive Summer time,” or the period when he was actually into New York. That’s a part of why I favored New York a lot.
You point out New York lots, however one factor I’ve at all times favored about your writing is that I really feel like I’ve some type of picture of San Antonio with out ever having been there. Is that intentional?
It’s simply all I knew. I didn’t know something exterior of San Antonio till my music began blowing up and, impulsively, I used to be in, like, Europe and shit, Norwegian children rapping my lyrics, tripping me the fuck out. I’m simply documenting my life, and folks don’t at all times decide every little thing up as a result of I’m rapping so sluggish, however, should you catch it, I’ll be saying some shit. Like “Brown in Amerikka,” I wrote that years in the past simply because they [ICE] would simply be within the neighborhood on a regular basis from the morning ’til 4 o’clock. We might know to not reply the door.
Does writing about what’s occurring politically in your neighborhood come naturally to you?
At first, not likely, as a result of it was by no means one thing I did deliberately. I might simply be writing what’s occurring in my head. Like, I bear in mind we couldn’t even have holidays—Thanksgiving, Christmas, July 4th—as a result of these are the times they might come collect up your entire household. It was simply fucked up.
How’d you get higher at writing about it?
I favored how Wayne did it when Katrina hit. Like “Georgia… Bush” isn’t simply rapping your ear off about it the entire time. It’s nonetheless a Wayne tune. So now each time I do get into politics, I ensure that it nonetheless feels like my songs.