Music has an interesting tradition of playing fast and loose with the alphabet when it comes to naming conventions. The most prominent example would be Prince and his “love symbol,” and the most obscure would likely be Post Punk/New Wave band XBXRX, which could be read X Box Rocks or Ex-Boxer Ten or Zeebex Prescription, but was just a roll call of their letter string. To the pantheon of alphabetical code-talkers, we add Ho99o9, the experimental Punk/Hip Hop duo from New Jersey. (For the record, their name is pronounced “Horror.”)
Ho99o9 began six years ago when theOGM and Eaddy met as members of the NJstreetKLAN, a performing arts collective based in Newark, N.J. While the duo was deeply influenced by old-school Gangsta Rap and Hip Hop like Bone Thugs-n-Harmony and DMX, they also frequently road-tripped to New York to catch underground Punk shows by the Death Set and Japanther, among others. With Ho99o9’s formation, theOGM and Eaddy combined their musical loves — which include former White Zombie frontman and horror film auteur Rob Zombie and Ice T’s Body Count — into an incredibly powerful and visceral Industrial/Punk/Hip Hop presentation that has been yardsticked against the likes of Death Grips, Black Flag, Big Black and Ministry.
Since 2012, Ho99o9 has released a pair of EPs, a single and a mixtape in tandem with a series of grindhouse-inspired music videos, and they’ve spread their Industrial Hip Hop gospel at festivals around the world, including Afropunk, Primavera Sound Festival and South By Southwest, where their show was halted due to the full metal moshing they inspired. They also tapped into the Insane Clown Posse’s slavish fan base when they appeared at 2015’s Gathering of the Juggalos, and they were famously dumped from the Warped Tour when Eaddy appeared in a wedding dress at the tour’s kick-off event.
Last year, Ho99o9 finally released their debut full-length album, United States of Horror, to somewhat mixed reviews, although hardcore fans seemed to be more than satisfied. And whatever edge has been perceived to be recently sanded down by the duo certainly gets sharpened when Ho99o9 takes the stage. Strap in, hold on and set the controls for the heart of metallic Hip Hop darkness.
Click here for tickets/more show info.
