Alternative hip hop duo Hippie
Tribe on new EP and giving back
to their Brooklyn community
BY EMILY DAVENPORT
A Brooklyn-based alternative
hip hop duo is making
waves in the music industry
while giving back to their
community in Bed-Stuy.
Hippie Tribe is made up of
dp.thuH and blond.bomber.
With dp.thuH originally
from Toledo, Ohio, and blond.
bomber from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,
the two met while
they were in college at Fordham
University, when dp.thuH
was a senior and blond.bomber
was a freshman on the football
team.
“It was as organic as anything
could happen. We were
friends fi rst, all of our friends
were into music. You’re in college,
so you’re fi nding people
who are into your kind of music
sense, who stay up as late as
you, party as hard,” recalled
blond.bomber.
Both guys had backgrounds
in music, with dp.thuH taking
up drums as a kid while blond.
bomber was classically trained
on piano from the time he was 8
years old. The two would hang
out with friends and freestyle
together.
“It got to a certain point they
were like,’ We want to hear dp.
thuH freestyle or we want to
hear bold.bomber freestyle.
And after a while that turned
into, you guys should make music,
and we just kinda looked at
each other and was like, uhh,
we want to be musicians now?”
said blond.bomber.
Both guys were on different
paths at the time, with blond.
bomber pursuing a pre-med
degree and dp.thuH pursuing
a fi nance degree, but the two
ultimately linked up and began
COURIER L 26 IFE, OCT. 29-NOV. 4, 2021
to study music and record
together after being inspired
by a then-recent release of a
Lana Del Rey album.
“dp.thuH sent me a sample
of a song and said what
if we sample this as our fi rst
beat?” said blond.bomber. “We
put that up on SoundCloud and
it went viral in 2-3 days, it got
around 100K in 2 days.”
Dropping “Gullah Punk:
mod 1”
Hippie Tribe recently
dropped their EP “Gullah
Punk: mod 1.” The EP is the
fi rst in a series of EPs that are
set to drop throughout the next
year.
blond.bomber and dp.thuH rashidazagon
This fi rst EP features punkrap/
Afro-Cubano fused anthems
“Billie Dream” and “S
A N T A N A.” It was released
under their own record label,
OTOLO Records, and is
the fi rst capsule of an expansive
project that includes fi lm
shorts and a music festival.
“It’s certainly the most experimental/
left of hip hop project
that we’ve dropped thus
far. We wanted to rip the bandaid
off for our fans and want
to ease into it,” said dp.thuH.
“The album is more hybrid,
very alternation. We wanted
people to know that this is how
we’re coming from now on. The
instruments on it are very raw,
the vocals are very raw and top
of range stuff. We’re doing a lot
of different things.”
“Gullah Punk: mod 1” was
recorded and mastered in the
summer of 2021. Both dp.thuH
and blond.bomber agree that
the new EP’s sounds will pair
up perfectly with the subsequent
“Gullah Punk” drops,
as well as the visuals and short
fi lms that they are releasing in
tandem with the music. This
will lead up to a feature fi lm being
released sometime in 2022.
Through their label OTOLO
Records, blond.bomber and
dp.thuH are able to fully have
control over their sound and release
schedule, allowing them
to fi ne-tune each and every
project they create to the way
that it sounds in their heads.
“Because everything is very
organic and we produce everything,
it adds to the ability to
make songs. We’re building our
songs as we make our beats,
everything feels customized,”
said dp.thuH. “Our whole thing
is just us, not that we’re against
collaborating or working with
other people, we completely
understand what it is we are
doing. It’s been four and a half
years now. It helps us make the
dopest decisions. We love doing
it ourselves and making something
from nothing.”
dp.thuH and blond.bomber
hope that those who listen can
hear all the layers that are in
“Gullah Punk: mod 1” that
came from both of their years
of playing music.
“And we want our music
to refl ect that, how we’re saying
we think this music feels
great, but if Hans Zimmer
heard it, we could discuss
the theory of it,” said blond.
bomber. “
BY LEOCCIANO CALLAO
Curtains closed on the
sixth annual Brooklyn Horror
Film Festival Oct. 21, after
more than a week’s worth of
frights and delights.
The eight-day festival took
place in theaters around Williamsburg,
and featured New
York City-, USA- and worldwide
premieres — among
them, the new Netfl ix original
vampire thriller “Night
Teeth,” which Brooklynites
got a sneak peak of on Oct. 16.
As one of the fi rst fi lm festivals
to take place across the
fi ve boroughs since the start
of the COVID-19 pandemic
last spring, North Brooklyn’s
spook-tacular screenings saw
packed crowds — each with
the same energy as in years
past.
“We’re so thankful to the
Brooklyn Horror audience for
embracing our return in fullforce
this year and making us
feel like we hadn’t skipped a
beat,” said Brooklyn Horror
Film Festival Programmer
Joseph Hernandez. “Sold out
screenings day-in and day-out
— it’s never been more clear to
us that BHFF means a lot to so
many people.”
The festival’s fi rst weekend
saw the debut of the event’s
fi rst Netfl ix original fi lm in
“Night Teeth.”
The bloody fl ick (starring
Debby Ryan and Megan Fox)
is based in Los Angeles and
takes a modern-day twist on
the classic “humans versus
vampires” narrative. Audiences
who attended the
Brooklyn premiere were the
fi rst to see the fi lm before it
premiered on Netfl ix on Oct.
20.
The festival also featured
wild and wicked fi lms from
different parts of the world,
including France, the United
Kingdom, Belgium, Japan,
the United States, Germany,
Spain, and Taiwan.
Serving as the perfect kickoff
to another Halloween season,
the annual fi lm fest’s
promising return also set a
good standard for the years to
come, Hernandez said.
“This year’s fest feels like
a new beginning,” he said.
“We’re already looking forward
to presenting a monster
of an edition in 2022.”
Bed-Stuy buds
Fang-tastic return of annual Brooklyn
Horror Film Festival comes to a close
BROOKLYN
Freshly chilled!
Jorge Lengeborg Jr. as Benny and Lucy Fry as Zoe in “Night Teeth,” the
bloody vampire Netfl ix thriller which premiered during the Brooklyn Horror
Film Festival. Photo by Kat Marcinowski/NETFLIX