Hyro Da Hero interview
Somewhere between rap and punk, Hyro Da Hero is forging his own path.
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Described as ‘Nas fronting Rage Against The Machine’, Houston-born rapper Hyro Da Hero is pushing a new hybrid of hip hop/punk rock/rap that is uniting both sides of music’s countercultural coin.
In an extended version of the interview from the HUCK#026 feature, we talk to Hyro about positivity, fusing styles and not being a zombie.
HUCK: Was rap music your first love?
Hyro Da Hero: Rap music was my first love. And I discovered punk when I started looking into black history. I discovered Bad Brains and Fishbone, and got put onto a lot of cool black punk music in LA. I noticed with punk rock and hip hop it’s all the same attitude, we all share that hate against authority. It’s the same vibe. But with hip hop it gravitated more into electric beat making and stuff like that, so you can’t express yourself as fully as you would like to. Somebody like Tupac will just scream over the track, you know, but I just love live music, because as hard as I scream, the band [playing instruments] can match that same intensity. And that’s what I love about rock, and it really dug me into that, and I started just learning. And I love being introduced to new music all the time.
When did you first start playing with your band?
I met my band members through Ross Robinson and I met Ross through Chino [Moreno] from Deftones. I met Chino when I first came out to LA. The first thing I did was go hang out at a Deftones rehearsal. I knew of Deftones ‘cause I used to see kids carve their name into desks and stuff like that. So, we were at Venice Beach one day and we walked over, and he saw Ross Robinson’s house, and he always keeps his door open, so he just walks in, no knocking or nothing, like, ‘Hey what’s up!’ And Ross heard my stuff and when it came time for the album I knew he was the right person to do it. And he put the band together. He got Paul from At The Drive-In; Mark and Cody from the Blood Brothers; Daniel from Idiot Pilot; it’s awesome.
What’s the connection between hip hop and punk?
It’s the same attitude. The only problem with hip hop is it’s trendy. So whatever’s cool in hip hop at the moment, everybody wants to do. And so they be kinda scared to gravitate to new things, and hip hop’s scared of guitars for some reason, unless it’s cheesy or something. I’m bringing to another way, because the person I am, I’m gonna do it from the street. I talk country, I talk this kinda way, most of the people they know, who are black and doing punk rock they can’t relate to, but they can relate to me, I’m where they come from!
What is the message you are trying to spread?
For everybody to be positive, you know. And wake up, don’t be asleep and walk around like zombies because that’s how we are. They wanna keep us at a lower level, so we can be controlled. Stop being controlled! Things on TV, reality shows and all that, they’re put out to dumb us down. The more we feed into it, the dumber we get. And the powers that be can control us. So we have to break out of the mould, stop being zombies, stop being so negative all the time. Have you ever noticed when you look at YouTube comments, it’s mostly all negativity? Everything on the internet is mostly all negativity. Imagine if the world was all positive.
Things take a while, you want longevity, you gotta build it up.
Is there anything that frustrates you about the music industry?
How fake people is, and how they just let money control everything. When you do things for love that’s when the greatest things happen. It’s just about money, these rappers are going mainstream, selling out, and being all poppy, even though that’s not how they are. They’re just after the quick buck. If you just go after the quick buck then you’re not going to get a lot of stuff. Things take a while, you want longevity, you gotta build it up. Things don’t happen over night. When I moved to LA I was like, ‘I’m gonna be a superstar. Look at Soulja Boy, he’s a superstar and he sucks. I’m good at rapping!’ But things take time. Overnight success don’t happen. And it’s real hard when you see talented people don’t get the recognition other artists get because they’re just selling out.
How do you keep it real?
I just be me! I’m just a real dude man. I’m in the rock world right now, but I see all these different people and I’m into new things. The thing about bad hip hop is it’s so bad. They got cool beats and stuff like that, but it’s so bad. They’re still my brothers, it’s all love, but it’s just embarrassing. That’s what I say in my song. It’s like a drunk uncle at a party and you’re embarrassed of them, but they’re still your family. So I just wanna slap them across the face and be like, ‘Chill out man. Stop being stupid, y’all have a voice, use it for something good.’
What would you do if you didn’t make music?
I’d probably be a doctor, or lawyer or something. Something big, something where I could help people. Maybe even a therapist, I don’t know. Something like that. I hate seeing these rappers and rockers that aren’t talented, so they’re inspiring other kids to go after these rap dreams but that’s not what they should be doing, when they could be doctors or lawyers or something amazing. Everybody can’t be the rapper or basketball player. There are other roles in the world, that you can play.
What advice would you give to your young self?
Stop talking so damn much. And start listening more. I learned that in high school, shut up and start listening. Shut your black ass up. You talk too much!
Hyro Da Hero's new album Birth, School, Work, Death is out now on Stereo Bang.
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Hyro Da Hero interview (text) by Shelley Jones is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
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