They also talked about their formative years at Holly, and their collective growth as MCs.
Niggas was farming music in the group chat, Henny recalls.
Now, Holly is more so an attitude.
Jack McKain*
As long as you got a Max B playlist and about a half [zip] of weed.
Streets calling it nostalgic.Fly Anakin:I think it is been good.
It is been some positive stuff.
I seen some negative stuff too.Big Kahuna OG:What you seen thats negative?
Thats a crazy bar for greatness.
:You see what Im saying?
Come on bro.Fly Anakin:He always reviewing peoples stuff.
Hes reviewed one of my albums before.
He didnt shit on it.
[Laughter]Henny L.O.
:Yo, that was his way of saying that he a hater.
Whats the scope from zero to 87?
Something could be a 51, a 63, an 87.
Whats the reference point?Fly Anakin: Everything on here I see is 87.
He gave GloRilla a 70.
He gave Elucid a 35.Henny L.O.
We just started from point one again.Big Kahuna OG:Yeah, definitely Ground zero.
We breaking new ground.
We just put the sign up.
This is some shit we[ve been] working on for a minute.
So we just ready to move on to the next step.
We ready to put people on to like, Okay this is the real shit.
That was just the door.
Yall just got through the door.
So now we about to take yall on the tour through the whole mansion.
Yall just seen the little lobby with the chandelier.
Thats the first album.
It was a lot of conversations of like, Yo bro, you got crazy here recently.
We got to go start working on this again.
It just was that a lot of time.
So you said there was a whole previous album.
What did quarantine do for yall creatively?Fly Anakin:FlySiifuhappened during quarantine.
That saved my life, number one.
I think that shit fucked me up on the internet because I dont know how to internet no more.
How so?Fly Anakin:Im not comfortable just being on my story.
If Im not doing something, I feel like I cant be on the internet.
You dont have to, but this is what I feel like happened.
We didnt want to overexpose the shit.
We got to literally zap ourselves back in that mindset.
Its harder because all of us even more separated now.
During covid, we was more so all together in Richmond.
So definitely, its a new challenge.
Definitely crazy new challenge.Fly Anakin:But this is the most pure version of Mutant Academy.
All killer, no filler Mutant Academy now.
I dont think niggas going to make any other changes unless a nigga get fat and move to Miami.
You said it was a three-month period that yall really locked in and Im guessing recorded.
We disrespecting our legacy and everything that we grew up on.
We respect our own inspiration.
We need to get on this shit, nigga.
Why we being lazy now?Fly Anakin:Thats why we got so many big flies.
Lets just do this shit right the fuck now.
Its the fuck all the way in, nigga.
I dont want to be in a deal for a year and not drop shit.
It was supposed to come out around now next month.
Some of them verses got recycled this year.
I feel like it took [us] talking.
And then we just pick what we fuck with the most out of it.
How did yall all connect with each other just initially?
He was rapping already.
This nigga was passing out mixtapes on the last day of school.
He was trying to run off.
Yeah, nigga made a mix tape.
- That was 2008.Henny L.O.
Yeah, no funny shit.
The skit offgood kid, m.A.A.d city.
Nigga was like, I got a pack of Blacks and a beat CD.
He really pulled up with the beats.Fly Anakin:I really did.
You were ripping J Armz [instrumental CDs].
First beat I rapped on.
He just wasnt official until 2015.
Because me and Henny dropped the first Mutant Academy album in 2014, 2013.
And he was on that joint.
We played him on SoundCloud.
That was the first nigga and the only nigga I ever paid for a beat.Ewonee:Shit.
Yall were some of the first people that bought beats from me, for sure.
If not probably the first.Henny L.O.
:Me, E and my two older brothers made an album back then that niggas lost.
Thats how much bread I spent with this nigga.
Damn, this one joint that I think about every now and again.
I lost so much shit.Ewonee:Who was inducted into the group after me?Henny L.O.
So we picked niggas or whatever.
And the reason why Foisey is around because of me.
We all picked one producer apiece and then I told E about it.
E was like, Yo, why the fuck yall not going to pick me, nigga?
Ive been around this whole time.
So I was like, Damn.Henny L.O.
:We became friends, dog.
And this nigga played a Graymatter beat.
And I was like, Damn, this shit hard.
He always with us and shit.
Him and Graymatter making albums and shit.
Im like, These niggas is a package deal.
So we brought them in and Ohbliv was just like a no-brainer because we all love him.
You know what I mean?
We all get on the song, this shit going crazy just off the strength.
And we all like similar beats so shit is mad easy.
And then just like these niggas said, they always had producers all around.
So we all just used to make music no matter what.
That was niggas plan A without knowing we had plans.
At least for me.Fly Anakin:Yeah, Ive been neglecting all my other plans this whole time.
I aint going to lie.
My brother thought I was an idiot for years.
Hed be like, you gotta drive trucks, nigga.
But Im like, Nah, Im good.
Im going to figure this shit out.
And now the conversation different because hes proud of a nigga and he know that my way working.
I kept neglecting everything else to do this shit and I guess it worked out.
But nigga, yeah.
Nobody wanted me to do this.
My family wanted me to get a real job.Henny L.O.
:Like dead ass, bro.
That shit crazy, bro.
I really watch this man be like, Yeah, nah, bro.
He be like, I feel you.
Go ahead and get your little cushion.
Im about to go fuck the game up.
Because thats when I realized they got to sell shit just to get hours.
If you not selling, you not getting on the schedule.
That fucked my mind up.
Im like, Nigga, hell no.
And I done had countless jobs.
I done held jobs for years and shit.
So its got to be one.Henny L.O.
:And me, I just conditioned myself to do it.
And then I started working at this hospital and niggas really started noticing who I was.
I was a transporter.
I used to have to work with some real interesting patients sometime.
And that shit pissed me the fuck off.
I got on the fuckin work uniform right now.
Shit like that do something to your mind.
Itll just make you feel like youre not doing enough.
What would yall say about the Richmond music scene, specifically the Richmond hip hop scene?
What was it like when yall first started rapping and what is it like now?Henny L.O.
We with a lot of niggas thats out here now.
Niggas is cool, niggas is good, some of them niggas is actually friends.
Its cool to come out here and be a rapper.Henny L.O.
:Not only that but niggas was trying to be lyrical again.
And there was a select few of them that was still with it but they wasnt on Front Street.
I feel like we brought niggas outside, we helped build a renaissance.
It is different now.
Im like, Oh, okay.
Come back in 2015 and its like, Oh, niggas is looking for local hip hop and shit.
And then once the shift started happening, niggas started throwing shows in their living rooms.
It was like 12 of us.
We had like five girls with us.
Shit gets to one in the morning.
We like, Yo, nigga.
They say they about to close.
It was the day before my birthday too.
Niggas was so hot.
After that I was like, Im never paying for a manager, never doing nothing about no manager.
You hear Richmond, you dont know that it can go down like any place else in America.Henny L.O.
Before they skip Virginia, theyre going to be like, Oh yeah, we not going to Richmond.
So can yall break down Holly for me?
Thats a spot yall used to be it?Big Kahuna OG:Holly was a one bedroom apartment.
And at one time we was all living down bad.
Me, Fly Anakin, the redacted members that we not going to talk about.
Henny, Graymatter, Unlucky.
Everybody else in Richmond used to live out of Holly and used to share shit.
Sometime niggas down bad.
Fly Anakin might have lost his hospital jobs.
Nigga, fuck it.
I was trying to escape my pops.Henny L.O.
:When I was trying to move back home, I stayed at Holly.
When I moved, I stayed at Holly.
That shit had me jealous how yall niggas was living all close to each other.
I was like, Yo, this is tight.
Im kind of mad Im not here with niggas.
Even though niggas are struggling.
If you know the code, you literally got access to the whole shit.
And every year the rent kept going up.
I was paying $750 [the] first couple years I got in there.
By the time I left I was paying like $1300 for the same apartment.
Aint nothing changed about the apartment at all.
Nigga just up that bitch $600, $700 for no reason.
And then as soon as I moved out, the landlord sold it to a whole another person.
And the nigga did not charge anymore.
He damn near was charging less.
He knocked the price down to $1200 a joint.
Im like, Yo, fuck.
I just had to move.
Now, Holly is moreso an attitude.
And this is why I aint never asked niggas what the song going to be about.
And this is me trusting niggas that have been making music since weve been in middle school.
So I dont feel like I should ask niggas what this song going to be about.
:Like Scheme Sunday lined up the way it did on straight accident.
Me and him talked about that.
- I was like, Yo, bro.Fly Anakin: This nigga thought I dissed him.Henny L.O.
I didnt think you dissed me.
And if I said that, thats not what I meant.
I just thought he wa responding off something.
The problem is that Richmond shit came in, conquered the six.
And Im like, Oh, thats fire.
And it could be opposing.
I think thats the other thing too.
We do that a lot.
I dont know if its subconsciously or what, sometimes a nigga say the same word.
Its like, Damn, I thought I had one.
Because niggas got OD vernacular.
Niggas talked about some or somebody lighter got stolen or whatever.
All of that shit is based off what happened throughout niggas linking up.
Watching that come together like that is cool too.Henny L.O.
:I get inspired off of a conversation.
Ill just remember something somebody said.
You know what I mean?
I was like, Yeah, bro.
This is one of the best cuts you ever gave me.
He was like, I be trying to tell niggas the cut match every fit.
And Im like, Im going to say that.
[Laughs] And I just wrote my verse when we leave.
This nigga [Kahuna] was talking about, That shit way too accessible.
[Laughter] You stole my lighter two or three times.Henny L.O.
:And bro, I aint never say this.
I was listening to that and I was like, Bro, why the fuck?
My verse was fire.
I feel like yall wouldve told me if it wasnt.
[But] I went way left with that verse.
I was talking about literally being an accessible person.
I was not talking about the lighters.Ewonee:Thats the beauty of it though.
- Whats the beat selection process like?Henny L.O.
Literally when everybody get quiet, somebody spark up.
And I dont smoke.
:Yeah, and not for nothing.
Im like the wild obnoxious one.
And this was before I was a Max B fan.
It was probably like 2018, 2019.
And t got to the point where I started remembering the nigga hooks.
And Im like, I need to start doing hooks more.
And I was like, All right, Im going to just keep listening to Max B.
Then it was like, All right, Im trying to make money.
Niggas dont be having no time to play.Henny L.O.:Yeah.
And I dont see no reason to compete with my brothers.
Why compete with a nigga that make me better?
You know what Im saying?
He just really make great music and I have an opportunity to be a part of it.
So Im going to have a go at see what you do.
What do you do that make me like you?
And then Ill just keep analyzing shit.
And that would just make me be like, Okay, Im not really making music for myself.
Im trying to make music so these niggas feel the same way about me.
Only reason I ever got nice at doing hooks because my Deuce used to be just automatic with hooks.
Im like, Damn, my hooks be sounding like Im still rapping a verse.
His joints, nigga, they catchy.
On a low one, he dont even rap the verse is catchy.
Im like, How you doing that?
So Im like, Hold on.
Im about to sit down and figure this shit out.
Yeah, I dont want to be the weak link.
So Deuce [is] the first one that made me step my hook game up.Henny L.O.
But when you kept mine, I was proud.
Im like, I dont give a fuck.
Im just do some left field shit.
And then after while Im like, I want to do hooks too.
It comes in handy sometimes.
I would do them on and off, [Kahuna] definitely inspired that shit.
Him and Max B.
It was like, I got to start making that shit that make me want to dance.
And so you referenced earlier, that therell be a lot more msic coming.
Can you break that down without giving it away?
When you say flooding, is there going to be another collective album or just more solo or duo?
Whats the vibe going to be?Fly Anakin:We on some No Limit shit.
So thats why we pushed my shit back.
check that this came out this year.
So we would have all next year to drop.
That was just where we practiced what we doing right now.
Just making it make sense why these collaborations should even matter to these people, on paper.
They wanted me and redacted to go and do some goofy with them.
But we brought everybody, them niggas was overwhelmed.
That shit was weird.
Its funny how often Ill read stories about groups or whatever, or even the other way around.
I just know how they contacted us.
It was like, Yo, whats cool with you?
And Im like, Shit, we a part of a group.
It was like hot, niggas definitely pulled up.
Eager, thirsty, was like, What do you want to know?
Well tell.Fly Anakin:You know what I mean?
Niggas grew up playingDef Jam: Fight for New Yorkand.
Im like, What?
Maybe it could have worked, but I dont know.Ewonee:Nah, doesnt work.
89TheBrainchild, Deez EvilsDreebo feat.
Ian Kelly,TimelessLarussell,Hammer TimeNakama feat.
Rap Man Gavin & Kiluhmanjaro,Flip CupQuadry, Can You Blame Me?
