
I was blessed to interview the one and only U.G.L.Y. Boy Modeling for my first ever hip-hop interview. Couldn’t think of a better person to kick things off with. Playlist at the top for the people who can’t read.
I’ve been listening to U.G.L.Y. for several years, as Detroit legend Quelle Chris has co-signed him extensively and featured him on his album Guns. U.G.L.Y.’s very first song I remember hearing is “America My Momma” and I thought he might be the one of the greatest rappers I’ve ever heard. Then I heard the rest of his songs and I was like “WTF!”, because the rest of his music bares almost no resemblance to “America My Momma”. Which is the ultimate sign of an artist.
Most of y’all bummy mofuckas don’t want to be challenged, or you want a “vibe”, usually a lame ass one. Well U.G.L.Y. Boy Modeling’s discography might be one of the most challenging, as he releases music on a whim and makes extremely unique and varied music. He literally has 27 albums alone on his Spotify, not including his Bandcamp. I went through all of them and curated a playlist of his entire discog above. When I told him I did this, he said “Married dudes are so fucking weird.” I felt like he caught me with my pants down. Little did he know my pants were down during this interview.
The question I seeked to answer in this extremely fun and rollicking interview is who is U.G.L.Y. Boy Modeling and what inspires him internally and externally. I think I got close. See below:
UG (U.G.L.Y. Boy Modeling): People wouldn’t know me at all if Quelle didn’t post.
HPC (Hip Pop Critic): Do you want to be known?
UG: Hell yeah I want to be known. Real talk, one of the things I’m finally getting over that I really really used to care about and I’m still attached to. I do a lot of my own production, I sample some cats with crazy nice ass songs, and nobody has ever heard of these artists. And they’re really good, and even excellently regarded by their peers from that time, ie. 70’s soul. Nobody knows the guitarist or vocalist I sample. And then I’m like DAMN, I hope I’m not doing this for nothing man, just for shits and giggles and nobody knows who you are? I’m like man, that’s kinda fucked up, and I don’t want to end up like the people that I’m sampling.
HPC: What percent of your music do you produce? You’re so prolific that I assume you produce your own music, but your music is also diverse.
UG: Probably 85-90% is all me, except for special projects.
HPC: I get bored of songs really quickly after a few plays, but I listened to “I still wear tighty whities” like 100 times last night while catching up on your discog. That sample is crazy!
UG: What got you stuck on that particular thing?
HPC: I’m a sucker for a dope vocal sample, and the beat kinda reminds me of Khruangbin, you know them?
UG: Yeah, hell yeah!
HPC: It sounds like a top tier Khruangbin track to me.
UG: Damn, that’s a helluva compliment.
HPC: Let’s back up, what does U.G.L.Y. stand for, does it stand up for something or just straight up ugly?
UG: It’s stood for several things over the years, some I won’t mention because I’m so ashamed, but the ones I tell people are “Understand God Loves You” or “Understand the Good in Loving Yourself”.
HPC: Those are both dope. I saw on Spotify your music dates back to 2013, when did you start rapping, and when did you get serious about it?
UG: I’ve been rapping seriously since, wow, probably 2000 bro.
HPC: Damn.
UG: Hell yeah!
HPC: Your lyrics can go from profound to hilarious, I love your music.
UG: Thank you, I appreciate it, because I’m not an artist with any backing, I’m not on a label, everything I do is me, with a little bit of help of a few special people along the way. Shout out Chris Crack, shout out Cutta, shout out the whole New Deal Crew, because this shit is hard, so when somebody likes it, I definitely appreciate it man.
HPC: How’d you link with those guys?
UG: Cutta’s the engineer I met through Chris Crack and he can play all kinds of instruments, so he’ll add tons of music to my own production. Cutta is a fuckin’ unicorn, and he’s a big part of my sound. He’s the engineer for New Deal Crew. If you hear a Chris Crack record, 9 times out of 10 it’s engineered by Cutta.
HPC: And New Deal Crew is Chris Crack’s group?
UG: It is.
HPC: How’d you meet Chris Crack and Quelle Chris, as they’re both from two totally different scenes.
UG: A guy who influenced my live performance is Drunken Monkey, he’s in Minneapolis now, he’s a radio DJ. He makes phenomenal music. Monkey knew Quelle and Denmark.
HPC: Denmark’s hard.
UG: Low-key, Denmark is the GOAT, Denmark’s the truth. Somewhere or another I think Quelle heard me through my homie Monkey, and I was already such a fanboy of Quelle’s, one day he popped up on Twitter, and I fanned out. I’m so grateful that I didn’t scare him away. I was like “man I spent my weed money on your records man and I love weed.” And he was just so open and so cool, he liked my music, and that’s how we hooked up. As time went on, we continued on communicating with one another, he said yo, what’s up with these beats. We exchanged beats, so I’m listening to his stuff, then before I knew it he asked me to get on a track. I thought oh man this is a great opportunity to work with someone I admire, and it was like wow he loves my shit. The fucking internet…
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HPC: Thank god for the internet in some ways, others not. Where do you get your hilarious video clips? You’re very consistent with the IG stories, they’re so funny and random, does someone help you?
UG: Ashamedly so, I do it myself. I don’t know how old you are, but there’s this old show on HBO back in the day when cable was around called Dream On. It was about how this guy’s mom, he was a latchkey kid and his mom raised him off television. Every scenario he’d get into they would show Leave It To Beaver cuts or 3 Stooges, because his life situations would always remind him of something he saw on TV. And I don’t just rap, I also do film. I’m a different kind of artist in different kind of lanes besides rapping. I’ve consumed so much, that this is my way of expressing all this stuff I’ve consumed. I’ll go down rabbit hole after rabbit hole, documentary after documentary, then stupid shit for hours and hours. So I’ve got this lyric or this clip waiting and I go “Oh I’ll use it here.”
HPC: So yeah you’re just projecting the stuff you’ve consumed. I went to your website and you labeled yourself a multimedia artist, the clips are one component, then the beats and the rapping, and god knows what else.
UG: Yeah man if you get a chance you should check my OnlyFans, and I’m doing experimental porn work, along with some striptease.
HPC: Of you??
UG: Hell yeah, thick boy is getting it in man.
HPC: With who???
UG: I’m joking!
HPC: I thought that you’re like a married stable guy!
UG: I’m married, but I’m definitely not stable.
HPC: I got married too, good times.
UG: Yeah whatever, marriage is overrated.
HPC: It’s not easy I’ll tell you that.
UG: Hell nah its not easy, people think its about shit like love, and love can’t keep you married, so much other shit involved in that institution.
HPC: How old is your kid?
UG: Man he is 7, 7 years old. I got a 7 year old human being bro.
HPC: Fun?
UG: Sometimes, sometimes.. you have kids?
HPC: Not yet, my marriage has been rocky, but it’s peaking in my 7th year. This is kinda corny I guess, but what got you into rap, was there a certain song? What made you fall in love with hip-hop?
UG: I grew up in the hood.
HPC: Chicago??
UG: Yeah it was just around, there wasn’t one moment. I always saw rappers out and about, and I always liked rappers. There were elements of rapping that I appreciated and wanted to get to. I liked that kind of attention, whether it was bad or good. I decided, “I don’t just have to be this, but I’m definitely gonna get up in this.” PAUSE.
HPC: So was it local Chicago rap scene or everything that people were playing?
UG: It was a mix, I have a crazy mix of friends. If you mess with music, whatever archetype for that kind of music or hip-hop or whatever, you’ve got that element around. There are people on some street shit, also on conscious rap. I know a few gospel rappers. I know some people really talented as far as rapping, but they aren’t talking about shit, but they know how to make that shit sound good as hell. There’s all these styles and communities under the rap/hip-hop genre. It’s kind of a way of expressing all of my different groups of friends and people I’ve been around.
HPC: That makes sense. What are your thoughts on pussy juice?
UG: No need to drink it chilled!
HPC: I don’t want to label you.
UG: Come on bro, label me!
HPC: You’ve got America My Momma, you’ve got so many albums, I went through 5-6 last night, and hadn’t tapped in for a while admittedly.
UG: It’s ok, there’s a lot.
HPC: I would label you a comedy rapper to a degree, I don’t want to put you in that box, I watched you and Chris Crack talk the other day, each of your song titles is like a comedy bit.
UG: I can’t control how people label me, but I don’t let it shape me. I enjoy being funny because it’s part of my personality, I can be dark too.
HPC: Yeah you have different faces.
UG: I will say this, I haven’t been showing this online, but for the past 1.5 years I’ve been going to different open mics and comedy clubs. I’m working on stand up. The raps are condensed versions of some of these longer bits I have. And I’m a big fan of comedy. When you’re dealing with difficult realities, I think comedy is the best way to talk about it. It’s definitely better to talk through the lens of comedy. It seems like it works. But then again, sometimes people don’t take me seriously to the degree I’d like them to, because everything’s a joke.
HPC: In theory you could reframe it, but you don’t seem like a guy to pander.
UG: What do you mean by saying pander though?
HPC: It feels like your 100% true to yourself with your music, and it doesn’t seem like there’s external influences on your music.
UG: 100%
HPC: Like I don’t see you stopping yourself from doing something you want to do.
UG: Yeah that’s true, but it comes as a consequence.
HPC: I started open mics 2 months ago, how do you like it?
UG: It’s cool man, it’s an adjustment on performance. You need that energy from the crowd, but it’s different. With free styling, crowd work, it’s kind of the same, but it’s kind of different. I’ve noticed as I keep doing open mics, you’ve got to learn your crowd. Sometimes I’ve had some nights where it’s like woahhhh. I’m in the Pacific Northwest and sometimes it’s a room of all white folks and I’m the only black dude, one time I came up and 5 white folks were talking in the back, I’m like “Yo you ni$$as in the back, you shut your mouth right now.”
HPC: (I start laughing)
UG: It killed me for the rest of the night. I thought it was funny, but I fucked up the energy. So that’s what I’m learning as far as these mics, the different energies man.
HPC: After 2 months, I’ve had some bad sets, and I can’t read the crowd at all.
UG: It’s all learning.
HPC: I’m probably level 3 out of 1000
UG: I’m probably level 2.
HPC: Do you feel good after a set?
UG: Everyone is different, but most of the time I feel pretty good. I’m also a pussy, so I’ve been doing it out here in Seattle/Tacoma, and out in Portland. When I go home to Chicago, I’m scared to go to where I should go, where these mofuckas want you to fail at the mic, where you really got to prove something, so…
HPC: Is the scene in Seattle supportive?
UG: It is, yeah that’s what I was trying to get at, they’ll clap for everybody regardless, and man this dude sucks, and they’ll be supportive like “man you should try harder or try this.” Like man tell them they suck make them cry, and then maybe they’ll do better. I don’t like that. That is one thing I don’t like about the open mics out here. They’re too nice.
HPC: One guy was so mean to me after a horrible set, I’m too sensitive. Are you sensitive about any of your comedy, music, or any of that, or do you want people to bring the pain?
UG: Inside I am, there have been so many people who have hurt me.
HPC: You’ve got haters?
UG: Hell yeah, there are people out here who you can’t even get invested in how they feel about you. Ive found out people really don’t like you or your performances and you look like a fool, and they hate the way you rap, and I’m like huh I wonder why, then I’m like I gotta stop wondering.
HPC: What’s the dream in rap?
UG: The dream in rap would be to be doing this with some extra toys, to be able to pay people who work with me a salary, and be able to move around. And I would be so cool with getting to like 100k fans internationally, and I’d be like “Yo, I’m a successful ass mothafucka!”
HPC: Is there a path to that? Is there a guide?
UG: Nah its music and creativity and especially when you’re dealing with something as subjective as art. I can watch documentaries and see how people I like got there, I can read books, and I do all those things. You don’t have direction bro, you gotta keep going. You’ll see some of your peer’s careers evolve. Ive been doing this since 2000. As I’ve gotten older I’ve seen people who were better or just as good as me, and they quit. They couldn’t do it anymore. They didn’t remember what they were doing it for anymore. Some come back, some look on, some wish and dream. I just want my 100k international fans, then I’ll want some more shit.
HPC: I heard you and Chris Crack talking, why don’t you do a full length with him? I think if he locked in with you as a producer, I think you guys could make something great. I don’t have to publish this part of the interview.
UG: Its ok I’m cool with all of it.
HPC: I feel like you working with Chris Crack would be good for you because of your fanbase, and he’d get some of your production, so it’s a win-win.
UG: With me and Crack, we talk about doing a project, in the process of doing a project, we have 3-4 albums worth of music through each others projects. Sometimes I won’t mention it, you’ll hear Crack doing ad libs on, if you really listen and you’re a fan of Crack, you’ll hear him in the background of almost all the albums. So we’re so much a part of each others art, Ill call him to ask if he can do ad libs for me, or ask him how to say this, and Crack will call me saying you had this idea and ask if he can use it for this or that. We’re all over each others projects. Big pause. We have albums together G, it’s just not marketed as such. But he’s on his production, and I’m on beats he’s made. People don’t know he makes beats too! We have the same engineer.
HPC: Tbh I’ve listened to your music more than Chris Crack’s.
UG: Yeah and that’s abnormal as fuck, so now I know who I’m talking to now, almost 95% of the time, they say yo I heard you on Chris Crack. There’s only a few people who heard you from Quelle.
HPC: Yeah I definitely found you from Quelle, I used to get Chris Crack confused with Ruste Juxx who worked with Sean Price (I meant to say Vic Spencer here lol).
UG: And I’m actually not the biggest Sean Price fan…
HPC: Woah woah pause!!! WHAAAAT!
UG: Yeah, I think that I’m not a big fan of a rapper’s rapper. I love simplicity sometimes, and others I love ratchet shit. And sometimes real rappity rap MC’s and real lyrical miracle rappers and real street rappers, they’ll take themselves so seriously. If there’s one thing I can’t stand is a mothafucka who takes himself too seriously my G. So yo smile, have some fun. If that joke was funny, smile. I know you got a gun and you’ll kill me, you know what I mean right? Your jaw is tight as hell, relax. He’s cool, but it’s me saying I’m not the best Sean Price fan. It’s not I’m saying Sean price is trash, because I’d be a liar and a jackass, but I hate to tell you, I’m not sitting here quoting Sean Price, I’m not that kind of guy.
HPC: I know this is random, but what do you think of Doja Cat?
UG: I don’t really bro, I don’t, but what’s funny is I brought this artist from Seattle to this club who Doja recommended and cosigned. I don’t know if you’ve heard of Big Clit?
HPC: Do you like listening to other rappers? Outside of Chris Crack and Quelle? Not to single anyone out.
UG: It’s always a weird question.
HPC: I’ve been listening to Tony Shhnow.
UG: I know that guy.
HPC: I moved to ATL and Mike Will threw a free party and it’s 13 degrees outside, got hammered in my car alone, went out, and it’s 10 dollars for an open bar, and the whole crowd was acting cool and it was lame, but Tony Shhnow was there. I was like OMG it’s Tony Shhnow and he dipped really fast. I went up to Mike Will 3 times while hammered and told him The Weeknd sucks without him.
UG: Tony Shhnow is cool man, but I’m like a bitch for the funny stuff, that’s why I fuck with Danny Brown. Man I’m loving Bruiser Wolf. I just love unique ass shit. My homie Surfboard C, that’s the homie, I’ve made music with him before, it’s on some pop-rap shit, he’s got the bars. He’ll give you some dope shit, like I didn’t know about this artist, or this cut of jacket, it’s like a small-house flex. Man who else… I’m one of the biggest Ol’ Dirty fans in the world. He’s the illest. If you can rap and you look like you might stink a little bit, I’ll mess with you more than somebody who can rap if you look like somebody who looks clean all the time. I fuck with Larry June, but he doesn’t look like he gets dirt on him.
HPC: I think Larry June’s overrated.
UG: You a Dom fan?
HPC: I’m obsessed with Dom.
UG: They’re mad similar.
HPC: Larry June imo is bootleg Dom in my opinion.
UG: They’re definitely in the same lane.
HPC: Dom isn’t putting out heat like he used to, but I’ve still got the classics. Jay Worthy.
UG: Man Jay Worthy is underrated.
HPC: What annoys me is Larry June gets the attention and Jay Worthy doesn’t.
UG: Sometimes it’s about the marketing. The image and what Worthy’s on, even though Jay is the better rapper, except for how he is marketed, but Larry with the oranges, that stuff goes far. You’ve got to think of casual listeners. I wouldn’t define you as a casual listener. You spend your time listening to music. Like 90% of folks are casual listeners, and that’s the majority of the pod who might come across your shit. You can tell from their Spotify numbers, that’s when you know that it’s a casual music listener or a real one.
HPC: Jay Worthy’s marketing is how many dead homies he has. He has posted more dead homie IG posts than any rapper in the history of mankind.
UG: He needs to post more of him drinking orange juice, but all that death is not gonna get it bro!
HPC: Did you know he’s Grimes step-brother?
UG: Hell nah, you learn something new every day. That’s like me telling you Hopsin is my boy!
HPC: WTF happened to Hopsin.
UG: I think he’s good man. They love him overseas to this day. You can’t say he can’t rap man!
HPC: I haven’t thought of fucking Hopsin in 10 years. Bruiser Wolf did the hardest thing ever, he did an IG live at his parent’s tombstone, and he was playing soul music while boozing and smoking weed, and it was so emotional and raw, it was the most hip-hop shit ever.
UG: That’s real.
HPC: Too real. The soul music was dope too, I wish I coulda shazam’d it.
UG: You mess with AA Rashid?
HPC: He’s with Griselda yeah?
UG: Yeah he does those intros on WSG albums.
HPC: I like to do Keisha Plum impressions.
UG: Hahaha go ahead let’s hear it.
HPC: My name Is Keisha Plummmm, I met a man held him up with a gun, he bent over I shoved my gun up his ass, I aint got no class I’m Keisha Plum. I’m not fuckin dumb I’m Keisha Plum, how’d I end up on this rap album nobody knows, but I give WSG all my hoes! Wtf is up with this Keisha Plum shit.
UG: It’s part of the aesthetic.
HPC: So you a fan of AA Rashid?
UG: I’m a fanboy, without knowing him, he’s taught me so much, and I’ve made him a part of my sound. Yeah I don’t want to meet him because it will destroy the myth.
HPC: So he does the Griselda poems too?
UG: It’s way more than poetry. I just feel, like Westside is mad theatrical. All this fashion stuff and jewelry, it’s all costumes. When you see Shakespeare you see ladies in their fancy dresses and their hair. He’s doing that for black people and fashion culture. His albums get broken into acts. In the beginning of an album Rashid is going to bring you into that world. He’s like “Yo I’m gonna give you a soliloquy.” I had to look that shit up like what’s a soliloquy. Man nobody is doing that. I mean Kanye did it with Nicki on MBDTF, but she didn’t do it like AA Rashid. It’s crazy the way WSG does it with him.
HPC: My first time hearing Griselda was on Rex Ryan with Roc Marciano, I didn’t like the beat so I ignored Griselda, then I saw WSG and Benny a bunch and they blew my mind.
UG: Roc Marciano is another one, I definitely listen to Roc, he’s got one of the illest live shows I’ve ever seen.
HPC: Have you seen Danny Brown live?
UG: In the early days at Rolling Loud.
HPC: I saw Roc Marci in the early days with Random Axe at Rock the Bells, I think Sean P hated me cause Black Milk wasn’t there and I yelled “Where’s Black Milk?!” And he mugged.
UG: Where you from?
HPC: Right now I’m in ATL, moved from the bay, grew up in Sacramento. Had to live in the hood in the bay in Oakland. Saw crackheads out the window, prostitutes in the street, there’s some good hood TV. And you get to watch with your popcorn. One time I saw some GTA shit where a person pulled their car on the sidewalk and floored it towards a random person.
UG: I’ve always wanted to go to Oakland.
HPC: Have you heard of the hyphy movement?
UG: Hell yeah.
HPC: The hyphy movement was so powerful that all the nerdy white kids at my high school were popping thizz.
UG: Are you a Lil B fan?
HPC: Yeah I saw them in high school when they were with The Pack. You into Lil B?
UG: Yeah I’m a big Lil B fan. I opened up for him back in the day. I used to be in a band called Black Orchard, and we opened up for him, and the shit was right. Lil B was filled with love like he says he is.
HPC: What was your band Black Orchard like?
UG: It was like a rap-rock band, we did a lot of different music, but it was rap centered. It was me and my homie, Harold Greene the third, he’s a world renowned poet. With his band Flowers For The Living, he was the other rapper in the group, we had a singer named Terry Griffin (Tory Gordon now). We had Sharae Reed who is R Kelly’s and Yolanda Adams bass player at the time. We had a lot of dope musicians, but we were just a little bit before our time, so it didn’t work out for the 2-3 years, but it was a good time. We opened up for Raekwon and Lil B.
UG: How do you feel about porn?
HPC: I have a dark relationship with it.
UG: Yeah, you’re married!
HPC: Every comic who says I’m quitting porn, I’m like shut up, wait until you get married. So what I’m into now is JOI, Jerk Off Instructions. Life is good.
UG: Wow! Hahaha. Idk what to say after that one.
HPC: I feel like I wanna die right now. You’re the second person I’ve told about my JOI foray.
UG: Explain that, WTF is that so I can make a song.
HPC: Yeah you should do a song called Jerk Off Instructions. So the girl is like “Pull out your cock. Now jerk it slowly. Now speed it up. The good ones are when you cum with the girl LOL I hate my life. So it’s JOI.
UG: I definitely got it.
HPC: I swear to god they have an alternative that’s even worse, but I don’t do it, CEI, so Cum eating instructions. I have no interest in CEI.
UG: I wonder how things have to go for you to start doing shit like that.
HPC: Eating your cum bc porn tells you to.
UG: Yeah I’ve only done that one time on purpose! Hell yeah, I’ll make a song called Jerk Off Instructions, it’ll prob have nothing to do with that.
HPC: I feel like you’ll tag something onto it, like “Jerk Off Instructions for Gen Z”, first you put on that VR headset.
UG: I’ve always wondered what people do without hands, human beings are so resilient, they’ll find a way. And I’m just wondering what that’s like.
HPC: Like the movie Daredevil?
UG: Hahaha WHAT?
HPC: He goes blind and has to sharpen his other skills.
UG: Gotta work those nubs.
HPC: That’d be your pickup line at the club. Help me please I can’t cum! Yeah I feel for those people.
UG: It’s alright we all got our battles man.
HPC: So you went to King Clit? What’s her name Queen Clit?
UG: Big Clit, hell yeah. I’m gonna keep doing this rap shit, this art shit. I’m way more into curating shows now, and looking at viral talent, seeing how you can stretch their audience, local talent, just curating different shows for different folks.
HPC: Oh so you curated that Big Clit show?
UG: Yeah I was a curator, producer, and a promoter.
HPC: So you’re a fan of Big Clit?
UG: If I’m gonna be transparent and honest my partner put me on to Big Clit, at first I wasn’t a fan, then when she came to the spot and I saw her performance, I was like yo, even though I don’t necessarily fuck with the music, she goes hard. She was pregnant, took off her panties and broke the bar lights. She had hard ass fans. She split her finger open and one of her fans licked her blood. Yeah I fuck with Big Clit. So yeah, I’m way more of a fan than I was before the show. I would tell a friend go see her if she’s doing a show.
HPC: Did you and Chris Crack talk about Riff Raff on your IG live the other day?
UG: We probably did.
HPC: Oh wait I remember you said you wanted to dress Riff Raff in a dashiki.
UG: Yeah that sounds like some shit I’d say, hell yeah. Get him and Umar Johnson on some shit.
HPC: Who’s Umar Johnson?
UG: He’s probably not on your radar, and you white right?
HPC: Yeah sadly.
UG: Nothing sad about that man!
HPC: I don’t wanna be white!
UG: Man I could go for being white for some days.
HPC: You could??
UG: Not all the days, but some of the days, hell yeah! You never know man, I might need to call you up man, and borrow some of that privilege.
HPC: I tried to do a joke one time, I gotta stick the landing, but I said black privilege is better than the white privilege because you get to say the N word, that supersedes all of my white privilege cause I want to say the N word.
UG: That is part of white privilege that you would give that up just for the N word.
HPC: LOL
UG: Yo… That’s insane bro, you don’t even understand. Other black people will hear this and say they’ll be down for that transaction.
HPC: To be white?
UG: Nah I’m talking about the privilege, fuck being white! Just give me the privilege. If it was tangible, I’d take it, and give you the N word, and say go ahead and have fun.
HPC: These are the talks that need to happen on a macro scale. I love comedy, it’s been so fun. I dreamed about it for 12 years, and bombed so hard and was reading jokes off my phone and then never again afterwardws. Then Drakeo the Rulers brother told me to do it, and then I went on a bender in Miami and hit rock bottom like 8 times and then I started doing comedy. I think there’s something to hitting rock bottom.
UG: Hell yeah! Always. Rock bottom is necessary for growth and motion.
HPC: So yeah I might want to have kids soon and I can’t tell my kid to go for their dreams if I don’t go for mine, so I had to do comedy. Are you going to mics a lot?
UG: At least 3 a week. If I can get 5 in, that’s wassup. This is my 5th year out here in the PNW, I don’t have a lot of community, so the more I go out and meet people, the more community I have. The whole hierarchal thing in comedy, with whatever comedy community you’re going into. That community is all about cliquing up, you’re first on the list and they didn’t call your name. I just try to be consistent and as long as I’m going 3 times a week I’m alright.
HPC: You seem like a guy who would be comfortable on stage.
UG: You’d think I am, and I’ll say this, every single time since the first time I’ve gone on stage, I almost feel like I’m going to throw up. I’m mad nervous. I’m scared. Every single time, but you’ll never see that or guess it. I’d have to tell you that.
HPC: Is there a difference when performing music or comedy on stage with how you feel?
UG: With comedy I feel more naked. Even though I’m not the best freestyler in the world, if I mess up on stage, there’s still this opportunity to fix it. It’s harder to do that when you aren’t rhyming your words, there’s no direction. A freestyle doing comedy is way more difficult and I’m more vulnerable because you can’t see with comedy, unlike rap, that I’m not a professional.
HPC: Do you freestyle rap and also do freestyle comedy?
UG: I’ve had homies for years with guys who can rap all day for hours.
HPC: That sounds so fun.
UG: And I hate it! I hate it.. I hate these kind of thugs. Like y’all are gonna rap all day forever. But it helped me because I still had to participate for as long as I’m doing it. So I’m very capable of freestyling even though it’s not my thing, I’m not one of those cats. But free styling comedy, like if I say a joke about The Cat In The Hat, like if I’m on some free styling rap shit, it’s bat, at, tat, gat, rat. With comedy I’m free styling ideas. That shit is way harder. I’m working another part of my brain, and I don’t know where everything’s at over there.
HPC: So are you free styling comedy, going up with an idea and riffing.
UG: Yeah I have because I’ve forgotten some shit. You think you’re ready like you have a plan: I’m going to talk about this, I’m going to do this joke and I’m cool with that gameplan. Then all of a sudden you lose it.. Then you’re like “hey, what’s your name? Where are you from?” Shit why can’t I remember that joke I’ve done a million times. There’s no direction to remember what this joke is, there’s no word, no fill in space, just subject matter, so its like let me move on before I look like a total idiot now. People just be looking at you, they be staring.
HPC: Yeah comedy is so intense. Especially for me to get on stage, when I was the most nervous person in all of my oral presentations…
UG: Its something you got to work at. Even before I was rapping, I was a big part of Chicago’s poetry community.
HPC: Oh so this explains the AA Rashid stuff.
UG: Yeah more so the spoken word performance part. Slam poetry, the competitive thing as far as slam poetry. Yeah, that’s really how I got known in Chicago is through that community. That shit got boring. It’s a bunch of poems about being righteous, self righteousness, and helping the community. I still had thoughts like “Yo I still wanna fuck these bitches!” I wanna do hit a chick raw, and I don’t wanna be responsible for any babies, and I can’t really write a poem like that. Like fuck this poetry shit. I even got on BET’s little spin off of Def Poetry Jam called Lyric Cafe, Eric Benet was hosting it with Big Tigga. Shitm even Ginuwine was on the show! That was my height as far as poetry goes, but yeah I wanna fuck these bitches man!
HPC: I’ll bet there was some poetry slam bitches too right?
UG: All that feels like a certain kind of image that goes into that stuff and people are mad disappointed if you aren’t who you were posing to be or who they thought you should be, and I didn’t have a lot of space to be me. Like yeah being respectful, honoring your ancestors, being righteous, being an activist, those are all things that are a part of me. But I’m also a ratchet ass disrespectful politically incorrect person, and sometimes I don’t care about my community, and I should just be able to say that without feeling bad. I should be able to say that, fuck y’all! Fuck that shit.
HPC: I could imagine that community could be pretentious.
UG: Yeah.
HPC: That’s dope to get started with poetry slam and then rap, so now you can express yourself fully.
UG: Yeah the art form lets you do that. That’s just my perspective. I could not let it allow me to feel that way and still do me. If I did poetry how I did rap songs, I wouldn’t feel comfortable with that.
HPC: Getting into your production, are you like a crate digger, internet digger, like where do you find all these dope samples? Not trying to sample snitch.
UG: Man I get stuff from everywhere. I got fans who really really fuck with me. They’re real music listeners instead of casual music listeners, and they’ll even send me stuff like what can you do with this? I just feel like I got 5 me’s out there, including me that give me ideas to produce shit. Like “oh what do you think about this?” “Have you ever heard this?” Just off of your experience with music you might know somebody’s style of production or an era that resonates with you that you grew up in, or somebody else grew up in.
HPC: “Nipple Rings are Titty Barettes” is hard.
UG: That’s from Chris Crack’s line that nipple rings taste like house keys. It’s like who wants kitties that taste like house keys? Humans are so crazy now.
HPC: Especially now.
UG: Especially anytime in history. People be like yo it’s different, but it’s the same shit man. It’s the same spaces on the monopoly board, they changed the pieces that go around, but it’s the same shit. You still got to go to jail, still got all that shit.
HPC: I feel that.
UG: Hell yeah.
HPC: I hopped on my favorite rapper ever’s IG live Mr. Muthafuckin eXquire, do you listen to him?
UG: Let me tell you G, Mr. Muthafuckin eXquire is one of my FAVORITE rappers. Sometimes I can’t listen to him because I don’t want to be rapping like him. When I listen to him rap, his living experience resonates with me so deeply, that it’s another person that I’m a real fanboy of. I know some people who could connect with me him and get him on a track.
HPC: I feel like it makes sense for y’all to collab.
UG: I’m too much of a fan, he’s one of the most underrated rappers I’ve ever heard in my life. He got so many flows, so many styles, he’s consistent, and he’s serious, but he doesn’t have to take himself serious on every song. I’m like get ‘em! That’s one of my favorite fucking rappers man. And some of my guys don’t get it. And I’m like y’all ni$$as stupid. That’s another person that’s gotta stay independent and do their own thing, because with a label you’ve got to fit into a certain formula. He has all kind of different music.
HPC: There’s a rumor he got a 1.5M record deal back when Huzzah! came out.
UG: Yeah, but a label G, you gotta just find people with capital and stick with those who understand your art, and work with that small team of people, because a label will not understand. You have to get lucky like Madlib on Stones Throw for all those years. Those are exceptions to the rule. I’m so glad you mentioned him, when I think of rappers I fucked with and everything, he is…
HPC: Yeah I saw you popped onto his IG live when I was on with him.
UG: I didn’t know that was you!
HPC: Yeah that was me. I was on his IG live for 10 minutes and got to talk to him, it was insane! I’ve been a fan for like 15 years or something.
UG: This is what’s crazy, I don’t feel comfortable getting into this with other men. I was watching it, there wasn’t a lot of people on that live, this is how serious it was. I was in the shower watching that shit. Washing my ass.
HPC: I took a shower with you man! Pause.
UG: Yeah man your dick is bigger than mine too.
HPC: Sadly nah..
UG: You disagreed with me! OMG, what’s going on…
HPC: Comedy, comedy….
UG: Hell yeah.
HPC: Did you see Dave Attell’s special on Netflix?
UG: Nah I didn’t.
HPC: I was laughing like a hyena when I saw him live, it was psychotic.
UG: I know a lot of comics, when I used to do poetry, what’s crazy is, we used to rhyme a set in Chicago off of 79th Street. If you’re from Chicago, you know about 79th Street. It was right across the street from this spot called Easter DeRyan, where the pimps once a year would have their international pimp shit. If anybody is reading this from Chicago they’ll know exactly where we were. And man we used to throw a crazy open mic, and a young, before these cats got famous Hannibal Buress used to come to the set and try out his jokes at this poetry set I was a part of. I was hosting. Lil Rel used to come through and do his jokes and this was before anybody really knew these cats, so I still got a lightweight relationship. When I talk to some of these comics or some of the comics that these guys are connected to, idk if you’re familiar with Mira Lee. She is a funny ass female comic, and just as a comic in general, this woman is funnier than a lot of people that you could name right now. She’s hilarious, and one of the things when I’m talking to her about comedy, she’s like “Yo I don’t listen and I don’t look at anybody else’s comedy.” For the same reason I can’t listen to Mr. Muthafuckin exQuire, even though he’s one of the dopest MC’s as far as my list goes. So yeah I won’t watch peoples shit, or if somebody is recommending a comedy special, I might wait 3-4 months because I don’t want it to slip into my set. I don’t want it to slip into my cache of ideas. That’s not your process though, you just love comedy, and you watch everybody’s shit?
HPC: I actually hate most comedy, I’m just a lunatic, I’ve always been the funniest person in the room, and everybody’s said you should do comedy, and I’d always hear that, and I loved cracking jokes and shit, and hearing more people say that, I was like fuck I gotta do it. And I’d see other famous comics and think fuck I’ve said funnier shit than this every day of my whole life, and I think most stand ups suck honestly. Who I hate the most, probably John Mulaney.
UG: Man I can’t picture John Mulaney in my head.
HPC: He pulled Olivia Munn after he got out of rehab, he had a baby with her.
UG: That’s what you do man.
HPC: I tip my cap to his moves, but his comedy, ugh. I feel like most comedy is so formulaic to me.
UG: Comedy is one of those things, and I don’t think a lot of people understand either. It’s hard to be successful. I think a lot of people are good at it, just like music, and just like professional wrestling. You could be one of the greatest, but yo, maybe they’ll make a movie when you’re dead about how you influenced all of these other people. You might never be successful at these things, regardless of how good you are.
HPC: I’m super late to the game, but it sucks, I wish I did it earlier. And the community thing you said. Im trying to make friends, so I started doing jiu jitsu.
UG: I got my shorty into jiu jitsu, then Denmark Vesey hit me up like yo you should do it, he lost like 20 lbs and said his stamina’s up. I was like damn I should, but I feel like I enjoy being fat. I feel like it’s mad fashionable.
HPC: I agree, Jonah Hill needs to be fat.
UG: Yeah that’s annoying as fuck, I’m like bro get unhealthy, hurry up.
HPC: Yeah I heard he hates that people say that, but it is what it is, ya know?
UG: Yeah he’ll never be as talented as when he was fat.
HPC: I’ve always been the skinny guy. I used to fat shame my friends, hard. I wasn’t hating, I wanted better for them you know? It wasn’t hateful, I want to elevate the people around me.
UG: You gotta be careful with better, and good, and bad, that shit is all subjective and that shit changes every 5-10 years.
HPC: Well played sir, touché, I got no counter to that. That’s fucking spot on. Now they have body dysmorphia… I’m not friends with them anymore.
UG: I had to learn that it might be better for someone, like they’ve been a crackhead for 10 years, stop telling them to stop doing crack, this is their best selves. Please leave them alone because if they don’t do crack, they just might fall off, you know what I’m saying?
HPC: Do you actually believe that?
UG: Hell yeah! It’s funny, but hell yeah, like some people, you gotta look at sports. Like Shawn Kemp.
HPC: You into sports?
UG: Only fake into sports, so I can have small talk when I have nothing else to talk about, like I’ll watch highlights, cause I get social anxiety, so I need stuff to talk about so I can be fake and funny. But when I was into sports, which was years and years ago when I was a kid, like Shawn Kemp man, Shawn Kemp was a really good basketball player on crack! Once he stopped doing crack, same thing with Lamar Odom, all these cats fell off once they stopped the drugs. They were supposed to be on drugs! They were supposed to die off the drugs, until they altered their whole life.
After this I stopped recording, as I felt the interview was long enough, and hey this was a great place for us to end on! I love this interview, and if you read this far, you’ll definitely be checking out U.G.L.Y. Boy Modeling’s music, so I won’t even tell you to. Salute to all my readers, and salute to U.G.L.Y. for being down to earth and cool enough to chat with a fan! One love.
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About
The Author
I wrote this blog for a few reasons. One is because nobody in my circle of friends ever puts me on to music or things that are dope that I haven't heard about (step your game up friends!) as few people nerd out as hard as me on the dumb things I focus on. The other and main reason is because I am so tired of The NeedleDrop and Pitchfork, from the way Fantano talks about music, to the way that Pitchfork writes about it. Both cause me physical pain to read or watch, yet I for some reason occasionally check their review scores, because they are the only sites I know that do stay on top of music (to a degree), and they focus on genres that I'm not tapped into, so occasionally I find something good. Is it worth the pain? No. So let me save you the pain, by only sharing with you my favorites, and maybe you'll find a new favorite. Oh and I also love talking shit, so I'll do that too, but this blog is about showing love to great art.
2 Comments
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Raul Perkind on July 15, 2024 at 4:36 pm
Really an amazing interview. Great information, funny and compelling.
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GG on July 16, 2024 at 7:40 pm
Love the dialogue between U.G.L.Y. Boy Modeling and HPC. Hope there will be more between these 2.
So much material here about the struggling musician, man, marriage, comedy, culture, styling.
Want to know earlier versions of U.G.L.Y.—but Understand the Good in Loving Yourself will do for now!
Really an amazing interview. Great information, funny and compelling.
Love the dialogue between U.G.L.Y. Boy Modeling and HPC. Hope there will be more between these 2.
So much material here about the struggling musician, man, marriage, comedy, culture, styling.
Want to know earlier versions of U.G.L.Y.—but Understand the Good in Loving Yourself will do for now!