Ho99o9 Australia + New Zealand Tour 2023

Wavyland proudly presents Ho99o9, pronounced horror, the sound of the American nightmare. The duo composed of theOGM and Yeti Bones hold a ten year history between them, demonspawn born in the DIY spaces of New Jersey. Their background in punk and hardcore hip-hop spaces make them difficult performers to keep on stage: more inclined to writhe in the mosh than to stand above them...

Ho99o9 are what you might find at the intersection of DMX, Black Flag, Odd Future and Death Grips. Chaotic and multi-faceted, the duo are mostly uncategorisable: but some descriptors work. Anarchic. Hardcore. Industrial. Demonic. Self-described as X-Men (mutants who don’t belong), Ho99o9 bring a sense of unapologetic political anarchy that favours instability to order. They’re not your saviours or scholars, instead reacting to the world around them, one that never feels like it’s genuinely changing for the better. So what else to do than mosh as hard as you possibly can?

As students of music, Ho99o9 are a living timeline and lexicon of punk rock, touring with Slaves, Prophets of Rage and Korn, all while working with The Prodigy, Travis Barker and Corey Taylor. The duo would never be so close-minded as to stick to one sound however, collaborations with rappers Saul Wiliams and underground king Bun B acting as some of the more compelling moments on 2022’s Skin. Five years after United States of Horror, Skin emphasised Ho99o9’s forward-thinking approach, a restatement of their philosophy with music that demands introspection as much as it demands head banging.

Ho99o9’s five-year hiatus was dedicated to extensive touring, building a live show that rocks as much as it raps, a plethora of samples, 808s and heavy guitar riffs at its core. Their first live show a fake stage set-up next to Afropunk’s main stage in 2013, Ho99o9’s DIY spirit is abundant and this year marks their debut appearance on Australian and New Zealand shores. Ho99o9’s live experience is unconcerned with politeness, Yeti Bones a regular stage diver and scaffolding climber. The burdens of the new world are taken apart: Ho99o9 are almost here.

Bio:
Ho99o9 Bio

The atmosphere is full of chemicals and tension. Cynicism and mistrust are at a record high. The whole societal order is teetering on the brink of collapse. So what better time could there possibly be for a new Ho99o9 (horror) album

When the duo of Yeti Bones and theOGM kicked in the doors of the music industry in 2014 with an iconically off-the-rails set at the Afropunk festival, they set a noisy new standard for industrial-grade, punk-influenced hip-hop, colliding the DMX and Bone Thugs they grew up listening to in Jersey headfirst with bands like Bad Brains and the Ninjasonik that they absorbed after discovering the NYC DIY scene. With a steady stream of mixtapes, EPs, singles, and their 2017 debut LP United States of Horror, they’ve continued to raise the bar for sonic chaos, drawing critical raves, building a cultishly devoted following, and earning the respect of iconic audio anarchists of the past, present and future. Slipknot (Corey Taylor appears on the new Ho99o9 album, and the band just wrapped a 20_+ date arena tour together) The Prodigy (who featured Ho99o9 on the 2018 single “Fight Fire With Fire” and brought ho99o9 on their infamous final tour of the UK with Keith Flint)  Mike Patton (who invited them to open for Mr. Bungle and Faith No More), and many many more have. 

In 2019, a mutual friend introduced them to Travis Barker, and a get-to-know-you studio session quickly resulted in the pummelling track “Suge Knight.” Soon after, the pandemic hit, and the world turned upside down, but the unlikely trio kept working off and on throughout 2020 and 2021, with Barker on drums and production duties. As the situation outside the studio got more tumultuous, Yeti Bones and theOGM got rawer, finding new ways to channel the rage that’s always animated their music—rage that the rest of the world was feeling more and more every day—and peeling back what little pretense they had to reveal their most unapologetically honest selves. Eventually, they realized that they had an album on their hands. Taking inspiration from an Ice Cube b-side, they named it Skin. 

Skin is the sound of Ho99o9 finding new levels to their talents, then crashing through them to go even higher. It’s somehow even noisier and more aggressive than their earlier work—mosh pit music for the end of the world that keeps the needle buried deep in the red—but there’s also a fresh focus to the chaos. If listening to early Ho99o9 was like getting jumped by a mutant street gang, Skin is like facing off against a couple of martial arts masters who know precisely where to land each blow to cause maximum impact. Lead single “Battery Not Included” pivots effortlessly from breakbeat industrial mayhem to hardcore breakdown to a completely unexpected soothing interlude—before going right back to beatdown mode. The slow-grind “Speak of the Devil” spotlights the newfound emphasis on melody that the pair bring to the table. The album also brings together Yeti Bones and theOGM with some of their biggest influences and most illustrious supporters: “Slo Bread” sends Houston rap into a nightmarish new dimension with help from H-Town trailblazer Bun B; “Skinhead” brings together street punk and poet Saul Williams; and the merciless “Bite My Face” gets a brutal vocal assist from Slipknot frontman Corey Taylor.

Skin is a searing document of a world on fire, distilling all of the turbulence and free-floating confusion and anxiety of our present moment into 12 tightly wound tracks that signal a new era for Ho99o9 and the sonic movement they’re spearheading. If it doesn’t make you want to throw a brick, start a riot, and burn the whole system to the ground, you’re not awake.