Hip-Hop Lives Here
Hip-Hop Lives Here
Hailing from Bronx, NY, HULKSICKO! is an artist that you’ll surely become familiar with in the next couple of years. The independent artist describes his name as being derived from a childhood nickname for always lifting weights after basketball practice. He added the exclamation point for emphasis, so that people could “feel him.” Anyone who listens to his music will certainly feel his distinct uptempo and melodic style along with meaningful lyrics that reflect the trials and tribulations of growing up in the Bronx. Having lived in Section 2 in the Co-op City of Bronx until age 14, HULKSICKO! would find trouble often. His mother, who immigrated from Liberia,found it best to move their family upstate so that her children could focus on staying on the right path.
A music career wasn’t always on the artist’ radar. HULKSICKO! was a star athlete, having received two Division One college basketball offers after his freshman year, but after a traumatizing hip injury, he ultimately decided to retire the jersey and pivot his energy toward the studio. He reminisces and says, “I found myself recording more. My sound started to get better and I saw myself transitioning from athlete to artist.”
Like any skilled musician, HULKSICKO! had the natural ability to connect with his fans. His potential in music didn’t become clear until he received a DM (Direct Message) on Instagram from someone in Germany saying they cried to his song on the night of their mother’s funeral. He realized that if he could provide an emotional experience from a random overseas fan, there’s no telling where his music could take him.
The Bronx native started to gain international recognition when he ventured to China to further grow his music career, something uncommon for new artists. If you follow him on Instagram, you’ll see the Chinese characters as captions for all of his highlight reels.He adds. “The fact that I speak Chinese influences some of the harmonies that I think of while making music.” He visited twice and went to 10 different cities while there and lived there for a whole month at one point. He even had planned to move to Shenzhen, the “Miami of China”, according to HULKSICKO!.
HULKSICKO! joins a grip of artists who recently moved West for his music. He is currently living in Los Angeles using the COVID Pandemic downtime to adjust to a whole different coast, work on video content and edit his unreleased music. “After I created a routine [in LA] and I had the right energy around me, I knew it was going to be a better fit than New York for what I wanted to accomplish. There’s a lot of temptation in New York, when you’ve got time on your hands you could get yourself into something you might not want to.”
What does the future hold for HULKSICKO!? He’s been listening to alot of UK artists, so a collaboration is up his sleeve. One of his goals is to have a platinum record. After music he says he sees himself expanding his artistic vision toward architecture, perhaps investing into real estate.
You can check out HULKSICKO!’s music on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube and all the major platforms!
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Musicians from Talk Talk reunited for a one-off show celebrating the 40th anniversary of classic album ‘The Colour Of Spring’, and brought out Ride’s Mark Gardener, Ed Harcourt, Fyfe Dangerfield and more.
Check out what went down below, along with footage and the full setlist.
The gig took place on Saturday September 5 at the O2 Forum Kentish Town, and included a selection of songs from Talk Talk’s seminal album ‘The Colour of Spring’, in celebration of the milestone, along with some other classics from the band’s discography.
The band’s third studio album was released in February 1986 and represented a major transition for them musically – leaving behind the synthpop sound that had made them successful, and now embracing a more experimental, jazz and art pop-influenced approach.
For the gig on Saturday, musicians including Simon Brenner, the group’s founding keyboardist, as well as Phil Ramocon and Ian Curnow came together and paid tribute to their singer Mark Hollis, who passed away in 2019 at the age of 64.
They were joined on stage by Sophie Barker (Zero 7), Gale Paridjanian (Turin Brakes), Tim Eisenburg (Sweet Billy Pilgrim), Chris Hampson and Jacob Brown, as well as guest collaborations from Ed Harcourt and Guillemots’ Fyfe Dangerfield, and Ride’s Mark Gardener.
Both Harcourt and Dangerfield helped open the night with their own solo sets, and later returned to the stage during the main Talk Talk set.
To kick the headline set off, Elsenberg joined the band for ‘Today’ and ‘Talk Talk’, before later coming back for ‘I Don’t Believe In You’, and ‘The Party’s Over’.
Mark Gardener took to the stage to help break out ‘Living In Another World’ and ‘The Rainbow’, Fyfe Dangerfield joined for ‘Time It’s Time’, and Mark Harcourt helped perform ‘I Believe In You’ and ‘The Colour Of Spring’ – the latter of which being from Hollis’ 1998 solo album.
Sophie Barker joined in later in the set, and took on ‘Happiness Is Easy’, ‘Tomorrow Started’, ‘Such A Shame’, and fan favourite ‘It’s My Life’, while Olly Knights sang ‘Give It Up’. The set closed with ‘Life’s What You Make It’, which featured all guest performers.
‘Today’ (with Tim Elsenberg)
‘Talk Talk’ (with Tim Elsenberg)
‘Living in Another World’ (with Mark Gardener)
‘I Don’t Believe in You’ (with Tim Elsenberg)
‘Time It’s Time’ (with Fyfe Dangerfield)
‘The Rainbow’ (with Mark Gardener)
‘I Believe in You’ (with Ed Harcourt)
‘The Colour of Spring’ (Mark Hollis song, with Ed Harcourt)
‘Happiness Is Easy’ (with Sophie Barker)
‘Tomorrow Started’ (with Sophie Barker)
‘Give It Up’ (with Olly Knights)
‘Such a Shame’ (with Sophie Barker)
‘It’s My Life’ (with Sophie Barker)
‘The Party’s Over’ (with Tim Elsenberg)
‘Life’s What You Make It’
The gig this weekend took place shortly after Talk Talk released a 40th anniversary reissue of ‘The Colour Of Spring’, cut at half speed.
Before then, the band had already released a half-speed reissue of ‘Spirit Of Eden’, overseen by Mark Hollis’ son Charlie, as well as the band’s drummer Lee Harris and producer Matt Colton.
In an obituary for Mark Hollis, NME wrote: “Citing influences such as Debussy, Bartok, Miles Davis and John Coltrane, however, Hollis clearly had ambitions beyond the frivolous pop music of the early ‘80s. He shifted towards a more layered and organic style, improvising with an expanded band to create Talk Talk’s celebrated, 2 million-selling third album ‘The Colour Of Spring’, a Top Ten album in 1986 on the back of the prowling pianos and soaring guitar riffs of international hit ‘Life’s What You Make It’.”
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