Outside Chicago, only the most up-to-speed hipster club kids know about Hollywood Holt, but he talks like he just finished a photo shoot for XXL—the last time I got this much attitude on tape was when I interviewed Billy Corgan. He fills maybe 40 minutes of our hour-long conversation with shit talking and boasting, swinging from standard-issue swagger (he’s a really good skateboarder) to breathtaking cockiness (celebrities feel really comfortable hanging out with him). It’s only his crazy charm that keeps you from wanting to smack the guy—and if he’s gonna pull off the plans he’s got brewing for a rap career more in line with his ego, he’ll need to use every bit of it.
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To be clear, the dude’s boasts aren’t empty—he’s got the skills. What little attention he’s gotten from the outside world he owes to his rapping as much as his hustle—tastemaking mags like the Fader and URB have given him the nod; URB even named him one of its current Next 1000, alongside fellow Chicagoans like Matt Roan and Copperpot. In the city he’s microfamous as Nigel (his real first name), the club scene’s premier interdisciplinary partier, a fixture wherever Flosstradamus and the Cool Kids hold court but just as likely to go nuts for a bill full of punk bands or a Raise the Red Lantern set. He’s the guy who’ll start a breakdancing battle in the middle of the floor, grab a mike to beatbox along with the DJ, and then stage-dive into the audience. He doesn’t do any of it half-assed, either, like it’s some kind of joke—he drills on the four elements with the focus and determination of an athlete in training. “I can beatbox, breakdance, MC, DJ. I used to write,” he says. “Me and Mano”—that’s DJ and producer Million Dollar Mano, a friend since childhood—”used to be in a graffiti crew.” Holt’s philosophy is simple: “I want to smash the stereotype that you can’t be the best at everything.”
Holt wants to be that something, and a lot of people are cooperating. Bloggers hooked on Flosstradamus, Kid Sister, and the Cool Kids and hungry for anything Chicago went nuts over his recent mix tape, Holt Goes to Hollywood (download it for free at hollywoodholt.com), a set of air-horn-streaked, party-ready bangers that references everything from Cajmere’s “Percolator” to the 808 beats of vintage Def Jam hits. And the video for “Throw a Kit,” his moped-fetishizing take on Rich Boy’s “Throw Some D’s,” has racked up more than 84,000 views on YouTube since June and fueled chatter everywhere from online moped forums to trendsetting blogs like Discobelle. It’s also had an unfortunate side effect, in that some people now see Holt as a novelty MC. “Everybody’s like, ‘Oh, it’s the fucking moped rapper,’” he says. “We made it to be funny and fun, but it’s not a joke. It’s not a ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic song. It’s about mopeds, and that’s what we do, that’s what we ride, that’s what we’re on.”
Thu 2/7, 8 PM, Darkroom, 2210 W. Chicago, 773-276-1411, $7
