Despite their claims about being from outer space, Hella Dope sure specialize in planet earth. The local rap-pop duo take you along for wild all-nighters, adventuring down the same slinky alleys that inspired Outkast’s Stankonia. Seductive experiments, RnB bangers, sordid pop that loves telling stories from its bad boy past. If aliens did land you wouldn’t need to describe sex to them, you would just have to put on Hella Dope.
Space jam “This Is My Planet” is sinister fun. Minor chords syncopate over a start stop beat. And when the narrator revels himself as an alien, his voice is joined by three pitch-shifted counter parts, filling the tune with sentences as sticky as a movie theater floor. When the song breaks apart, a weirdo choir rises and cries gleefully “ahhh-uhhh-ahhh-uhhh-WAH!”
“Out Here Doin’ It” is a guaranteed smile. MC Jerm does that awesome Talib Kweli thing where he loses the meter for a line then snaps right back to the beat and Tay Sean’s beat feels like radio RnB taking a jazz theory class.
The band sums itself up with “Rainwater,” a mutant clone of Quincy Jones that would like to sleep with you. A synth hits everything that moves while an unhurried bass struts it’s shit. The duo hustle and coo, simultaneously playful and suave: “you’re hella pretty/ life’s too short, you should be there with me.”
Hella Dope play the Nectar Lounge Friday, November 27 with a ton of great Seattle bands (Maklemore/Ryan Lewis, Nextdoor Neighbors, Kung Foo Grip and DJ Sabzi)
