HO9909 - United States Of Horror (Caroline International) 2017
8
“At the end of the day we all believe in something. We all believe in the creator, whether you believe in God or you don’t believe in God, or whatever that shit is, but… you are a human being, you know what I’m saying? You can let this wheel go right now… God ain’t go fucking grab the wheel and take us back home. Nigga, we gonna crash.” Seven minutes in, the New Jersey rap/punk/noise duo known as Ho99o9 take the time to reflect on the importance of “grabbing the wheel”, just moments after closing a pure raging and violent punk rock track that talks about the importance of street power.
On United States of Horror, the duo’s debut album, we are able to see and hear, once again, hip hop and punk coming together in a record that is extremely incendiary, abrasive, violent, but also extremely aware. It’s not always easy to take all the information that Eaddy and theOGM drop at every track, mostly because their approach imitates life itself and its chaotic and confusing nature are often a misty cloud that instigate doubt, but at end of it there’s a puzzle that can and should be pieced together and a sort of light at the end of the tunnel.
United States of Horror comes out as a very accurate sonic representation of a wildfire, it’s unpredictable and you’ll eventually burn if you don’t start moving, but in the midst of all the chaos and confusion there’s a band making something singular trying to instigate a response from what seems to be an entire generation ruled by apathy. It’s about protesting, it’s about coming to terms with and assuming our mistakes and errors, but never giving up. Knuckle up because they are carrying the torch of acts like Discharge, Sex Pistols, The Clash, Public Enemy, Dälek, etc., and they don’t look like they will slow down any time soon.
At the end of the day, United States of Horror is an outrageous and extremely violent album made by two guys who refuse to be just another body in the pile, who know exactly how to push our buttons, and that have a vision. There’s method to Ho99o9’s madness, and it is fuckin’ beautiful and enchanting.