HONEYPAQQ Vol. 1 “>
HiTech. Photo by Eric Zhang.
Head to your nearest gas station with a scratched safety barrier in front of the cash register and you’re likely to find Honey Packs hanging on the wall behind the bored clerk, next to condoms and cigarettes. They’re just what they sound like: sachets of sweetness with names like Kitty Kat Honey that promise increased libido (while occasionally concealing erectile dysfunction drugs). HONEYPAQQ VOL. 1 is also the name of the new mixtape from the nu-ghettotech crew HiTech; when I ask King Milo, one of HiTech’s three members, what a Honey Pack feels like, he delivers a bras d’honneur enthusiastically enough to make his bandmates, Milf Melly and 47Chops, laugh with approval.
Yes, HiTech are almost as ribald in person as on record. The Detroit trio have helped usher a revival of ghettotech: With hyperspeed rhythms, bawdy call-and-response inspired by 2 Live Crew and Miami bass, and sticky techno melodies, the sound once dominated dancefloors in the Michigan capital throughout the late ‘80s and early ‘00s before falling out of fashion. HiTech’s sophomore project, 2024’s Détwat, brought it back to global ears with an omnivorous ear for beats: threads of wispy cloud rap, avant-garde electro, and the deep-fried SoundCloud underground made the soundtrack of dancefloors soaked with liquor, sweat, and other secretions it’s best not to mention.
The trio are speaking via video from London just a few hours ahead of a show and days before the official release of HONEYPAQQ Vol. 1. The infectious enthusiasm that drives the Detroit group’s music guides how they navigate the industry, too: eager for fans to hear the new music, they leaked the project in full on SoundCloud a few weeks prior to the planned drop day of May 23. That move, Milo tells me, was inspired by Lil Wayne. “You know how No Ceilings was, man. He just put his own spin on energy. And it was for whoever got their hands on it. It was for the culture.”
HiTech emphasize that HONEYPAQQ is the first instalment of a mixtape informed by their shows around the world, not a proper album — though say one is in the works. HONEYPAQQ revolves around a philosophy of maximalism that’s been honed since Détwat. You know the scene in the first Terminator movie when Arnold’s human skin melts off and the metal skeleton is revealed underneath? HONEYPAQQ feels like that transition to cybernetic dancefloor ultraefficiency, except instead of being driven by murder, this robot just wants to drink Henny, pop ass with its friends and shout “I AIN’T GON’ FRONT, THAT ASS LOOK LIKE A BIG BISCUIT” at the DJ booth.
As Milf Melly and 47Chops housed some Taco Bell, which I had no idea existed in London (they swear it’s actually good), The FADER and Milo talked HONEYPAQQ Vol. 1, the legacy of ghettotech, and the perfect party.
The FADER: I did some reading about the history of ghettotech and one thing that caught my eye were the cabarets where DJs would play all kinds of music, including ghettotech, for people of all ages. That sounds like a great encapsulation of HiTech’s approach to music.
Milo: Mmm-hmm. We ain’t trying to build a foundation with that one. The foundation is already laid. We say ghettotech is statement music. It’s just statements on rhythm. So like, saying, “damn, bitch you fucked the opps” is crazy. But we all read about, heard about…
Milf Melly: There’s some truth behind it [laughs].
Milo: You know, the mixtape is not really for new people jumping on and getting them all prepared or something like that. It’s before the rodeo and then the rodeo.
Your features on HONEYPAQQ have a lot of range. You have songs like “TAKE YO PANTIES OFF” with George Riley, who’s definitely out of her comfort zone, and “SHADOWREALM” with Zelooperz, who’s a natural fit. What was your thought process behind putting these appearances together?
Milo: Bro, we just play too much. It’s quite literally, niggas just playing around. Z came in and did that track in five minutes. And then moves on to the next set of songs we was doing because, you know, niggas was coming in.
[With] George, we in there talking about the Neptunes, playing with songs and shit. And then we talking about [how] real freak bitches know when to take their panties off. And George was like, “shit, I’m fuckin’ with the Neptune shit.” I be like, “you’re a freak?” She’s like, “I’m a freak!” And then she get on there and go. George is fucking lovely, man.
So people just be saying and doing what they do, and we just want to just be around and catch some of it. You know, a lot of people come in by the book. And we like, “let them have they book for a second.” And then we’d all talk and play. Everybody want to be goofy for a second. The transference of goofy to real, the line is very thin, bro.
That comes off in the music, which is partially why it’s so refreshing. I listen to so much music where it doesn’t even feel like the artist enjoyed making it.
Milo: I’ve watched somebody work very hard a few times to not have fun at the party, or not have fun making music. A nigga literally looked at me and said “that’s a little too happy.” I’m like, “excuse the fuck out of me? Can I enjoy this?” In my opinion, “seriousness” don’t come with the statement. It’s supposed to come with the quality of how you put your statement together.
Your music treats the past as a jumping off point rather than a burden.
Milo: Well said, my brother. We just turned the wheel and been sitting on top of the hill. It’s a new way of passage to understand this thing. And I don’t want to say we invented it at all. We want to reinvigorate that passage and put more life into it.
And respectfully, we feel a little weight from it, but it’s not the kind of weight that make your legs go bad, bro. It’s that kind that make you stronger. So we fucking with it, you know, and it’s not a day that go by that we don’t think about this shit.
You know, we talk about how we scatterbrained and we want to take it a little more serious and deliver the message, right? These are statements, but the message is the message, which is to understand the party, why it’s there, why it’s happening, why everybody comes here to believe their self or express their self or breathe. The message is to not take this fucked up shit so serious, and learn [about] the person next to you, because the person who leaves that party is supposed to take some of that with them and understand how to treat people, how to exist around people.
Politics would be a way different place if everybody came to a HiTech party once a week or once a month. [Or] just a good party, bro. Like it’d be a different respect for people around you. You can make somebody’s perspective stop being so misogynistic, fucked up, racist, or any of these realms of fucked up shit, if you can get them to a party where they can sit down and meet people who are out of that mindset,
I’d love to be at a party where it was, like, fucking, Renaissance artists, some of the biggest politicians, some of the most introspective street niggas that I know, and some of the most intelligent, out-of-the-box thinking women that I know in my life. And they all come to a party, and they all learn about each other with the music, whatever’s playing, and they dance. And then everybody has a conversation at the party. Essentially [it’s] bringing people from all walks of life together in the same fucking area to dance and have a good time, and they don’t have to hide that that’s actually what they want to do. It’s their universal language, baby.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity
