Hudi likes to be distracted. The rapper-singer-producer from Manhattan’s Washington Heights announces his debut mixtape Holy Smokes! today, along with the title track. The collection was written where he is the most creative, at home, where he can watch a movie, play video games, read, and even take a shower—all while he’s working on the tracks.
Hudi describes the upcoming project, “I think sonically the whole thing mixtape started with the title track ‘Holy Smokes!’ and the goal was to hone in on the one sound in hopes of being more authentic to the kind of music I like and grew up with.”
“I kept coming back to it [‘Holy Smokes!’ the single] trying to figure out how I’d tie it to something bigger. Made this song when I first came out to L.A. and I just wanted to do some fun camp type shit. MMLP camp mixed with Pharrell-style bounce. Holy Smokes! has always been the sleeper on my drive and I wanted to build a project around it to let it shine. I wanted to let myself be a little corny,” he says of the project and the single.
His self-produced songs are exacting and deliciously snappy. It’s hard not to listen to a Hudi song and walk away with an earworm. Early listeners would agree—Hudi’s 2019 single “Rain” has been streamed over 6.5 million times and his 2020 single “WOODCHUCK!” boasts over 5 million streams across platforms.
More About Hudi:
Before he was Hudi, he was Hudson Prichett, an early aughts uptown kid whose grandmother nicknamed him “Huddy” and who grew up with the sounds of 50 Cent, Jay-Z, The Neptunes, Missy Elliott, and Eminem in his walkman headphones. The budding artist began rapping as a kid, but he first experimented with making music in secret, borrowing his mother’s blue snowball mic (she sings, teaches vocal coaching at NY, and at one time wrote for The New York City Jazz Record) and messing around with Garageband and Logic in the confines of his own room.
Hudi taught himself how to produce on YouTube before releasing his first project at the age of 17. Fast forward a couple years after being discovered on Soundcloud, Hudi was introduced to his current manager who coincidentally happens to be a former student of his mother’s. Hudi’s debut EP TSAR (2020) earned praise in MTV, Early Rising, and Fashionably Early and his talents have already garnered him playlist support from Spotify (New Music Friday, Fresh Finds; Anti Pop) and Apple Music (Chill Rap; Emo Rap; Vibes).
