Helio-Tropes

Back to our regularly scheduled program. This week we are joined by none other than Kyle Ng, vibe curator, co-founder and creative director of the cutting edge, trippy, music forward, and multi-product clothing brand Braindead. He tells us about his trip to Paris for the Olympics with Oakley and goes on to break down the culture-first ethos of the brand. His passion for indie rock, hardcore and pu...

This week Sissòn joins us to talk about some of the influences that shaped his identity and the things that inspire him most. Hailing from Arizona and now based in Los Angeles, Sissòn is a multi-disciplinary artist whose paintings and works have graced galleries and museums worldwide over the past decade. In our conversation, he discusses the intrinsic relationship between art and music in his wor...

Fresh off the scorching BET Awards red carpet Yash is back with special guest Suzy Exposito AKA Brujacore. Suzy is a New Jersey born, Miami raised, and LA based freelance writer and editor who has bylines Rolling Stone, LA Times, Vogue, Elle, NPR, Remezcla, Revolver and more. We get right down to business about all girls band camp, how Goth is no longer exclusive to Goths and abuelas with crazy vi...

Smack in the middle of a heatwave Yash returns from a trip to New York with even more flames. We talk about a forthcoming Clipse reunion album and the prospect of a Re-up Gang come back, opting out of Kendrick's 'The Pop Out' show, 2Hollis' excellent 'boy' album, Wu Tang's long lost album that has now somehow been converted to an $1 NFT, and the the factors at play when an artist/band cancels an a...

Matthew Ritchie is a music, culture and sports writer who is also a contributor at Pitchfork and has written stories for GQ, Chicago Reader, Rolling Stone, Passion of The Weiss, and others. In this episode we try our damndest to focus on one body of work and cannonball directly into Mach-Hommy's #RICHAXXHATIAN album which Matthew reviewed for Pitchfork. We talk about how an 8.0 is the "peoples cha...

Vivian Medithi is resident rap corrrespondent at The FADER who has bylines at Pitchfork, NoBells, HipHopDX, Los Angeles Review of Books and more. We talk about Milwaukee rapper Myaap whose excellent song "MLK" and new project produced by Nedarb of Gothboy Click fame is a hidden gem (for now). We break down the details of Atlanta rapper Slimesito and Surf Gang honcho/producer Evil Giane's collab ta...

Jayson Buford is a journalist from Harlem, NY covering culture, music, and sports who has written for publications like Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, Vanity Fair, Stereogum, and more. He joins us today to talk about our beloved Knicks and all things endemic to the greatest city in the world. Our expert analysis leads us to the conclusion that Donté DiVincenzo could have easily been Jackie Junior's man...

Franz De Los Reyes is a music executive and Senior Vice President of Marketing at SALXCO (The Weeknd, Nav, Metro Boomin and more) who has previously held positions at three major labels including Def Jam, Epic and Warner Records. He shares how he broke into the music industry by being the squeeky wheel and building lasting relationships along with some digital savvy that major labels were farming...

Alphonse Pierre is a music critic and journalist at Pitchfork. He joins us from home base in Canarsie, Brooklyn where an ice cream truck soundtracks our conversation about the Knicks and the 76ers round 1 playoff bloodbath. We talk about Ice Spice's timely verse on Cash Cobaine's "Fisherr" remix and how an independently released song can get ratcheted up with the help of a huge feature and some ma...

Fresh off of Coachella weekend and his day of birth Yash is back with a solo pod talking about the rare sites that the annual festival has to offer with takes on performances by Lana Del Rey, Peso Pluma, Lil Uzi Vert, Justice's return and more. He also gets into the lame rap "beef(s)" of the moment and the dominoe effect Kendrick's "Like That" verse on Metro and Future's 'We Don't Trust You' album...

Sowmya Krishnamurthy is an accomplished journalist based in New York, originally from Michigan. She is the author of 'Fashion Killa: How Hip Hop Revolutionized High Fashion,' available now from Simon and Schuster / Gallery Books. Her work has been featured in Rolling Stone, XXL, Essence, Complex, Highsnobiety, Playboy, The Village Voice, and Time . We dive into the intersection of fashion and hip-...

Claire Bogle is a music manager, entrepreneur, and hypnotherapist from New Mexico with exquisite taste. She is the co-founder of Scoremore Productions which is responsible for throwing the first-ever tours and shows for artists like Kendrick Lamar, Mac Miller, J. Cole, Wiz Khalifa, and more. We talk about her rise to success behind the scenes driven by pure passion; including volunteering to drive...

Back at it with Peter A. Berry, writer and editor at large who has bylines in XXL, COMPLEX, Pitchfork, Okayplayer and more. We talk about how we connected via my reaction to an Uncle Murda video clip that Peter put a wild spin on and how it lead to this unique episode diving into one album that has made a significant impact this year already which is Schoolboy Q's 'Blue Lips.' We expand on Peter's...

Chris Atlas is more than meets the eye. An extra popped episode with the accomplished music executive and Bronx-native who tells us about his earliest hip-hop memories running around NYC including a life-changing performance from Public Enemy at a small club in the meatpacking district. We dive into his first opportunity in the music industry as an intern at the legendary Tommy Boy Records where h...

CAL-A is a Grammy Award-winning producer, artist manager, and DJ from the Bay Area who owns and operates Free Bread Intl., a company helping brands and businesses create experiences to benefit their communities and the kids in them. He breaks down his contribution to Killer Mike's album 'Michael' which received three Grammy's including Rap Album of The Year. We get into South by Southwest's fall f...

Yash is back with another solo episode in the thick of Super Bowl Weekend, the Waste Management Phoenix Open and Kanye's 'VULTURES 1' album release. He unveils how Usher is just another guy in the bathroom, breaks down uncleared samples and estate-beefs elicited by Ye's album combined with the intricacies behind its second-rate distribution and problematic rollout. He also get's into A$AP Rocky's...

Scott Jawson and Sam Hadelman of Dark Matter Media are music publicists making big moves in NY. We talk about NFT Stars, Universal Music Group being at odds with TikTok, and how their clients' music playing from Nissan's and Honda's in the street is proof that things are going well. They shine light on the impetus for Dark Matter Media to emerge in today's market and what goes into curating their...

Back from his annual golf trip in Florida, Yash is joined by freelance writer Jade Gomez for a new heatrock where they break down the potent influence New Jersey has had on them (and music) for better or worse. We get into the ominous news announced by Condé Nast a few weeks back that Pitchfork is being absorbed by GQ, and the implications on music journalism in the cursed media landscape. We talk...

Geng PTP who also goes by King Vision Ultra is a native New Yorker and a man of many hats whose album 'Shook World' came out last year. On this extendo-clip episode Yash attempts to uncover a healthy dose of his repertoire; from smoothies to fitness and field recordings to music production, art and design. We nerd out on unmistakable producer tags and sounds (plus where they came from) and how we...

After a short break and trip to the east coast for the holidays, Helio-Tropes returns for the new year with a special solo mission episode with its host Yash. On the first show of 2024, Yash talks about Ken Carson and the Opium crew, PETA targets at the airport, Cam'ron's watchful eye, the new Mission Impossible movie, Dave Chappelle's recent special, the latest ††† (Crosses) album and some of his...

Just in time for the holidays, a special episode of HT with Stephanie Gotch whose agency Partners And Associates handles marketing, creative direction, comms and pr for musicians, brands, businesses and more. We talk about Art Basel being the Spring Break of the industry and her experience in Miami with her client Westside Gunn. She breaks down what it takes (and what it doesn't) for musicians to...

This week we are joined by none other than the Brookyln-bred, undefeated artists' champion and one-man media giant Timmhotep Aku. We talk about the musical spark that set him on a life-long journey, Video Music Box, the lessons that De La Soul taught us and the mark they made on generations in their wake — including your favorite rappers wearing Denim Tears. We dig into his additional work writing...

This week we're standing on big business with Frazier Tharpe, senior editor at GQ who recently relocated to Los Angeles from New York. We talk about him hitting the ground running immediately, attending multiple live shows across the city of Angels as soon as he touched down. We get into the recent story he wrote profiling Offset for GQ's Man of The Year issue, our experiences with Migos, collab a...

Jason Goldwatch is a film director and creative director from San Francisco based in Los Angeles also known for shooting music videos and documentaries. We talk about his recent short film 'Death Valley' with DJ Muggs, the accompanying film to the 'Soul Assassin's 3: Death Valley' album. In between Jason's bong rips he explains how the only way to see the film currently is by going to a screening,...

This week Evan Auerbach of Up North Trips joins us to talk about the new book he co-authored with Daniel Isenberg titled 'Do Remember! The Golden Era of NYC Hip-Hop Mixtapes' out now on Rizzoli. We start from the earliest days of mixtape culture and make our way to the present. Along the way we highlight DJ's and pioneers like Brucie B, the impact of Kid Capri, the sorcery of Ron G, the ingenuity...