I recently discovered 2Hollis after a video of him opening up for Ken Carson appeared on my For You page. I liked it immediately. There was something about the techno-angle of his sound that drew me in.
Surely, techno and other club or Electronic Dance Music (EDM) beats have been incorporated into hip-hop/rap within the last decade, 2016 being the year that started it all for me. Think Lil Uzi’s “Money Longer” when it was still partially underground (yet helping us through college), and more recently, Destroy Lonely’s take on digital beats that we've heard in songs such as "Patience." This vibe is most straightforward in "CRYSTLCSTLES," where he quite literally nods to Crystal Castles, an EDM group from Toronto, who has also gained notoriety in recent years. Regardless of the root of their inspiration, all of these artists' unique angles of Electronic music (and support from fans using them as sound bytes in social media posts) skyrocketed them out of SoundCloud’s cubby spot. And for 2Hollis it's done the same.
It's been rumored that his mom is allegedly in the music industry herself on the backend, but he didn't want to take advantage of his connection and raised himself up, as per TikTok comment section gossip.
What makes 2Hollis interesting is that he can't be put into a particular box. He's not necessarily a rapper. He's not necessarily a singer (or is he?). He can't be put into hip-hop or its many subgenres, but his fanbase and friend group make him adjacent to it. His sound and overall identity reminds me of Virgil Abloh’s business advice- You take 3% of another brand and build on it. The underground subgenres that we've seen pop out over the past decade has consisted of artists doing just that.
The layering of strobe-like beats and his femininity make me feel like I can jump up in the air wearing pig-tails in the most coquette-ish of ways. But it also makes me feel like I could get away with wearing an Opium-down fit, too. You see why he can't be pinned?
p.s.
(Are people just becoming more enamored by what's been rocking my little heart since I was a pre-teen? I think yes.)
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