RaindropHustla

The OK Hotel is a place that figures into Seattle’s rock mythology pretty goddamn heavily- as a hub of Seattle music it already had a storied history by the time it was featured in Singles, or when Nirvana played “Smells Like Teen Spirit” for the first time there. That event was last referenced on Line Out by ex-Sub Pop prez Rich Jensen, you’ll recall- in reference to, of all things, a Seattle hiphop group. The 2001 Nisqually earthquake that closed down the OK Hotel Cafe and eventually saw it turned into artist spaces (many of them for local producers of quality hiphop) is perhaps a handy analogy for the hiphop music that has been shaking up this rock n’ roll town.

So the Ok Hotel Band has a heavy name to live up to. A local hiphop-but-not-hiphop supergroup composed of OK playas J.Pinder, Thig Natural from The Physics, producer Budo, and other collaborators said to include Tilson and Jake One according to Andrew Matson- this crew breaks from their usual straight-ahead, soulful rap to drop this first offering, a gauzy shred of jazzy R&B-pop:

The OK Hotel Band - “The Day”

I briefly spoke to Pinder about the Band:

I definitely am aware of how much Seattle music came from there- just being that was an old historic venue, and that’s where we were working on it, I figured it was the right name.

It started off just me doing some stuff in the lab solo- then when (The Physics) moved in, Thig and I started talking about random stuff, talking about trying to experiment with something besides hiphop, so we started working on a project, it went to the next level with more people’s involvement, and it’s coming together. I’m very excited about it.

I’m trying to find my balance in the universe, as an artist- and the OK Hotel is definitely a door.