Why listening to Mach-Hommy has made me a better creative

Running on fumeeeeeessssss, another 3 hour sleep, my brain is vegging out, at times writing the screenplay just felt like smacking my head against a brick wall.

My brain capacity was not where it needed to be, so I stuck on some music to give my brain some stimulation/inspiration. This new Mach-Hommy album dropped the other day, and bro, I’ve been RINSING it out.

Every time I listen to this album, it inspires me and fires me up to get back to creating, Mach has carved out such an interesting lane for himself in the rap game.

*puts on Mach-Hommy evangelist hat*

Let me tell you why he’s one of my favourite artists putting out music right now, why listening to Mach-Hommy has made me a better creative, and why you should give him a listen. 

Style

Mach has such a unique identity as an artist, and I would argue he’s one of the most unique artists in the rap game right now. 

Stylistically he’s heavily influenced by MF DOOM’s lyricism and Roc Marciano’s drumless production style – both very much up my street.

Mach’s lyrics are cryptic and fragmented, but also fucking hilarious if you take the time to try to catch what he’s saying.

Mach combines the nerdy, bookish knowledge of MF DOOM and blends it very uniquely with a harder street sensibility. 

Only Mach could go from referencing Grendel from the Old English poem Beowulf to talking about crack and guns in the space of a few bars lmao. 

Why should you care?

Artists or creatives in any field can learn a lot from studying artists in other fields. Mach really has his voice and identity down, which is something that many artists, myself included struggle with.

So many of his lines are completely unique to him, his style is so distinct, that no one else could have written them the way he does.

It’s his unique crossover of interests and knowledge that creates these godly quotables, and it’s something that I’ve tried to work on in my own music as well.

Here are some of my favourite quotables from the new album:

"I'm in my duffle, trust me you don't want tussle// 
Your flow trash, plus you so ass (psoas) like the muscle" 

"the closet got more loafers than welfare"

"smoke you like Korean bbq, you know where the cal be (kalbi)" 

"Lead put you to bed, sleepy hollow"

"While n***** make their way to su casa//
Send a stocky n**** in a mask like a DOOM poster"

"What's on your rincón, sliding through with your skating rink on//
chain snatching to DMCA, either way your link gone"

Like any creative endeavour, when you create something that no one else could have created you’re in a pretty good position, and it’s about finding the overlap between experiences in life, knowledge, interests and culture unique to you. 

How Mach has inspired me

Mach has inspired me to tap into my own culture more, in my writing, music, and in my personal life – having a great deal more unapologetic cultural pride.

He heavily draws from his Haitian heritage and often raps in Haitian Creole, sometimes in French or Spanish too.

I’ve taken inspiration from that and I’m trying to write more lyrics in Cantonese, and Spanish, and anchor my identity as an artist in Asian culture. 

If you’re into lyrical, old school 90s influenced hip hop, and are looking for someone new you’ve probably never heard of before, you could do a lot worse than listen to Mach-Hommy.