Hip-Hop’s underground scene have almost always run parallel to hardcore punk in terms of fostering community and pride in the cities that artists come out of and while they share many ethics and practices they almost exist at an arm's length. Not many hardcore artists want to mix hip-hop elements into their sound, save for minimal references, while rap metal seems to have left a bad taste in hip-hop’s mouth for the last 20 years.
Sure you have bands like Biohazard who found success in mixing hip-hop into their crushing NYHC sound, and there have been plenty of others who hopped these borders but really mixing the two into one sound has been difficult, to say the least.
Old City is a group that seems to be able to take influences from both great scenes and make music that is careful in appreciating the roots but also break down the boundaries put in place. The band is the brainchild of founder Justin Mayer whose love of hardcore punk and hip-hop-influenced him to make music that married both styles.
Despite having no musical background Justin charged the project forward, emphasizing the DIY ethic in creating his mixture of punk and hip-hop. Everything Justin has done since follows the old school blueprint of both scenes and creates an appreciative yet groundbreaking mashup of two seemingly at odds genres.
Asking Justin about how he concocted his sound and style for Old City he explained, “I would drive around listening to Trash Talk or Immortal Technique and just think, ‘Oh, if it was only edited this way or the guitar faded out longer,’ so I'd make endless notes and eventually just figured I'd put in the effort and try to create something fresh. By the time I made a couple of beats, I realized I had a new style and decided the only way to do it justice was to flesh out the concept and make a whole album.”
After nearly a decade of formulating this plot and perfecting his sound, Justin started releasing singles and EPs as Old City by 2019, though he began his experiment with a EP that consisted of a mashup of crust punk tracks with MF DOOM vocals called Black Bastards back in 2017. The first original single Old City created was “Get Sued” in 2019 which mixed Green Day’s “Brain Stew” riff over hip-hop beats and Justin’s laid back flow. A video was produced for the track depicting a derelict punk house coated in weed smoke and beer cans.
Speaking on his influences, Justin drew from the early days of hip-hop when it still dwelled in the underground of New York City and was bumping shoulders with hardcore and metal acts. Rick Rubin was a name Justin pointed to as he had a keen ear in both scenes and obviously brought them to new heights in the '80s with Def Jam.
Justin explained how it influenced his process stating, “Anyone who does this can point to Rick Rubin or Public Enemy effectively doing the same thing. '90s Rap-Metal ignored wholesale, I was listening to Aus Rotten and heard a 'break' in “Pathetic Humanity” where everything dropped out and the guitar kept going. I knew it'd be possible to lock that up against some drums and make a beat - but had no idea how to do it so I got to learning.
After that I went digging, scouring through about a thousand records, saving bits that I'd like with little keywords that I could search later if I needed a 'clean solo' or breakdown 'jud jud' guitar buildup. Most times when you hear a sample on a hardcore record it's like Pitboss 2000 putting a movie clip before a song, or if you're clever like Cold World then you can incorporate samples so they support and inform the song's meaning.”
What caught my attention in Old City’s case was the names of the features they were able to bring on to their songs, legends from both sides of the game seemed to be featured on a number of Justin’s tracks and automatically I was interested. Names like Chaka from BURN, Milo from the Descendents, Gav from Conflict, all bands I listened to in my formative years.
My one question was always “How?” Luckily, Justin explained, “For Conflict, I asked to use a sample and Gav said yes - then offered to play guitar on it. I told him to write guitar only for 30 seconds at the crescendo of 'Prey' and he sent me over 6 minutes of guitar. I'll put it out as a b-side eventually, but whittled down what he sent to what's on the song to make what I was originally asking for. Gav King is awesome.”
Justin continues, “With other stuff, it's about finding the right person for the right song. I wouldn't want to get Kelly from Defiance to put bass on a song unless it needed his crazy jazz-style basslines, they'd be a waste on a slow song. Chaka's got a great voice and is cool and approachable. Milo took some work, but he yells 'at ALL!' at the end of 'Prey'. ‘Prey’ is our 'Dear God', our 'Shameless Halo' and as all worshippers of the Mighty ALL know, ‘Thou shalt always go for greatness,’ which is basically what our song's about: 'Fuck god, believe in yourself'. I'm very proud to say that in just two words we were able to marry our band with Descendents' religion.”
Old City will release their self-titled album on September 13th through Get Better Records, the album features production from Justin as well as J Robbins, John Golden, Jonah Falco, Baz The Frenchman, and Chuck Treece of McRad. Old City will have a limited run of vinyl records which is out now on their website.
For their record release, Old City will be performing as a full band in Philly at Love City Brewing alongside Eli Capella, Beef and QNORAPNAME as well as a show in NYC that hasn’t been announced yet. These will be their first live shows together as the members are spread across the country. “Tre is from Buffalo but moved to Oakland so he's flying in for the gig, Olmec's coming down for some guest verses. TBH we're still workshopping some things so hopefully we'll be able to throw a ton of texture on a live show” Justin states.
Old City are breaking new ground in both the hip hop and hardcore punk scenes, a band that can truly unify both genres which have always brushed shoulders in interesting ways and carried many ethics into each other but never truly found a way to unify. Justin and Old City seem to have found that balance and their debut LP will show any naysayers that hip hop and hardcore together can truly create some amazing art.
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