By Charles Bridgers IV
“Screw Run the Jewels.”
“You can quote me on that.”
“But please don’t tell them I said that.”
“Go Bernie Sanders!”
These four statements were all made by one person making a singular point while his mind traveled in all directions. Evan Souza, aka Darko the Super, was telling me how he had a dream for Hell Hole Store, aka himself and fellow emcee slash producer ialive.
The dream?
He wanted The Hell Hole Store to be “the first rap duo to be characters in Gears of War,” which he calls “the greatest video game franchise of all time.” Jaime and Mike, aka Run the Jewels, was the rap duo that beat them to the punch.
Well, dream big, I guess.
But don’t let this exchange fool you, ambitions of this Pennsylvania-based rap group run deeper than being immortalized in the world of digital recreation. Three the Hard Way, the latest album released by the duo, is a wide and sprawling music project that is as purposeful as it is anxious, as earnest as it is idiosyncratic.
“Honestly I gotta make some god damn money,” states an exasperated Souza, adding that he is “tired of the constant grind.” He believes that his latest collaboration with Donovan, aka ialive, is both of their tickets out of the “Nether Realms of society.”
“This record is that good. I want it to blow up. I believe in this wholeheartedly. Nothing will stop the Hell Hole.”
And on May 17th, the world will get a chance to experience the duo’s latest zany musical journey, thanks to Already Dead Tapes.
Three the Hard Way is fifteen tracks of boom bap laced with elegant traces of psychedelic sixties rock, futuristic synthesized outer space effects, lo fi guitars and drums that KNOCK. “I was showing off a bit with my production,” admits ialive, who produced the majority of the beats on the album, “I want people to know that my beats are good.”
When asked what his secret was, he immediately went to the percussion, eagerly boasting that “I pride myself in some knocking drums. I like to do a lot of processing on them and some layering. I definitely spend a lot of time on making sure the right drums are chosen.”
Donovan’s DAW of choice? Pro Tools.
Evan’s? Mixcraft.
Evan produced three of the tracks on the album, “Martian King,” “Alright, Alright,” and “Donnie Don’t Do It”, cobbling together samples for them “while driving through the great Northwest on tour.” Day Tripper of the Difference Machine group produced “Futurehead,” and the rest were done by Donovan.
One thing you notice quickly when hanging out with ialive and Darko is how different they are when it comes to expressing their opinions and answering questions. When ialive speaks, he is a man of few words, but that paltry amount of letters is more than enough to convey his point or even drop some insight on life and the human condition.
Darko is definitely the showman of the group, a true writer who weaves intricate webs of sentences to take the listener on a journey of obscure references that usually serves to entertain them and occasionally hide a nugget of wisdom inside for those inclined to pick up on it.
Basically, Donovan knows what he wants to say and he says it while Evan seems to be just enjoying the art of communication, surprising himself and others whenever he steps to the microphone.
Exempli gratia:
One of Evan’s lines in the track “Already Dead” is “I didn’t go to the cop’s funeral, I pissed on his steps / That’s a problem that will fix itself.”
When asked how pissing on the steps of a cop’s house fixes itself, Donovan simply states that “It doesn’t, just makes us feel better.”
Evan, on the other hand, explains that the line is “in reference to the one man army, Cop Funeral, the leader of Already Dead Tapes.” Souza continues to elaborate, adding that “Also the army of two, Problems That Fix Themselves, who consists of Josh aka Cop Funeral, and Alex or A.K.B.”
Evan’s rhymes as previously mentioned, are thick with references sprinkled with poetic phrasing to make them sound catchy, as opposed to just listing off things he likes. They feel so spontaneous and zany while simultaneously being carefully crafted subliminally to create rich verses that are layered without feeling overdone.
Darko is the self aware nerd, cooler than the average smart kid, encouraging them to “go back to Hogwarts you odd dorks.” Every line has meaning, and the rhymes are clever enough that it doesn’t matter if you pick up on the reference or not. It is all open to interpretation as his prose ignites the imagination.
His vocal delivery has an animated slightly goofy feel to it. You can feel the enthusiasm in every abstract verse or elongated joke as Darko practically grabs your ear for attention. “I only ever set out to make Donnie laugh with each verse. If I can do that, then I’ve accomplished something,” Evan quips, but you can hear the respect he has for his partner in rhyme as he says it.
And his partner in rhyme?
When ialive steps to the microphone, his style is distinctly different. His bars are more punctuated, short and sweet like his interview answers. His punchlines hit hard, even some of his jokes make a point while they elicit a quick outburst of amused shock.
“Exposed to the experimental, let your freak flag fly
Til we D.I.E. we be D.I.Y.
And to the DOT, peep my ride
And to the CIA, get a god damn job”
ialive, “Already Dead”
By the time he declares that “my running mate is Satan, vote for me” you know who Donovan is, his jabs don’t mince words and he didn’t come here to play. He is simple but not simplistic, abrupt but not brief, he is the rock that Evan builds his extravagant verbal orchestras on, the foundation of the Hell Hole Store.
His vocals are lower than Darko’s, choosing a thick accent that gives his words an edgy and urgent feel, a style that perfectly complements the zany nature of his partner. Donovan is the more cynical, cold and calculating voice of the crew, and Evan is the passionate jokester cum spirited fighter.
Souza agreed, saying “I think we have a good balance in that sense,” while Donovan added “yeah, that’s a fair estimate.”
Darko and ialive met at a DJ Abilities show at The Fire, which was “a venue at Philadelphia…a real bottom of the bottom, low as low goes type of place,” Darko reminisced. He gave ialive one of his albums and they became “instant friends.” Later, ialive came out to one of Darko’s shows, and they began getting each other gigs and “developed a great friendship I’ll cherish for lifetimes to come.”
The two began to work on music together, appearing on each other’s songs and slowly realized that they should form a group. “Collaboration is the best way to discover things about art that you don’t usually see,” ialive mused when reflecting on their musical partnership.
As usual, Darko had more to say on the subject, “I make music with ialive, because he’s the best. He’s my best friend. The ladies love him, and the guys wanna be him. Plus when we play good cop, bad cop, he’s always the bad cop. He’ll have my back if we ever get into a fight with these warlocks on tour and that’s what you really look for in a bandmate.”
Darko took a minute to pine over ialive’s status with the ladies, dryly lamenting that “sure, I’d like to be the handsome one, but that’s not the hand I was dealt.”
When telling the story of the Hell Hole Store, you have to include the former alternative hip hop group known as Das Racist. “Das Racist changed my perspective of hip hop for the better” Evan proclaims, “They were so ahead of their time, the world’s still catching up.”
“When me and ialive embarked on our first tour, we didn’t have a name,” Evan reflected. The early venues they would play at solo or together, including the aforementioned The Fire, were simply terrible. Whenever he would talk about them, Souza would remember the Das Racist lyric “Where’d you get this place from The Hell Hole Store?”
He and Donovan started calling these locations hell hole stores so much that the phrase stuck, and “The night we got to that fateful hotel in Michigan, The Hell Hole Store was birthed from the ether,” peace to Nas.
It was at that “fateful” Knights Inn that The Hell Hole Store recorded their first album, the self-titled effort that would become the first record in the Hell Hole Store Trilogy. Three the Hard Way is a culmination of their efforts, and the title is a statement in itself of the difficulties they overcame to get this far in their career together.
Darko describes the Hell Hole Store Trilogy as “a collective punch in the face to mediocrity and banality,” adding that “we’ve come to collect our props on each of these albums and we did it the hard way.
Doing things the hard way is nothing new to the Super emcee, who has recorded over fifty albums in his lifetime, twelve of those came out in 2018 alone. “I’ve been writing songs nearly every day for almost a decade. I find inspiration in everything.”
He and Donovan found a home for The Hell Hole Store at Already Dead Tapes and Records. Founded by Joshua Tabbia and Sean Hartman, Darko had already been a member of the label since 2014 when he released Oh No! It’s Darko through them.
As a label that mostly releases experimental music, Darko was one of the first emcees to join Already Dead Tapes and Records. He and Donovan feel at home there, describing them as “a real community and a family to us.” The second track on Three the Hard Way is dedicated to them, titled “Already Dead.”
Darko the Super and ialive created The Hell Hole Store to offer “an alternative that is unique but will grab your soul by the jeans,” as well as “to make enough money to be able to just do music full time. If I can pay my minimal bills by playing music, I’m set,” admitted ialive.
Plus, he added, “I can’t not [create music], I get physically sick.”
Darko chimed in with “I make music because it’s my soul’s necessity. All work and no music makes Darko a dull boy.”
He goes on to sum things up perfectly by pointing out that “The world is not hell, though I would like to make it a better place. Shouldn’t we all? The world’s a tough place, that’s why I want to make people’s lives better with my music, even if just for a moment. I wan’t people to laugh and forget about the everyday horror for a second.”
Or, as ialive simply states, “we’re just trying to make our friends smile.”
Three The Hard Way will be released May 17th on Already Dead Tapes. Click HERE to listen to the title track as well as pre order a digital copy of the album. I don’t know about you but I’ve got my eye on that limited edition cassette tape release of the album as well…
You can check out other Hell Hole Store releases on Spotify, Apple Music, and Darko the Super’s Bandcamp page.
Darko the Super recently released Year of the Darko, a greatest hits compilation that you can find on the Bandcamp site mentioned above, you can also check out his music on Spotify and Apple Music.
You can also check out ialive’s solo music on his Bandcamp page; his latest release Don’t Do Nothing is on there as well as Spotify and Apple Music.
Don’t forget to follow The Hell Hole Store on the one and only Facebook!!!
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