If his music wasn’t enough of a dead giveaway, Ho99o9 vocalist Yeti Bones likes to push boundaries. Hip hop, electronica, metal – all have featured heavily in his band’s work.
So when Hammer caught up with Mr. Bones to ask which records excite him most, we should’ve expected an eclectic mix…
1. The Temptations – My Girl (The Temptations Sing Smokey, 1965)
“My father’s favourite group are The Temptations. I heard them all the time growing up. He would have Temptations albums strictly for Christmas! I know My Girl like the back of my hand. It will forever make me think about my father and that bond and that nostalgia. Now I’m older, I can go back to him and pull up a YouTube video of them performing live somewhere, and he’ll be like, ‘Oh, shit! I’ve never seen that!’”
2. Bad Brains – Attitude (Bad Brains, 1982)
“I saw a group called Ninjasonik in New York and it literally changed my life. They did this cover of Bad Brains’ Attitude and the place went fucking mad! People falling on top of each other, beer flying everywhere, somebody was jumping off the fucking balcony. I get kicked, I fall to the ground, someone picks me up. It was this beautiful chaos; it was like my love language.
I looked for Attitude on YouTube and Bad Brains’ CBGB video came up [Live At CBGB 1982]. My mind fucking exploded. I didn’t even know Black people could make music like that! We would not have Ho99o9 if I didn’t go to that show.”
3. Sepultura – Mass Hypnosis (Beneath The Remains, 1989)
“Mass Hypnosis was my gateway drug into everything else Sepultura have done. I came across the song through a live video; I think they were performing in Brazil. We’ve all listened to metal with fucking riffs upon riffs upon tones upon vocals. It can all get mixed up, with every band sounding like every other band, but for some reason – with this fucking riff, the vocals, the groove – I was like, ‘This is different!’
I like bands that revolve around their culture, their ethnicity. It hits me a bit different because I’m African-American and we don’t really make this kind of music nowadays. Even though it started with us, not too many of us try to uphold it in the metal, punk, heavy world.”
4. Nine Inch Nails – Closer (The Downward Spiral, 1994)
“If Bad Brains are my number-one influence, Nine Inch Nails are number two. The first time I saw the video for Closer, it made me squirmy and a bit uncomfortable. It makes you question yourself in the best way possible. It’s like fine wine. When you first hear it, you get that reaction, that tingle. Then, as you get older and dive into the band, you just get immersed and involved. There’s no casual, half-assed Nine Inch Nails fan.”
5. DMX – Ruff Ryder’s Anthem (It’s Dark And Hell Is Hot, 1998)
“I’m a 90s baby. I grew up in north New Jersey, and DMX was my favourite rapper. I remember seeing the video for Ruff Ryders’ Anthem and thinking it was the coolest shit. It had this gang of Black bikers with Suzukis, Kawasakis and four-wheelers! It looked like a scene out of the Warriors movie. I was like, ‘Yeah, this is the shit!’”
6. Bone Thugs-N-Harmony – Crossroads (E. 1999 Eternal)
“Bone Thugs-N-Harmony actually came [to me] before DMX. Tha Crossroads is magical, man. The video is so deep, because it’s about one of their homies who’d died recently.
It has these scenes of when it’s people’s time to go, with the Reaper taking their souls. As a kid, I was just like, ‘Damn!’ I kind of didn’t even understand it. I bought the full album [E. 1999 Eternal] and it is horrorcore! It’s like the black metal version of hip hop. My mom was like, ‘What the fuck is this?!’ It’s crazy – Tha Crossroads is the only song on there that’s uplifting.”
7. Mr. Bungle – My Ass In On Fire (Mr. Bungle, 1991)
“When Ho99o9 first started and we moved to LA, one of our biggest shows was opening for Faith No More. Mike Patton, to me, is a god. He’s a top-five vocalist for me, and just mad cool and down-to-earth.
His other band, Mr. Bungle, are the most experimental, over-the-top, Looney Tunes, fucking circus shit. The most beautiful, hectic, bizarre thing I’ve ever heard. My Ass Is On Fire was one of the first Mr. Bungle songs I heard, and I was just like, ‘You motherfuckers are weird! I like y’all! This is the shit that gets me horny!’ The song is five, six minutes and it’s just like a rollercoaster!
8. Screamin’ Jay Hawkins – I Put A Spell On You (At Home With Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, 1956)
“One of our producers, David Sitek, once played us a Screamin’ Jay Hawkins live video, and I was amazed! I Put A Spell On You came out way before anybody else put horror in their music, way before Black Sabbath, so I was like, ‘What the fuck?!’ That shit is timeless. It made an imprint on the music world. He was the original shock rocker, before Alice Cooper.
9. Body Count – There Goes The Neighborhood (Body Count, 1992)
“Body Count are another pioneering band. Ice-T is a motherfucking G. He came from hip hop and rap, from the streets, and he started a metal band full of gangsters.
The attitude of There Goes The Neighborhood is unapologetic. The lyrics are so in-your-face and fuck-you! A lot of metal songs are about Dungeons & Dragons and people getting slayed, but Ice-T was so much more real.”
10. Ho99o9 – Bite My Face (Skin, 2022)
“I’m including Bite My Face by my own band, HO99O9, because that collab [with Corey Taylor] was a dream. Corey was a genuine human being and a down-ass motherfucker. That’s the type of people I wanna be around: people who genuinely fuck with me.
I don’t want to do anything with nobody that’s half-assed, or because our agents put us together. You might tour with your favourite musicians, but tours come and go. A song lasts forever! Sixty years from now, I can look back and go, ‘I did a song with the dude from fucking Slipknot! And that shit was good!’”
