There’s a real “if you know, you know” character to Richmond, Virginia’s rap scene. Though it’s a hotbed of hip-hop talent, the city is celebrated primarily for its rich punk and metal history—this town gave us GWAR and Municipal Waste. While it may not be a zeitgeist-defining hub like Atlanta, Memphis, or even Virginia Beach (which spawned Clipse, Timbaland, and the Neptunes), the River City’s impact on the culture isn’t minor. Skillz (fka Mad Skillz), who signed to Rawkus in the late ’90s, spent nearly two decades recapping each closing year with his “Rap Up” song series. Nickelus F was a seven-week freestyle champ on BET’s 106 & Park, briefly wrote for Drake in the late aughts, and has gone on to release several underground classics. One could argue that Black Kray’s Goth Money Records spawned the entire subgenre of emo-rap, and teenage jerk auteur Nettspend’s rising profile feels as inevitable as a tidal wave. You may not know much about Richmond, but you’ve likely felt its influence.
For the past decade, Mutant Academy has helped shape the Richmond scene, bringing sustained attention to an often-overlooked city. The collective, founded by Southside natives Henny L.O. and Fly Anakin, began as a way for a couple of middle-school rap nerds to share their love of X-Men comics and Ghostface Killah records. The two met in 2007, amid the “Throw Some D’s” and “Crank That (Soulja Boy)” era, but their own tastes, as they put it to Peter Rosenberg, marked them as “’90s babies raised by the ’80s.” They released their first project, Open House, as a duo in 2014 before expanding Mutant Academy into a Shaolin-sized collective the following year. They’ve been on a hot streak ever since, collecting cosigns from Madlib and Evidence, building an extensive bank of collaborators, and dropping an endless stream of Bandcamp exclusives and LPs.
Despite the work ethic, there’s no definitive Mutant Academy record. A few have come close, like Anakin and Big Kahuna Og’s blunted boom-bap opus Holly Water or the trippy loop-digging of Chapel Drive, an Anakin collab with former Academy member Koncept Jack$son. Both albums are largely in-house productions, the credits stacked with fellow Mutants and like-minded Richmonders, but neither presents the Mutant Academy vision as a whole. Now, for its debut album, Keep Holly Alive, the group has settled into a nine-man formation: emcees Anakin, Henny L.O., and Big Kahuna Og, and producers Ohbliv, Graymatter, Foisey, Sycho Sid, Ewonee, and Unlucky Bastards. Named for Holly Block, the Richmond studio that served as their scene’s nerve center, Keep Holly Alive finally puts the crew’s effortless chemistry on full display.
The concept is simple: Each producer provides a handful of mushroomy beats, and the three rappers pop up in various combinations to rap like the rent’s due. For such a large and varied group, they’ve landed on a remarkably consistent sound: samples that float as though carried by the wind, crisp drums that crackle and bounce, and the occasional warbling string or synth drone. The six beatmakers tread similar ground but take different tacks; when Graymatter samples soul, like on “Fate on My Side” or “Stay Forever,” he channels classic RZA noir, while Foisey’s “Fatherless Flow” sounds more akin to 2000s-era Hi-Tek. Ohbliv’s “Scheme Sunday” has a similar quiet storm glow as Sycho Sid’s “Paranoia,” but Ohbliv’s sounds are muffled and warped while Sid’s beat shuffles like a neon roller-rink jam. It’s all warm and vaporous, but beneath the humid, heavy-lidded grooves lurks a bit of East Coast grit—Richmond is one of the few Southern cities where you’ll need a bubble coat to get through the winter.
The rappers’ styles feel likewise contrasting but complementary. They’re each adept at finding different pockets in a beat without creating unnecessary friction. Big Kahuna Og, a self-proclaimed Dipset acolyte, raps in the halting bursts of phrase that made Juelz Santana so thrilling. Henny L.O. glides gracefully, his sing-songy flow hopping across the drums like a skipping stone. And Anakin is a crisp technician, his nasal yowl, superhuman breath control, and intricate syllable patterns building into a hypnotic latticework. Together, they sound smooth and natural, the result of years spent writing and recording in the same room.
Keep Holly Alive isn’t highly conceptual or overly flashy. It sticks to the time-tested formula of “dope beats and dope rhymes,” often forgoing hooks in favor of an uninterrupted three-man weave. The subject matter is tried and true—weed, cars, sex, and rap itself. The producers flex but avoid preening; no one member tries to hog the spotlight. These days the collective’s members are scattered around the country, leaving only a few Mutants in Richmond. But Keep Holly Alive feels reverent, a celebration of their deep bond and a tribute to the city that made them. They filmed the video for “Liberation” at Southside Plaza, a strip mall off Hull Street Road, south Richmond’s main artery; between tracks, Henny’s brother Meech recounts memories of wild times at Holly Block. It’s a joyous album, inviting and endlessly listenable, as much an introductory statement as a love letter—to each other, to Richmond, and to hip-hop.
