I saw everyone and I was just like, "Yo, I'm really with this." "We should do that at our next show. YUNG SKAYDA When we were younger, honestly, I never even saw it as, like, wow, look at all these old people. KARM THE TOOL Honestly there's no young people there at all. 'CAUSE YOU KIND OF WONDER, LIKE, WHERE THE HELL ARE ALL THESE WEIRDOS COME FROM? THEY'RE NOT AT MY SCHOOL OR ANYTHING. OH YEAH, IT'S WILD SEEING A METAL BAND LIKE THAT BIG FOR THE FIRST TIME. KARM THE TOOL Yeah, he was on this kid's back in the mosh pit going ham.
… We were, like, the youngest people there, but we were turned the fuck up. That was our first show, like, first mosh pit. So, he, my dad, definitely put me onto all that. YUNG SKAYDA When I showed my dad Slipknot, I learned more about metal because he started showing me like Pantera and Korn and stuff like that. KARM THE TOOL Me and him both got into Slipknot at the exact same time. IN TERMS OF THE HEAVIER STUFF, DO YOU REMEMBER WHAT THOSE EARLY BANDS WERE? And he already had mad 50 Cent CDs that he gave me. YUNG SKAYDA His mom had Eminem CDs and then my dad started buying them for me. KARM THE TOOL We just had like CDs in the crib. I think both of our parents were like that. HOW THE HELL WERE YOU LISTENING TO EMINEM THAT YOUNG? WERE YOUR PARENTS COOL WITH THAT? "And then he actually put on Eminem and I was like, "Hold, hold up. we just started going back and forth about it until one day Karm was like, "Yo, yo, come through, let's chill out." And I was like, "Say less. And I didn't even know Eminem, but up until this point in my life, like, even now I'm still a shit starter, so back then, I literally just saw some dude going, "Eminem is the best rapper!" And I didn't even listen to rap music period at that point I was just like, "No, he, nah, he suck!" For no reason. YUNG SKAYDA Yeah, we were actually in kindergarten when that happened … kindergarten or first grade. Songs carry a weaponized level of bounce, with cuts like "Sick Duck" substituting guitars for electronic bass lines to deliver pure attack.įROM WHAT I UNDERSTAND, YOU GUYS SORT OF BECAME FRIENDS OVER A LOW-KEY FIGHT ABOUT EMINEM? It's these switch-ups in genre that feel their music sound undeniably current, like some kind of digitized blend of Juice Wrld, 100 Gecs and Ho99o9. Karm and Young Skayda's tracks hop from one genre to the next with glee, though orbiting around a steady foundation of metal and hip-hop. Listening to the duo's music beyond the quick social media snippets, it's clear there's a far bigger plan at play. If I feel like something could blow up on TikTok, then I'll start posting it there." "Mostly we'll make, like, a billion songs just to make songs.
"We don't really go into the studio thinking, 'OK, how are we gonna blow up on TikTok today?'" says Karm the Tool, one half of the group. Or it could be their recent "Spy," accompanying everything from makeup tutorials to Minecraft compilations. Last year it might've been the pitched-up hook of "molly rocks in my green tea" from their single "Kismet," which became a trend among TikTokers to throw a shoe up, kick it midair and flash to a new outfit as the song hits its peak. Spend any time on TikTok and there's a pretty good chance you've already heard the glitchy, screwed up earworms of hyperpunk duo WHOKILLEDXIX.