Photo courtesy of Audio Freebase
Atlanta emcee Hype released his debut solo album “Talk To Me Nice” in 2022. Since then he’s dropped a few singles and EP’s while dealing with personal and professional turmoil. Now that things have settled down Hype is back and as his sophomore proclaims it’s “GOOD TO BE BACK.”
GOOD TO BE BACK is 17-track album featuring Southside Vic, J. Arrr, Acacia Markel, Pherow IX, Tommy Quest, Steph Simon, and Benjamin The Brain. The project is produced by Soul Chemist, Kaadik, Dom Archey, Blvck Garcon, Merakai, Kash Flow, and Hype himself.
Hype spoke to The Real Hip-Hop about how his ambition masks his fears, why he’s optimistic about 2026, and his new album, GOOD TO BE BACK.
TRHH: Why’d you call the new album GOOD TO BE BACK?
Hype: So, my last album Talk To Me Nice came out in 2022 and since then I have been putting out music, but given the whole situation around how that album came out, my falling out with the label and all the different things that happen around that, I was feeling myself kind of slipping into a funk. I really wasn’t as passionate when it came to the music. I really didn’t feel the same drive that I had before, so I knew that it was going to be time to sort of take a little break. I was kind of contemplating at the same time like, “Man, I don’t know if this music thing is going to be for me if this is the path that I need to continue on.”
You get to that place where you feel like you’re getting so close again to getting that break. I had met DJ Premier, was getting love from all these guys in the industry – legends, and then it just feels like everything just kind of fell apart. So, coming back and kind of finishing up this album it took a lot because a lot of these songs I was working on and I had released just kind of like singles, and then after a while I was just doing songs and putting them together. I was getting to the point where I’m like, “OK, this is starting to feel like there’s an album here.” I didn’t know sort of what direction I was going to go in, and I still didn’t know if I was going to put it out or not.
People reaching out to me and they were like, “When’s the next album coming out?” I have a couple of friends that was like, “You need to put out another album, we’re waiting on some new music.” I think it got to a point as I was working on the album where it finally clicked and that spark came back. That’s when the title of the album came to me, like, it felt good to be back in that mode where I’m passionate about the music again, where I have that drive again, and it feels like something that I want to do again. So, that’s sort of how the name of the album came about. Just going off that feeling that it feels good to be back in this mode where I’m ready to put this music out and show people that I still got it. So, that’s why I named the album that.
TRHH: GOOD TO BE BACK has a recurring theme of struggle. On the song “If It Makes You Feel Better” you say, “Tell me invest in something therapeutic/Why do you think I write this music?” What were you struggling with and how much did making music help you overcome those struggles?
Hype: I think for the first time I sort of had to really acknowledge my battle with depression in different situations. I think it’s something that I’ve sort of battled with my whole life for different reasons. I think that especially coming off of that label situation and music being one of the things that I feel like has really helped me through life, whether it’s listening to music or making music, I felt sort of like losing that passion for music coming up off of that label situation really took a toll on me. I felt myself kind of really struggling and even Soul Chemist, one of my closest producers that I work with, he was involved in the whole situation. He had kind of stopped making beats for a while because he was just kind of feeling the same way.
So, dealing with that and just acknowledging that this is something I deal with and music really helps me to be able to work through those feelings was important for me on this album. Making an album like GOOD TO BE BACK, I wanted to kind of give people a timeline of where I was emotionally. And then also at the same time 2024 was like a really tough year for year for me because I was previously unemployed. My last job did a major layoff. Eighty of us got laid off and I was unemployed for like six months. During that six months I’m trying to figure out what’s going to happen with my life. Where am I going to go? What am I going to do? Just having to experience unemployment for the first time I understand why people who are unemployed kind of go through certain things, or why they feel certain ways, because it’s a really dehumanizing experience. Then trying to get that unemployment check that’s not even enough for you to live on and all the things that you gotta do just for them to give you that money, it’s like, man, this is crazy! This is not something I would wish on anybody.
So, just a mix of those things and really trying to get my head straight through all of that, and luckily, I was able to land on my feet again with the help of some close friends and people who really looked out for me. I think just having to acknowledge that and being one of the reasons why I couldn’t walk away from the music is like, this music really helps me deal with my emotions. Just me writing them and recording them and turning them into something beautiful. That’s sort of where those lines came from. This is sort of my therapy and we can’t act like therapy ain’t expensive. Therapy is not accessible to everybody and so it’s like until I can get to the point where I have access to professional therapy in a way that I would really benefit from it, music is one of the things that helps me to be able to process my emotions and keep my head on straight.
TRHH: On the song “Workin’ Thru It” you say “I’ve been hiding all my fears behind my ambition.” Explain that line.
Hype: Anybody who knows me knows I’m a really ambitious person. I do so many things, I’m always a very busy guy. One thing I realized at a point in my life is the ambition is beautiful, it’s definitely one of my better traits, but I realized that it came from a place of I never want to give myself a chance to sit too long with my own thoughts. So, I’m always putting my mind into something. I always gotta busy myself just so I don’t have to sit with my feelings for too long, or sit with my own thoughts for too long. So, that ambition sort of helps me mask a lot of those fears that I have or those self-doubts. It’s sort of like a little dopamine rush you get from accomplishing things all the time.
For me it’s like being able to accomplish things sort of gives me that dopamine rush that helps mask a lot of the fears and the dark thoughts and feelings that I may have at times. I think a lot like you said, there’s a running theme through this album of struggle, but I think a lot of it is also me just having to admit to myself why I am the way that I am. Even the good parts of myself a lot of times. The ambition comes from a place of needing to mask certain things or running away from certain things. Even though I do it in a productive way I think it was still good for me to say those things out loud and acknowledge that, OK, that’s why I am the way that I am.
TRHH: The way GOOD TO BE BACK ends is different sonically. The last four songs are more upbeat. To me it represented optimism. Were those songs placed at the end of the album purposely?
Hype: Yeah, definitely. Those last four songs sound very different from the rest of the album. They have a different cadence, they’re very much more upbeat. I’d say even a little bit more experimental in terms of the instrumental and the way that I’m approaching them. Definitely wanted to end it on the side of optimism. I didn’t want the album to feel so heavy throughout its entirety and I think that also by the time I was finishing out the album I felt a lot lighter. The last song on the album was named “Release” for a reason. I definitely felt like I had sort of released a lot of those things that I was holding in throughout the last couple of years with everything that I was dealing with. I definitely felt a lot lighter by the end of the album and I wanted the album to reflect that.
I also wanted to kind of showcase sort of where I feel that I’m heading. I definitely see myself wanting to experiment with sort of different sounds with my music and try to get into different pockets as well. I think that with GOOD TO BE BACK I wanted it to be an indication that I don’t plan on stopping anytime soon, so that people can expect more and people can expect music to come again. I definitely wanted to end on an optimistic note and definitely wanted to kind of give just a different feeling to the end of the album, so that people kind of feel that lightness that has come with, “OK we’ve kind of gone through all these other different feelings and thoughts and sort of got all those out, so now we can have a little bit of fun.”
TRHH: On “Guard My Heart” you say, “2024 was for personal liberation.” What is 2026 for?
Hype: I think 2026 is going to be for me really defining myself now that I feel like as I’ve matured and as I’ve dealt with all these different situations in life I finally am being a lot more honest with myself as to who I am and what it is I want out of life. I think 2026 will for me be the year that I strive to really make those things clear for myself and for others, and really invest in being the person that I see myself being able to be. Sort of like reaching my full potential in every aspect of everything that I do and everything that I am. I think it’s going to be a beautiful year. Going into 2026 was sort of the first year where I didn’t really have any New Year’s resolutions because like I said on the song, 2024 was sort of like personal liberation. I think I went into 2025 kind of doing things without having to wait for a moment to do them. I think as soon as something came to my mind or was in my heart to do, I went ahead and did it. I think that’s the energy I want to carry into 2026.
I’m not waiting for a perfect moment to start something or do something. That’s how it kind of was with the album and why I kind of hesitated a little bit. I just felt like, “OK when is it going to be the perfect time to do this?” But I was like, “There is no perfect time and people obviously want more music, so, let me go ahead and do it and put it out.” What’s the worst that can happen? It ain’t like I’m trying to reach the top of the Billboard charts or nothing like that. At this point it’s really just for my own personal satisfaction and for the satisfaction of the people that already support me. So, yes, I think 2026 I’m gonna continue on with that and just knowing that the perfect time to start something is whenever you feel like starting it. It’s really about the journey, you don’t have to rush things. I really will just in 2026 take my time to really establish myself and kind of really define myself now that I’ve processed a lot of things and I’m sort of clear on a lot of things in my life.
Purchase: Hype – GOOD TO BE BACK