TaeHendrix Talks Musical Voyages, Psychedelics, and Calls His Mother With NUNAR

DMV alternative rock and rap star TaeHendrix performing at Arias Records’ Scream N’ Shout party in Malcolm X Park in D.C. Jamilah Scott/NUNAR

JS: Let's get started. My name's Jamilah, I'm from NUNAR magazine. 

Tae: Nice to meet you, Jamilah. I'm Devante, AKA TaeHendrix, AKA Elahondro. I'm an entrepreneur! 

JS: Nice to meet you! Thank you for introducing yourself. I have a few questions for you today. First of all, how are you? You just performed. How did that go?

Tae: It went pretty good. I feel like I missed a few marks, but for the most part, I feel like I did a pretty good job. I lost my voice. I need to work on singing from the core and not my throat, or rapping or whatever. 

JS: I couldn't tell! I could not tell that you lost your voice. You sounded great. 

Tae: Yeah. Cause I was screaming and I need to stop doing that, 

JS: [laughs]

Tae: It went good though. For the most part, I feel like people fuck with it, and it was cool. 

JS: Mm-hmm, that's what's up. I definitely enjoyed watching you perform. How has your summer been so far?

Tae: It's been action-packed. I've gone through like two moves already, which is like, wow, it's been hella shows. It's been wild beefs, like, this show we were supposed to do with somebody else and she's doing her own show right now, at the same time, so it's like we're competing, so, shit. It's just a lot of crazy shit going on, but honestly, I love it. I love it all. 

JS: Good..? [laughs] So I know you just recently dropped Indie Glitch Land. 

Tae: Yeah! 

JS: I watched the video and it's the most trippy video I've ever seen, like ever. Was that inspired at all by psychedelics or anything of that nature? 

Tae: Yeah, it was definitely [coughs]. Sorry I keep coughing. It's my fucking voice, but, basically I was taking a lot of shrooms and acid at the time. I was making it [Indie Glitch Land] last year, throughout the whole last year. ’Cause I drop like once a year. And, yeah, I was just experimenting. Going on a lot of musical voyages and just taking a lot of fucking shrooms and shit. And then listening to guys that I love, like Jimi Hendrix, Kanye, Andre 3000, Tyler, The Creator, the list goes on. 

JS: Yeah! So they definitely inspired you…

Tae: Yes.

JS: Was it with the visuals? Or the –

Tae: For the visuals, I was watching a lot of indie bands, and they would just be doing the most far-out trippy stuff. So I was like, yo, I want to do my own version of this, you know. 

JS: Did you produce the tracks as well?

Tae: I produced a lot of them. Yeah, but not all of them. 

JS: Gotcha.

Tae: Some of them was, honestly I was sampling a lot of seventies, eighties Asian funk. So that's where a lot of the Indie Glitch Land beats came from. To be honest, I was just picking a lot of parts from beats and making it my own beat. 

JS: Yeah, I know exactly what you mean. Seventies, Asian funk. That's my jam, honestly.

Tae: Yeah? 

JS: Like, you know when you go on those YouTube journeys into obscure music and... yeah. For sure! [laughs] For sure, that's what’s up. That's great. I also noticed there were a lot of anime themes.

Tae: Yes! 

JS: Yeah. Can you get into that? Can you talk about that a little bit? 

Tae: The anime stuff, you know, I have been such a nerd for anime for so long, since like Dragon Ball-Z. That was my introduction. Well, Pokemon and Dragon Ball-Z. That was my introduction to anime. And then from there I just kept exploring and exploring, and I noticed in anime they have arc one, arc two, arc three, arc four. That's where my arc one and arc two kinda came from, and these scarves were supposed to represent how Goku from Dragon Ball-Z, he had Super Saiyan God form, which is the red hair, and then Super Saiyan blue, which is blue hair. So in arc one, I was the red. Not red hair, but you know, red mask. And I was like my first form of that new state. And then in arc two, I go into the blue form. I tried to connect that. 

JS: That's so interesting, that's so cool. I don't watch anime. So I didn't know what you was talking 'bout, but I'm going to watch it now [laughs]. Now that you've said that. 

Tae: [smiles] Yeah, you know what I mean? I tried to like, you know, connect my world to that somewhat but not turn myself to a cartoon.

JS: Yeah. That's so cool. So can you tell me some more about like, what was your motivation to make the project in the first place? 

Tae: Well aye, I felt like, I have to keep releasing 'cause I'm not on yet. I'm still considered an underground artist. So I just feel like I have to produce something every year. And I don't like dropping hella singles, so a project is necessary for me. Like, even if it's not an album, like a mixtape, whatever, I have to drop something every year. So that was the aim. And indeed, I was in a [certain] space and I wanted to make a tape for my [brother]. In one of the songs, I was like, R.I.P to my bro Shino. I highkey almost cried. That was why I kind of paused, you know, during this performance and was like, man, fuck that shit. We here, we da football games. And all that stuff. But, it was my fallen brothers. Just the fact that I just felt like I needed to drop something and then, the last final point is I wanted to see if I could top my last project. That's always exciting, challenging yourself constantly. 

JS: Yeah. Thank you. 

Tae: No problem. 

JS: There was a lot of emotion, you know, a lot of emotional transition and transmutation that you were going through during that time. So, did you discover anything about yourself? 

Tae: I did. What's crazy is you was talking about psychedelics, and what I realized is I don't need to be taking acid as much. That shit... is powerful. For everyone at home and stuff. I'd rather fuck with shrooms, but I like to microdose now. I don't even like to take it like heavy anymore, you know? So yeah, it was kind of mainly just that like chill out on acid too. You took enough acid. You made enough. [coughs] I don't know what it is. This fucking cough. 

JS: I hope it's not COVID! 

Tae: I don't have -- I have the vaccine. 

JS: Oh, okay. 

Tae: Yeah. I got -- hold up. Let me show you. [pulls out vaccine card, with sound effect] Real. 

[laughter]

Tae: I got that joint. I got the Pfizer, you know what I mean?

JS: Yeah. 

Tae: Happy to be out here. You know what I mean? Lucky Seven going on now. We go way back. We went to high school together. Like, that's how far back we go. I'm 26 now, by the way. But um, he's a really brilliant soul. Brilliant performer, gets on my nerves sometimes, but I love that nigga.

JS: Good shit. Thank you, thank you so much. 

Tae: No problem. 

JS: I don't have any more questions. Is there anything you wanna just talk about? As far as you as an artist, anything... you have upcoming projects after this?

Tae: I could talk about that. 

JS: Yeah! Whatever you wanna talk about. 

Tae: So, you know, pretty much I have this tape that I'm working on. I think I'm gonna call it "Ego Death Shift, Psychotic Break." With that tape I'm on like a whole different [time]. Basically I destroyed Indie Glitch Land in this tape and now I'm on some psychotic break shit. So the tape's more punk-ish. And I performed a few [songs], like when I had wrapped my face (with a scarf) to that song, that song is a part of the new tape. The very next song I did [after that]. That's a part of the new tape [as well]. It's like, it's a much different groove, I guess, but I could definitely say it's still psychedelic rock, conscious rap shit. It's just more polished. But it's not really like punk rock or anything. It's just like, I'm much more aggressive.

JS: I'm excited for that! It's kind of like when Willow Smith went from being all psychedelic and then she went into her punk era? Likeee [laughs].

Tae: [smiles] Yeah! It's literally like that, it's literally like that. 

JS: Yeah. That's what's up, that's what's up. Wow. It's so beautiful out here. 

Tae: No, I'm telling you. 

JS: I'm like, getting distracted.

Tae: I love it here. My mom lives down the street. I need to call her. And just tell her and let her know, yo, you can pull up to the park!

[calls mom on speaker][...] 

Tae: We cranking up, mama.

Mama: [excited laughter] Okayyy! Woohoo! I even cooked today. 

Tae: Yeah, we might have to slide by. 

Mama: Yeah, come get some food. Yeah, yea mon. 

Tae: Okay. Alright, yeah, I'm gonna do that.

Mama: Okay. Yea mon. 

Tae: Okay. Yeah. I'm gonna finish manning this fort here and I'm, I'm gonna let you know when we know. 

Mama: Okay. Yea mon. Okay darling, I love you. 

Tae: I love you too. Bye bye. [hangs up] Yeah, she not coming. [laughter]