Mogli the Iceburg wants to be the Drake of Rock music.
“I grew up listening to Nu Metal and Hard Rock, and that’s part of my life, my story, and culture just as much as Hip-Hop. My goal is to be that guy that is the Drake for Metal, like the way Drake came and was able to blend R&B and Hip-Hop in a new way. It set a precedent. I’d like to do that for Rock music.”
Before his EP Sad People Make Dope Music, Mogli “didn’t know exactly how” to fuse Rock and Hip-Hop without deviating from his strictly Hip-Hop mentality as an artist. Then the new wave of artists, such as Lil Peep and Young Thug said Mogli, in 2016 came. In Mogli’s mind’s eye, the doors to his dream fusion opened.
“Hip-Hop is at that much of an abstraction that I can do this. So, then the genre walls just started breaking down,” Mogli the Iceberg said. “I’m like, ‘if it doesn’t make sense to rap, I’m not going to rap. If it makes sense to rap I’ll rap, but there’s this whole spectrum and nothing is off-limits’.”
Sad People Make Dope Music, Let’s Talk About Our Feelings, and Sad People Make Dope Music 2 are the products of this epiphany Mogli had. Along with his fusion, he began reaching out to artists in Rock as well. On SPMDM2, Mogli the Iceburg hooked up with Aaron Gillespie, drummer and clean vocalist for the metalcore band Underoath. The product of their collaboration is “Something Changed In You Along The Way.”
“Back in 2017 I hit him up like, ‘I’d love to do a collaboration’. He hit me back, ‘send me something’, and I psyched myself out of it. I felt so much pressure because of who it was…I didn’t send him anything for a year.”
He continued, “When I finally sent him something, Underoath was back together, they were touring all over the place, and I couldn’t get in contact with him. One day out of the blue, he made a post on Instagram saying he had a couple of weeks off in December, and he was up to producing some bands. So I sent him an email within the minute…He said, ‘Yeah’. I went home, made a track that night, sent it to him, and we got it done.”
“One Tree Trill” on SPMDM2 almost got a feature from Ryan Key, former lead singer from Yellowcard, but the collaboration did not work out.
“I want to work for every iconic rockstar. I’d love to work with Brandon Boyd from Incubus. I would love to work with Sonny Sandoval from P.O.D. I’d love to work with Mike Shinoda from Linkin Park…There’s so many people.”
Along with evolving his sound and reaching out to rockstars, Mogli has changed his production by outsourcing most of it. Synesthesia and Dreamcatcher are completely produced by Mogli and Tumutlu is produced solo except for one song. SPMDM2 contains little of Mogli’s production skills.
“At some point, I found myself sometimes wanting to make a certain type of track and I’d be emulating other people’s strengths. For example, maybe I want to make a track that’s over a Lex Luger-ish beat,” Mogli said. “Well, that isn’t my natural forte. So I’m going out of my comfort zone to make something that is not my strength. Whereas, I could just collaborate with somebody where that is there strength.”
At this point in his career, Mogli the Iceburg said he is past trying to seem superior to other artists by creating music entirely on his own. He wants his music to be the best it can be, which means sacrificing that pride.
