HiTech appear in our Summer 2024 Issue with cover stars Wallows, Drain, Maya Hawke, the Linda Lindas, and Winnetka Bowling League. Head to the AP Shop to grab a copy.
“There’s always power in the number three — that was the first instance of magic,” King Milo says from his home base of Detroit in the days following the city’s long-running dance festival, Movement. “The number three holds weight. It holds weight because there’s always an angle you can put to it.” Schoolhouse Rock taught it, De La Soul sang it, and now HiTech are making you feel it in your bones.
Since 2022, the trio of rapper-producer-DJs King Milo, Milf Melly, and 47Chops have been reinvigorating the Detroit dance scene through their raucous blend of ghettotech, a strain of electronic music that took root in the ’90s. HiTech, however, would be nothing without their city, whose sweeping history remains the band’s anchor. King Milo and Milf Melly fire off zany punchlines reminiscent of hometown hero DJ Assault while 47Chops stands behind the board, pumping out wobbling and body-contorting beats that have the power to turn ordinary nights out into friendship lore. Enormously fun and sweaty but never predictable, HiTech are reminding people how good it feels to free your mind and dance.
Read more: 25 best albums of 2024 so far
Live, that intensity is revved up, transforming into Hennessy sermons where the band pass around a bottle and everyone rides the same wavelength. Whether through stoner anthems or juke boogies, rhythm is life, and there’s nothing that the dance floor can’t cure. Before they hit the road for a handful of shows with Pink Siifu, HiTech let us in on the mayhem that keeps their pulses high and their bond telepathic.
Your Movement after-party looked completely wild. Would you say that’s representative of your typical live shows, or was it more intense than usual?
KING MILO: It was way warmer this time as far as how close everybody was. It felt like big-time family time. This is the first year, out of us being a group, we didn’t throw a party ourselves, so we just were running around popping out at everybody’s parties, and it was just a vibe. It felt like when you’re at the house and you can take your pants off and your shirt off, and you just walk around your crib. The welcoming is crazy when you live here — I didn’t even understand. Everybody came outside, and it felt good to see people who I hadn’t seen in a long time. I even had a friend who came from Atlanta to see what we were up to.
I heard you’re throwing Hennessy into people’s mouths whenever you play. How did that tradition start?
KING MILO: We had a bottle, and we like, “We not about to drink all this. Everybody else should have some,” and so we just started giving it to everybody.
MILF MELLY: Way too much for two people.
KING MILO: Chops doesn’t drink on the board, so it just turned into, “How about this becomes communion, and how about we always give everybody Henny?” It was very delightful. It felt great giving it out. Everybody just was like, “Yo, we jumping in. We rock with this” and everybody taking a sip. It felt like church without all the extra stuff.
Did you grow up going to a lot of warehouse shows and house parties?
KING MILO: Yeah, I didn’t go to shows. I went to a lot of house parties, a lot of basement parties, a lot of sweaty stuff.
MILF MELLY: A lot of house parties. I was in the suburbs at the time, so it was a lot of chaos.
47CHOPS: I’m younger than these cats, so growing up for me, I wasn’t really outside like that until I started throwing my own parties. I was too old to get in the club and shit, so I got into it through that.
What was your first show like?
47CHOPS: Oh, that’s a good question. My first show was a rave that I threw. The building space wasn’t abandoned, but it was a floor that just had nothing going on, and nobody was living there. So I threw a rave in one of the loft units in the building and had DJs and projection visuals on the walls, all types of different stuff, and it was different rooms you could go into.
What is so exciting and magnetic about the Detroit dance scene right now?
KING MILO: It’s because everybody has no choice but to dance. It’s free. Now all the “I’m cooler than you vibes” are out the window. So everybody now, it’s like, “Yo, you got to dance.” You on the floor. Then you going to be the person who’s mad because they spilled the drink in the middle of the dance floor. It’s like, “Bro, what did you think was going to happen? This is what this is about.” So now you got people who are either gonna dance, or they’re gonna talk to themselves and be like, “Yo, I got to dance. I got to release this shit.” Then they feel new about it. Then they feel good. Then they understand, and then they want to understand more, and they dive into the culture, and they realize techno and a lot of dance music in the world today came from Detroit. It’s a whole domino effect — that’s what I like about it.
Do you find that people are on their phones a lot at your shows?
KING MILO: When we’re there, all that’s dead. And if they’re on their phones, it’s because they’re trying to show somebody across the world or across the country that can’t be there, “Yo, this is what we’re talking about.”
47CHOPS: You’re literally missing out on some shit.
KING MILO: You know how sometimes people take a video and they post it right then and there? We normally get most of our posts the next day when people are sitting on the couch because they’re too busy enjoying whatever it was. You know what I’m saying? That type of math. It’s just cool.
What are the cliches of dance music that you try to subvert?
KING MILO: That it’s always four on the floor. People even associate it with sexuality. It’s so wild. They’re trying to frame it to one thing and frame it to one area of life and frame it to a certain instance because they see it in the movies. When you’re watching somebody go to the club, in the club scene, that’s where the dance music comes on. I listen to dance music when I’m sitting on the couch. I listen to dance music when I’m about to go to bed. It’s realms. I know people who are gay and straight who listen to dance music and in certain areas in the hood, in certain areas of life and realms that are impoverished or not.
People like to be like, “That music is so not for me and not for here,” but a lot of people understand that when you listen to DJ Snowflake or DJ Rashad or DJ Assault, they know exactly what that is. Even though some of those guys are Chicago-based, we’re cousins. One came from the other of course, but you know what I’m saying. It’s the same realm, and it’s just deeper. It’s deeper than four on the floor. It’s deeper than the pocket of humanity. It’s just a vibe. It’s 10 toes.
47CHOPS: Soundtrack to your life music.