who is Clutchy Hopkins ?

Over the weekend our hangover mix vol.31 included a track from someone called Clutchy Hopkins, who is Clutchy Hopkins ,The "official" bio for Hopkins seemed preposterous at best, telling the story of the son of a Motown recording engineer who traveled to Japan in his twenties to study with Rinzai monks, then to India to study Raja yoga, and from there Hopkins, so the story goes, journeyed to Nigeria to study percussion, becoming as well a gun-runner and revolutionary. Returning to the U.S., Hopkins reportedly recorded with numerous jazz, funk, and avant combos from the early '70s through the late 1990s, always refusing to have his name cited on any of the projects. Tapes of his own music were supposedly uncovered at a swap meet in the Mojave Desert on reels simply marked C. Hopkins and accompanied by a handwritten autobiographical manuscript. Hopkins is now, so the story continues, either a busking beach hobo in Southern California or a recluse living in a cave in the Mojave Desert.. Now this is more then likely just a made up story , but it does add an air of mystery about the man, and more importantly his music is amazing, jazz inspired instrumental hip-hop music using only live instrumentation, no samples (Hopkins reportedly played all the instruments, which include drums, bass, guitar, organ, flute, melodica, and assorted percussion, himself)
A good few names have been thrown into the ring as to who Clutchy Hopkins might be DJ Shadow, Cut Chemist, Dangermouse , MF Doom or one or all of the Beastie Boys, so it seems its a mystery that is going to remain unanswered for sometime, now while the mystery is a great story and intriguing the music really does speak for itself

Clutchy Hopkins - 3:02

(some vids in the read more)


Who is Clutchy Hopkins? Part I


Who is Clutchy Hopkins? Part II


Clutchy Hopkins "3:02" (video fan made)


MF Doom meets Clutchy Hopkins track #02 (off the ep MF Doom meets Clutchy Hopkins) (video fan made)