Clutchy Hopkins

Clutchy Hopkins

Clutchy Hopkins is purportedly a multi-instrumentalist musician based out of California. His existence has not yet been fully verified, though he is widely believed to be a pseudonym for one of several popular DJs. The true identity of the person (or people) behind the music is not publicly known.

Biography

According to the artist's official MySpace page, Clutchy is the son of a Motown Records recording engineer. As a young man, Clutchy traveled the globe exploring exotic music, rhythms, and mysticism, "working in recording studios from Bombay to Cairo" and studying the influences of "a Mohave shaman of the Cahuilla Indian tribe" and "Rinzai Zen monks in Japan", recording music along the way. Returning to the U.S. at an unspecified time, Clutchy worked as a session musician on obscure funk and jazz records; he was rumored to have recorded with Moondog. Though his performances were often uncredited, his work supposedly spans a period from the late 1970s to the mid-1990s. He has no record of being married, although he does reportedly have a daughter, Kelli Hopkins. Clutchy's last known (or rumored) whereabouts were in Hawthorne, California in 1998. According to his representatives, he currently resides somewhere in the Mojave Desert, though clues point to the town of Apple Valley, California.

Recent History

On September 9 2006, a YouTube video claiming to be documentary footage about Clutchy Hopkins was uploaded. The video's end credits contain the URL www.misledchildren.com. Originally, this website featured a 12-track album entitled "The Life of Clutchy Hopkins", plus a white-label store that sold the album, a brief description, and contact information for a seemingly random Hotmail address. The YouTube video's credits also mention a Myspace page which features grainy photos of a ragged-looking bearded man wearing a flannel shirt.

In February of 2007, music blog Idolator published a brief post on the music, describing it as "MF Doom-like hip hop instrumentals with India-influenced guitar tracks and some smoother downtempo work that might fool Portishead fans" and speculating that Clutchy might be a pseudonym for DJ Shadow. Additional attention from Okayplayer and KCRW DJ Jeremy Sole sparked hot discussion among music bloggers who postulated that Cut Chemist, Madlib, or Money Mark might be responsible the music. Clutchy's true identity was never discovered, but in early 2008, noted funk label Ubiquity Records released "Walking Backwards", a full-length album of new Clutchy music, featuring guest vocals from Darondo. It was followed by two collaborations with Shawn Lee (musician) and, most recently, an album titled "Music Is My Medicine".

Also in 2008, Porter Records released an album entitled "Odean Pope and the Misled Children". While the relationship remains unclear, the sound of the Misled Children is very similar to Clutchy Hopkins, and the URL from the YouTube video suggests a connection. Another Misled Children album entitled "Peoples Market" is listed on AllMusic.

Noted graphic artist Jim Mahfood has created artwork and album covers for recent Clutchy Hopkins projects.

Discography

Album	Year	Label
The Life of Clutchy Hopkins	2006	none
MF Doom Meets Clutchy Hopkins (promotional EP)	2007	none
Walking Backwards	2008	Ubiquity Records
Clutch of the Tiger (with Shawn Lee)	2008	Ubiquity Records
Music is My Medicine (with Lord Kenjamin)	2009	Ubiquity Records
Fascinating Fingers (with Shawn Lee)	2009	Ubiquity Records

External links

• Allmusic biography
• Popmatters review of Walking Backwards