Amalgama is a producer who has been steadily moving through the underground internet rap scene, gaining more traction with each release. Hailing from Rhode Island, the producer’s sound taps as much the paranoia of Memphis rap as it does into the spaced out sounds of internet cloud rap. Amalgama presents a synthesis made by and through internet culture, proudly wearing his influences on his sleeves. Now, with the release of his collaborative album with MILLENIUM, HOUNDS Vol. 1, it feels like he’s on the cusp of something bigger, establishing himself as a consistent and reliable artist to keep an eye on. We sat down with Amalgama to break down the album, his feelings on the underground, and peeked into what we can expect in the future.
This interview has been edited for clarity.
Let me start by saying congratulations on the album. How is the reception so far? How are you feeling?
I’ve never had such a great reception for a release before. It’s been a lot of folks pouring in, checking it out. I think that’s because of the collaborative aspect. I usually do a solo thing and collaborate every now-and-then on certain tracks, but this is the first time I’ve ever done an entire project that was collaborative. And it’s going great, it’s exciting.
How did the collaborative part come about? Was it a collaboration process from the beginning? Who reached out to whom?
MILLENIUM was already making some Memphis beats and we were just talking about music. Eventually we got to TRICK DICE, the Lil Ugly Mane and Nickelus F [album], and we just talked about that era of internet music. You know, that whole world. We agreed to collaborate and that’s the direction we went in. MILLENIUM was more in the direction of the Memphis side, I was more on the Lil Ugly Mane, Criminal Hypnosis side.
Somebody compared it to THIRD SIDE OF TAPE which is a super high compliment to me, because that’s pretty much what I grew up listening to in high school. So that’s really what we went for, even visually with the cover. I love how it came out and by the time we had all the beats we reached out to Slugg [artist Bigg Sluggathor] and he hopped on those two tracks.
In the process of making the album, how soon did you realize you want a rapper on this?
I think about halfway through we knew we wanted a rapper. We weren’t too sure which rapper to have, but Slugg was very professional, sent everything through quickly, I mixed those two tracks in like an eight hour session on my laptop. [laughs]
I’m having a temporary set up right now, but you know, we made it happen.
So the album was also made on this temporary setup?
Yes. [laughs] Half of it. I think the other half was made on MILLENIUM’s phone, which is also kinda insane. I think Slugg had a studio in which he recorded his verses.
I feel like the DNA that is on HOUNDS is already present in your previous work. Your music has a southern rap and cloud rap feel to it. Especially the tape Ted Vibes, Mourning Person for me feels very Clams Casino-like.
Oh wow, thank you very much. I think somebody said that to me before, actually. I grew up listening to Clams Casino as well, they were part of that entire ethos, so I really appreciate that, thank you.
You mentioned that MILLENIUM already came with the Memphis beats, so how did you find your identity within that for HOUNDS? How did you find and bring the Amalgama sound?
I just kinda built off where MILLENIUM was headed. I zeroed in more on the Memphis revival aspect and MILLENIUM on the N.O.D. tape. But it all came together in that Lil Ugly Mane, Nickelus F, Three 6 Mafia sound – to me they’re all part of something bigger. We wanted to capture a nightmarish feeling, and I thought that Lil Ugly Mane deep cuts are a perfect example of that. And I know he went in another direction musically, but I just wanted to acknowledge that.
You can feel that the album is tied together with a very cohesive vision. Are you always confident in your vision and sound? Or is it something that emerges through the process?
Yeah I definitely have a place in my imagination that I can always pull from. But you know, I have some stinkers, some songs that I don’t like. [laughs]
We went through it with each other so I was like cool and I’m happy with what I put on there.
For me, an early stand out is the track Night Rider. I love the refrain “the end of the world is coming / so i pack my 9mm and start running”
Yeah! That’s so sick!
I feel like it’s also a very good summary of what the album’s about. When you two were making the album, did you have a phrase or a motto that constantly kept popping up?
Definitely. Actually the opening track, in the intro I wanted it to set up for MILLENIUM to do their thing. That cut from Lil Ugly Mane [loser alert] is from my high school days and I brought it back to 2025 within the context of Gaza and everything. All the really political angst the three of us share on this record.
The album is pretty relentless. It’s a very intense ride and then there is the TakeYourTime intermission, which almost sounds like singing a lullaby in a burning house.
Yeah, that’s beautiful. I would agree with you there. That’s one of my favorite tracks on there. It’s very serene and beautiful, and when it’s over it just picks right back up in intensity.
How important was it for you when making this album to have this breathing moment? And can you also speak on the sequencing process in general?
I definitely knew I wanted it to be sequenced, so I always put a little something at the end of the tracks I made, just to set it up for what comes next. The intermission was completely MILLENIUM’s idea and it was a great idea, love it.
By the end we had the tracks sorted and we went over it and we swapped a few tracks around. The way it’s set up now is not the original, we probably switched four tracks around.
How different was the first version of HOUNDS compared to what we can hear now?
I think it would be similar. There is a point where we share the same sample, we did sample the same song once each. I was gonna put the tracks back to back, and it was MILLENIUM’s idea to spread them out and give them some space to breathe. That was like the main change, other than that it’s pretty similar.
I would like to move away from the album a bit and talk about you. How would you introduce Amalgama as a person and a project?
A wacko. [laughs]
I’m inspired by MF DOOM, Quasimoto, Nickelus F, Lil Ugly Mane. I just love the concept of a musical alter-ego where you can transmute all your grief into something good. I’ve had some rough experiences. It started as a passion project and developed further into something I want to make a career out of.
What interested you in making music?
I’ve always loved music. My father’s a musician. My mother was born in the Dominican Republic, raised in New York, and moved to Providence. It’s a lot. Music is how I get through stuff. I wanted to be a drummer. I wanted to be a comedian at first but my dad was like ‘You’re not funny’ so I pivoted to drummer pretty quickly. And now I make music that ranges from very serious and ominous to goofy. I guess it just depends on how I feel that day.
Yeah, HOUNDS definitely sounds more serious. You’ve mentioned your father’s a musician. Do you share your music with your parents? And how do they respond?
Well, my mother unfortunately passed away a few years ago. I was already producing back then, I showed it to her and she didn’t say anything bad about it. My dad’s always telling me I can improve and I agree. I mean they think I’m weird but I get it, it comes with the territory.
Looking at your discography, you manage both to keep a very coherent sound while also pursuing different ideas through it.
Yes, I do like to experiment.
When you get an idea – whether it’s a beat, a song, an album – how do you know it’s something worth pursuing?
I’m very much an overthinker. I think of every possible angle before I even start. I figure out the cover, the tracklist, what I want to get out of my system and then, by the time the album’s done, I hear it for the first time, ‘cause I don’t even know where I’m gonna go while I’m making it. It’s all pure self-expression, which I always think is very important for anybody.
Speaking of self-expression, you’re also a visual artist, doing painting. Is the process of painting different from making music? Do you feel like there are ideas that you can only communicate via painting that you can’t put in music?
I think that phrase ‘how you do one thing is how you do everything’ would apply here. I like to apply my process to painting the same way I do beats, the same way I clean, just very formulaic and meticulous. One thing at a time, until I like it and I’m satisfied with my work.
When you get an idea, do you then analyze whether you’re pursuing it musically or visually? Or is the idea already in your mind as a painting, or as a beat?
Yeah, the painting is already done in my head, I just have to make it real.
So when you were making the cover art for HOUNDS, for example, was it always the idea with the cameras, right from the beginning?
I knew I wanted cameras, kinda immediately. The font I wanted to be a callback to N.O.D. because that was the source material. Yeah I pretty much knew the direction I wanted to go with the cover.
Do you remember the initial idea that the idea came about?
Yeah, we were just talking about music and TRICK DICE came up and we talked about Memphis revival and the original Memphis sound with Three 6 Mafia and Tommy Wright III and we put it all together with that in mind.
I like how, when you talk about the album, you really emphasize the collaborative aspect.
Yeah, I’ve been making music for a while now. 2020 was when my first thing came out, but I’ve been interested in producing ever since I dropped out of college. I was listening to STUCK by Nickelus F. That’s definitely a very inspiring album for me, you know, self-sustainability and messages about determination and triumph over tragedy. That always keeps me going with projects and everything.
It was very isolated, too. I would kinda embrace the isolation, that’s where it started from, you know [the feeling] that ‘I belong nowhere’. And now I’m breaking out of my shell.
Now, post-HOUNDS, how are you feeling in the underground scene? Especially in relation to others, do you see them as peers, friends, maybe competition?
Peace, always peace. I’m not super competitive, I just know that I have a vision I want to bring into the world and share it, and I just hope I have the space to do that, not really compete with anybody. I still have a lot to learn about myself. I just want to make authentic works of art. I’m working on another solo album already, I’m trying to get more collaborations in.
Can you let us know a bit about the next album?
Yeah, it’s gonna be called Theremin. It’s a collection of beats that are organized as chapters of my life up to where I am now. It’s gonna be a ride. I’m happy with it so far.
When did the process for this project start? Did it overlap with HOUNDS?
HOUNDS was done pretty quick actually. This one is gonna be 15 tracks. I started a few months ago, when I had the idea and knew what I wanna do. It’s gonna be a meditation on my life.
Speaking of new music, the album is titled HOUNDS Vol. 1, so what can we expect from Vol. 2 in the future?
We definitely want to start a recurring thing, and to get more artists on it. It’s definitely gonna be MILLENIUM and I and Slugg. We want to keep and maintain the same vibe. And it’s completely out of respect and homage to what [the other artists] were doing back in the day. They were in the same situation as us, just independent artists trying to get their music out there.
