HiTech Are Letting Their Freak Flag Fly—and They Think You Should, Too

HiTech bring a nonstop party vibe to everything they do, even through a computer screen. I show up to our video call to find member Milf Melly pacing around his sunny apartment. When I apologize for being a few minutes late after getting caught up trying to find a shirt to wear, he says, “So you just standing there, barbecue sauce on your titties…,” quoting the infamous Vine video with a big laugh. King Milo joins the call next, having just finished a conversation with his homegirl about anime (his current favorite is That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime). Once producer and DJ 47Chops makes his way in, the conversation is a full-on whirlwind, with all three chiming in over each other’s answers to give their own. At one point, the discussion turns to how ’80s-style cocaine, among other things, is currently fueling the potent fusion of ghettotech and hip-hop HiTech are shepherding toward the national stage.

The playful rhythm that pushes our conversation forward courses through their music too. On the intro to their latest project, Honeypaqq Vol. 1, you’re thrust into what sounds like a bustling basement party filled with patrons flaunting their bodies and bragging about doing their “turbo twat aerobics” every morning. You can practically smell the Geek Bar discharge and sweat in the air. Just as quickly, single “Take Yo Panties Off” whisks you onto a dancefloor powered by hectic synths and drums that channel the spirits of ghettotech pioneers like DJ Assault. Then the horny call-and-response hits: “Real freak bitches know/When to take they panties off/Pick me up, then drop yo’ granny off.” Shameless doesn’t even begin to cover it. HiTech exist in a world beyond shame, a consensually freaky cornucopia that rarely dips below 150 BPM. 

This explicit insanity makes even more sense once you learn that the three friends first connected at an orgy in the middle of the pandemic. “I seen this nigga Chops’ dick and I was like, ‘Man, we gotta tap in,’” Milo chortles. “Nigga, I see what you’re workin’ with, and it’s got potential.” Chops adds, “They hit me up later like, ‘Shit, nigga, I see you everywhere. How is we in the same spaces?’” Shortly after, they threw a party of their own where Chops DJ’d while Milo and Melly got the crowd hype, solidifying their bond. Even with the pandemic raging, they couldn’t let this energy go to waste.

Milo’s home studio became a hub for the project that would eventually be known as HiTech. “Nobody wanted to go out, but we all wanted to link,” he explains. “We’d be like ‘You got Covid?’ ‘Hell nah!’ ‘All right, let’s make some shit.’” They proceeded to trip on acid, stare at a big painting on the wall, drink, make music, blast that music through the speakers, and invite ladies over. Wash, rinse, repeat. One particular session started after they came back from a not-so-great pool party, which inspired them to make something to bring their mood back up. The result was “Henny n Runtz,” the first song from their self-titled 2022 debut.

The track established their style: A hypnotic combination of dreamy synths and programmed drums that sometimes pummel and quake, sometimes pitter-patter and skip, but are always fast. Their main goal is to spread the exuberance—and history—of ghettotech, which originated in Detroit more than 30 years ago. “We put the mission up top because we realized, Oh, people really didn’t know about ghettotech. They like, ‘This shit came out yesterday,’ and we’re like ‘No!’” Milo says. “So we gettin’ niggas hip. We kept having this reinvigorating feeling, and to this day, we’re still having it.” 

Milo and Melly’s vocal presence is a bit more pronounced compared to your average ghettotech song, but they aren’t the kind of rappers who come with mind-blowing bars or breathtaking technique. They mainly deal in call-and-response odes to sex, drugs, and the gods of the dancefloor. The hook for “Pocketpussy,” a personal favorite from their 2023 breakout project Détwat, goes like this: “I just might get the Fleshlight.” If you live in the Detroit area, you may have heard it blaring out of a FedEx van; at the time, Milo and Melly were driving trucks for the company and would play bits and pieces of the finished album between deliveries.

Their live shows—filled with in-crowd performances and gyrating bodies flowing like liquor—soon became the stuff of local legend, and Détwat attracted a good amount of critical acclaim. But the trio hit a roadblock near the end of 2023. At the time, they were releasing music through FXHE, a label run by Detroit music staple Omar-S. That November, Omar was allegedly involved in a physical altercation with fellow Detroit artist Supercoolwicked after she accused him of not paying out royalties from a previous collaboration. (Omar has denied the accusations.) HiTech were among a handful of FXHE artists to comment on the situation, posting, “Beating up on women is not what we stand on!” Subsequently, both their self-titled album and Détwat were scrubbed from streaming platforms. Naturally, the group left the label. But as they sorted everything out, their music wasn’t easily accessible for eight months.

“We didn’t realize how much it was tripping us up in terms of momentum,” Milo says. “Looking at it now, we might be a little further if certain shit hadn’t happened a certain way, but it did. We’re not mad. We can still achieve the mission, but it did mess us up a bit.” Their luck turned around after a meeting with an A&R at Loma Vista Records, the eclectic indie powerhouse whose roster includes Denzel Curry, Sleater-Kinney, and Iggy Pop.  Now, all three of HiTech’s records are readily available to stream under Loma Vista.

The new one, Honeypaqq, is named after a trending supplement that claims to enhance sexual performance, and the music follows suit: It’s frisky, flirty, a breeze through HiTech’s wild and wonderful artistic community. Distorted voices and guests, particularly women, are all over the record. Debby Friday’s sultry verse on the backend of “Drop the Loc” melts into that song’s clinking beat, while New York singer Milfie and Florida firestarter Vayda bring pop and sass to the delightfully named “QueenBootyAthenaAphrodite.” Women’s voices are never far from any HiTech album, and that inclusive atmosphere makes the experience even more enjoyable. 

Melly, Milo, and Chops compare what they want to do with the Honeypaqq series to DJ Drama’s legendary Gangsta Grillz mixtapes. They have shows booked throughout the summer, and as the weather gets warmer, they’re ready, willing, and able to keep bringing their raucous blend of ghettotech and hip-hop to the masses. “We want you to take that judgmental bone out of your body,” Milo says of the power of embracing dance music post-Covid. “After lockdown, it’s like, ‘Oh, this what air feels like.’ People understand that music makes you feel good, feel pretty. You making more friends by dancing and clubbing and being around more people. You understand yourself more.” The way they talk about their mission, I get a feeling they’re making up for lost time—from their fallout from FXHE, from toiling in hot-ass FedEx trucks to finance their dreams, from the Covid-addled environment in which the group was created. “We all freaks,” Milo continues. “Everybody in this bitch wanna fuck or rub somethin’, make conversation, feel something sensual. Understanding comes through dance.”