OT23 – “No Clip Full Enough” (Album)

Higgs hails from Orange Texas and BMC is an Austin native from 78723. They met in 2004 as liberal arts students at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas. They hit it off based on their mutual love of hip hop and scrutiny of what they were told was the Truth.

Within a week they were writing songs and they knew they were what each other had been search for. Thus began journey of OT23. In spring of 2005 they released a five song demo and they performed together for the first time during SXSW week. After a few shows in East Texas, and college graduation for both, the duo moved to Austin in the Summer of 2007 and immediately began working toward writing an album and playing as many shows as they could. Having no steady producer upon arrival, their first shows were backed by a live band that they’d met upon moving to the city. Within six months they had begun to work with Austinite Dylan Camero to procure beats to back their album. After obtaining a stockpile of beats, they started performing regularly, sometimes multiple times a week. It was during this period that the group developed their dominating stage presence. While building a loyal fan base had the duo extremely satisfied with their shows and the ability to move the crowd, OT23 still desired more than anything to release an album. 2008 saw the first “proper” OT23 release. This was a single for their song “N4N”. The cd single also featured the tracks “Knucklebreakers” and “Hangover:Obama.” They worked hard on their own toward making a full length album that year, and into 2009, but kept running into roadblocks when it came finishing the project.

Fast forward to early 2010. After a particularly rawkus performance the duo was approached by a producer from San Antonio that had recently moved to Austin named Ruler Why. He had established himself in his hometown as a producer of hip hop in the purest form with his group The Vultures. It was exactly this sample based sound that Higgs and BMC were looking for. Having recently parted ways, due to difference in creative direction, with their producer, the timing was perfect for Ruler to join ranks with OT23. The three immediately gelled and went to work on recording the album “Supernova.” The production credits for the tracks were already set, so Ruler, accomplished in recording, mixing and mastering, handled those duties. Also, three of the tracks on the album were scraped and replaced with Ruler Why productions. The album was released on December 10, 2010 on Ruler Why Recordings.

The three quickly went to work on a new album and spent the next two-and-a-half years working and reworking the tracks before releasing the perfected “No Clip Full Enough” on Ruler Why Recordings, September 17, 2013.

Catch Austin Hip Hop vets OT23 rocking at the 2nd Annual Hip Hop Pow Wow during SXSW 2014.

https://www.facebook.com/OT23hiphop

http://ot23.bandcamp.com/