Have you heard The Strange Passenger? Best get on this fresh piece of hip hop by Horton the Irrelevant and August the Creep.

The following is an exclusive interview with Horton and August, the new titans of the Midwest hip-hop underground. If you're in Madison, WI, find them for a live show, and while you read, listen to their album.

Individually, where are you guys from and how did you become interested in making music? More specifically, how did you get interested in doing hip hop?

August: Not to come across as something I'm not... but my love for hip hop was most definitely shaped by the early 90's New York City scene. Not that I was really a part of it or anything, but the shit that was coming out at that time just seemed to grab me by the throat. I remember walking to school in the city, listening to Midnight Marauders until I had memorized every last word (I used to take Q-Tip's verses and throw my name into every other line... it was weird). When I moved out of New York, I felt like the music I had grown up with was something that I could really take with me, and that hasn't changed since. Eventually, the love for this shit became so ridiculous that the only option I had was to start doing it myself.

Horton: The Midwest (Madison, WI), the region home to some of the best and most original hip-hop that never gets the proper acknowledgment. I was born into a love of music, all music. Music was a big thing in my family. Naturally, as I grew with it I wanted to make it myself. At first I just played around with it for fun, self taught shit, just playing with beat production and freestylin'. Then I started getting confident with it and started realizing that I could really do this shit for real.

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What were you doing musically before Horton the Irrelevant and August the Creep?

August: The first real "organized" thing I ever did was in 7th grade, with three middle school kids in Connecticut. As you can guess, that shit was amazing. I think we stole the beats from Mobb Deep and Brand Nubian, and the lyrics from Buckshot or something. Anyways, me and one other kid from that group split off, and actually did something for a while. We had a group called "Sons of Belial" that got about as big as any Greenwich, CT High School rap group could get... meaning our friends dug our shit. We did like 3 albums before changing the name to He's Hers, and for the most part I have a lot of pride in what we were able to do. Two years ago, in New Orleans, that whole collaboration ended... which is when I decided to 1. concentrate only on producing, and 2. find a rapper who more than 10 people wanted to hear on a given night. Things are working out on both ends.

Horton: Making solo shit, producing and rapping. Some of the most fun shit was before that, years back when we were kids. It was playing whatever song, turning the bass way up and turning the treble way down so that you couldn't really hear the lyrics, then freestylin' over that shit. That's where I built my confidence, that's where I found my style. That was music to me. Oh, and 7th grade chorus, killing 'em before my voice dropped about 8 octaves.

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Can you guide us through your creative process? How did this record come to be?

August: I would say, for the most part, that the beats come first. When I finish a beat, I'll usually pass it to Horton and then he'll disappear for two days. When I see him again, I know that it's time to hit the studio. The only little story I'll tell here is of the first track we ever did together. I hadn't seen Horton in like three years (since Arizona)... and hadn't really spoken to him either. I had heard from a mutual friend that he had gotten into writing and producing. At first, I really had no idea what to expect... but by the time I had gotten through the 4 tracks on his myspace page, I knew that I had to get involved. Eventually, I found him on instant messenger, and while we were catching up on the past three years, I just happened to be finishing up a beat in my basement. On a whim, I sent him the beat... and literally the next day he sent me back Sleeping With Strangers (

Read the rest of "Horton and August: the Winterview" after the break...