About Clutchy Hopkins

Clutchy Hopkins is a mystery wrapped in an enigma, covered in tape hiss, and deep-fried in a pot of melted funk. Clutchy Hopkins is the son of a Motown recording engineer. As a young man, Clutchy traveled the globe exploring exotic music, rhythms, and mysticism. He worked at recording studios in Bombay to Cairo and studied musical techniques of the Cahuilla Indians, Rinzai Zen monks in Japan, and tribal drummers in Ethiopia. Returning to the U.S. in the '90s, Clutchy worked as a session musician on obscure funk and jazz records; he was rumored to have collaborated with Moondog. Clutchy recorded most of the music he created throughout his journeys, but never attempted to release it. He refused to be credited for his session gigs and only accepted cash payments for his work. There are practically no records of his existence. Sometime during the late 20th century, Clutchy Hopkins disappeared without a trace. His last known whereabouts were in Hawthorne, California. In 2005, a crate of reel-to-reel tapes was discovered amid boxes of old, home-made musical instruments and electronics at a flea market outside Los Angeles. The trail from these tapes led to a woman named Kelly Hopkins: Clutchy's daughter, the only person still in contact with him. Kelly obtained his permission to release some music and even persuaded him to collaborate with young new artists. Clutchy's exact whereabouts remain a mystery. According to Kelly, he currently resides in a cave somewhere in the Mojave Desert. In 2006 Clutchy Hopkins released his solo debut album titled The Life of Clutchy Hopkins. Five albums have been released on Ubiquity Records, including two solo albums titled, Walking Backwards, and The Story Teller, two collaborative albums with Shawn Lee, titled Clutch Of The Tiger, and Fascinating Fingers, and one collaborative album with Lord Kenjamin, titled Music is My Medicine The Life of Clutchy Hopkins has two sister projects available through underground channels, including the 2004 album by Misled Children titled People's Market and the 2006 album titled MF Doom meets Clutchy Hopkins.