When your music is difficult to define from the onset, there’s really no concern about painting yourself into a corner. Such is the case with Yoni Wolf, who began releasing music as WHY? in 1999 with the Daniel Johnston–like tape-hiss whimsy of Part Time People Cage… Or Part Time Key?, an hour-long collage of beats and spoken word that would gradually evolve into the outsider hip-hop and lo-fi psychedelia of 2003’s Oaklandazulasylum. Meanwhile, Wolf was bolstering his bedroom-rap reputation with album-length collaborations alongside artists within and orbiting the nascent Anticon artist collective—the label co-founded by Wolf with other emcees and producers—such as Hymie’s Basement (with Fog’s Andrew Broder), Reaching Quiet (with Anticon producer Odd Nosdam), Greenthink (with Anticon emcee Doseone), Object Beings (with Doseone and Anticon emcee Pedestrian), and, most notably, cLOUDDEAD (with Doseone and Odd Nosdam).
Evolving into a full-band sound on Elephant Eyelash, Alopecia, and Eskimo Snow later in the decade, WHY? managed something like crossover success as it was adopted more by Tumblr’s indie-rock audiences than the early-internet hip-hop chatrooms Anticon built its reputation within, who perhaps weren’t ready for lyrics like, well, take your pick from “Good Friday.” Released a year after the R.-Crumb raps of Alopecia, Eskimo Snow was essentially an earnest indie-folk record suited for the era of Fleet Foxes and Bon Iver, while Yoni got back to more conventional rapping in 2012 with a few tracks on Mumps, etc., setting in motion a trend of back-and-forth focus between these two genre poles with every release.
Which makes it a bit less surprising to study the list of collaborators Wolf has built over the years, which range from OG Anticon figures to contemporary blog-rock names like Lala Lala and Gabby’s World. With WHY?’s new LP The Well I Fell Into (a folkier release following 2018’s abstracter-than-abstract hip-hop collage AOKOHIO, which features Finom’s Macie Stewart, Gia Margaret, and Ada Lea among the guest musicians) out this week, and with Yoni Wolf celebrating 25 years in the game, we’ve compiled a breakdown of some of his lesser-known endeavors (well, those that are still available to stream somewhere), ranging from guest verses to remixes, non-WHY? solo recordings to immersive collaborations.
Sole feat. WHY?, “Center City” (2000)
The first significant guest verse for WHY? landed on Sole’s deeply existential debut Bottle of Humans, which also featured other Anticon folks like Doseone, Pedestrian, Alias, Odd Nosdam, and Jel. In retrospect it’s kind of funny to hear Yoni derail Sole’s train of thought (immediately after Sole mic-drops with the line “Man and woman are all we’ve got and can’t love” on the previous track, no less) with some utter-nonsense surrealist back-and-forths that, yeah, mostly haven’t aged well.
Reaching Quiet, “Split Screen” (2002)
For those of you wondering what “The Vowels, Pt. 2” is a sequel to, I’d venture to guess it’s the track “The Vowels” from Yoni’s sole release with Odd Nosdam as Reaching Quiet, the 30-track In the Shadow of the Living Room. My personal favorite on the album, though, is the 78-second “Split Screen,” which sees Yoni karaoke-ing over jaunty organ and an extremely Nosdam-y beat.
Themselves, “Poison Pit” (Remixed by WHY?) (2003)
The first remix album from Themselves (a.k.a. Doseone and Jel) featured their chaotic-neutral abstract-expressionist LP The No Music made even more chaotic and abstract by their peers—though Yoni’s remix of “Poison Pit” slows things down a bit, as if refitting it for WHY?’s Oaklandazulasylum released that same year.
cLOUDDEAD “Dead Dogs Two” (2004)
For all the weird corners of hip-hop and electronic music Yoni and Dose explored separately in their early years, cLOUDDEAD often provided moments of relative normalcy—such as this mostly sung duet over Nosdam’s minimalist instrumental. Well, “normal” aside from the “singing about dead dogs” thing.
Pedestrian feat. WHY?, “Jane 2: Electric Boogaloo” (2005)
While Yoni raps a verse on most of these Anticon cuts, occasionally he’d just show up to shout harmonies and deadpan hooks like “Wiggity-what’s a 3D girl like you doing in a place like this?” for sometimes-lyricist/sometimes-rapper/sometimes-evangelist-preacher Pedestrian on a track named after a throwaway joke from a ’90s Baumbach film.
Bracken, “Heathens” (Redone by Alias and WHY?) (2006)
Second of two remixes Yoni created with Alias producing on which he’d gut the lyrics and provide his own (the other of which being “Into the Trees” by 13 & God—the collaboration between The Notwist and Themselves, themselves, again, a collaboration between Doseone and Jel). This version reworks the depressive indietronica of Hood’s Chris Adams’ solo project into an absolute shredder of blog-era party music. It’s like Urban Outfitters commissioned Darwin Deez to do a track with Clams Casino before either of those were people we knew about.
WHY?, “The Wig Master” (Xiu Xiu cover) (2007) / Xiu Xiu, “Yo Yo Bye Bye” (WHY? cover) (2007)
I’ve always been curious about the fact that WHY? and Xiu Xiu covered each other for two separate releases in the same year—the former for a Xiu Xiu covers collection, the latter as a B-side for WHY?’s “The Hollows” single. In retrospect Fabulous Muscles could’ve passed for an Anticon release.
Telephone Jim Jesus feat. Pedestrian and WHY?, “Dice Raw” (2007)
I’ve never seen this officially credited as a guest spot, though Yoni does contribute vocals to this track for producer Telephone Jim Jesus’ second album, batting cleanup for Pedestrian. It almost sounds more like a sample, though, spliced in between Pedestrian’s uncharacteristically hardcore bars.
Odd Nosdam feat. WHY?, “The Kill Tone Two” (2007)
Another uncredited appearance, here on the downtempo sounds of a Nosdam mixtape (you know, that thing that rain goes perfect with).
Alias feat. WHY?, “Well Water Black” (2008)
Yoni was one of two vocalists featured on the late-great producer Alias’ opus Resurgam (the other being The One A.M. radio—and if I may pause here for a moment to point out that the Hrishikesh Hirway who fronted that band is not only the same Hrishikesh Hirway who has since launched Song Exploder, but also the Hrishikesh Hirway who recorded an EP with Lakeith Stanfield in 2014 under the name Moors). It’s the type of collaboration that makes you wish he’d kept doing full albums with Anticon producers in the mid-aughts after he’d pivoted away from his lo-fi bands with Nosdam, and before he was working extensively with Serengeti (more on that in a moment).
Themselves & WHY?, “Canada” (2009)
I don’t recall what the story was with this song, but Themselves and WHY? released this percussion-heavy single as a loosie (which feels oddly influenced by The Notwist’s patient ambient-pop sound) the same year Themselves dropped the theFREEhoudini mixtape, which was entirely made up of collaborations with other artists within the Anticon orbit. Technically they also worked together on “Rapping4Money” on that tape, though that song has always been credited as a cLOUDDEAD reunion instead.
Themselves & WHY?, “Rapping4money” (2009)
Fuck it, I’m including “Rapping4money,” too.
Serengeti feat. WHY?, “Geti Life” (2012)
The 2010s saw a ton of fruitful collaboration between Yoni and Serengeti (who’s credited with backing vocals on The Well I Fell Into, I noticed), beginning with Geti’s 2011 LP Family & Friends, which was entirely produced by Wolf along with Owen Ashworth’s Advance Base project. I think Yoni was just enlisted as comic relief on Serengeti’s next album, C.A.R., on a song basically about the rapper using Yoni because he wanted a hit, while Yoni can be heard in the background quietly saying things like “Huh?” and “That’s harsh.” Some incredible IYKYK humor on this song: “I also got taken by the gypsies in Berlin, too / No marble, we’re like twins / Dark corner on basketball courts with mens.”
Yoni Wolf, “Broken Crow (Shook Mix)” (2014)
By 2014, Anticon had basically pivoted to releasing music by up-and-coming figures in rap and electronic music (shoutout Young Fathers, shoutout Pictureplane) rather than the output of its founders, leading to most of those artists self-releasing on Bandcamp. While WHY? resurfaced on Joyful Noise’s roster not long after, Yoni did share a couple releases under his own name of re-recorded vocals over samples from rap icons like Mobb Deep and A Tribe Called Quest. “Broken Crow” is a much rappier take on the song of the same name from the Reaching Quiet LP.
Divorcee, “Thoughts of a Man” (2014)
Jokes about Fleetwood Mac and ABBA aside, it’s a pretty uniquely special thing when ex-partners reconnect to form a band. While said ex provides all the vocals on this EP, its instrumentals all feel uniquely WHY?-like.
Yoni & Geti “Madeline” (2016)
Contrary to what “Geti Life” may lead us to believe, perhaps they are really homies.
The Ophelias, “Fog” (2021)
The Cincinnati connection runs deep. Not too far off from the Divorcee EP, Yoni’s production on fellow OK-Ohioans The Ophelias’ LP Almost doesn’t sound dissimilar to WHY?’s Eskimo Snow–iest material.
Ceschi feat. WHY?, “Yoni's Electrocardiographs” (2019)
Yoni may have mostly pivoted to experimenting outside the realm of hip-hop in recent years, but he also helped to rear a generation of rappers who seamlessly blend their sound with whatever’s going on in indie rock. Another deeply WHY?-like instrumental giving way to an outro from the man himself.
Lala Lala & WHY?, “Siren 042” (2019)
Yoni got on the Lala Lala train before most folks outside the city of Chicago did, with both artists consistently contributing backing vocals and/or instrumentation to each other’s albums since 2019 (including The Well I Fell Into). This is the only 50/50 joint release they’ve done—which, in being so, calls back to the impressive balance heard on “Canada.”
WHY?, “We Are Real” (Silver Jews cover) (2019)
Central to both genre poles of WHY? is a focus on lyricsim, making it no surprise that Yoni “looked up to” David Berman. Shortly after his passing, Wolf recorded this cover with the assistance of Lala Lala and Gabby’s World for World Mental Health Day.
WHY? & Gabby's World, “Millions Miles” (Mirah cover) (2020)
One more for the indie blog crowd: a relic from 2020, a distant era when beloved indie labels would cook up covers and/or collaborative tracks paying homage to the most beloved artists on their roster, since there was really nothing else to do anyway.
Hymie’s Basement, “Phantom Throb” (2021)
If you’ve made it this far on this list, the reunion of Hymie’s Basement—albiet for one song, which was by no means a disappointment—was a life event. If you haven’t made it this far on this list, well, I don’t know what to tell you.
Temps (feat. feat. Quelle Chris, Shamir, WHY?, Montaigne, Ami Dang), “ificouldjust” (2023)
It’s kind of a long story, but yes, Yoni was among the group of niche musicians hand-picked by comedian James Acaster to help make his drum recordings a bit more interesting.
A7PHA, “Many Headed” (2023)
Similar to the Hymie’s Basement reunion, it was a pretty big day for a very specific type of person when Yoni, Doseone, Buck 65, and Aesop Rock all hopped on this six-minute posse cut from Dose’s at-this-point-fairly-long-running project with Mestizo. And in case you’ve hate-read this entire article for some, the EP also includes a Yoni-less version of the track.
