Elmo Kennedy O'Connor (born January 11, 1994), known professionally as Bones (stylized sometimes as BONES), is an American rapper, singer and songwriter from Howell, Michigan. He is also the founder of the music collective TeamSESH.
Bones | |
|---|---|
 Bones performing in 2018 | |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Elmo Kennedy O'Connor |
| Also known as |
|
| Born | January 11, 1994 Muir Beach, California, U.S. |
| Origin | Howell, Michigan, U.S. |
| Genres | |
| Occupations |
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| Instrument | Vocals |
| Years active | 2010–present |
| Labels | TeamSESH |
| Member of |
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| Formerly of | Seshollowaterboyz |
| Children | 1 |
| Website | teamsesh |
| Spouse |
Samantha O'Connor
(m. 2023) |
O'Connor is known for his pioneering work in sub-genres of hip-hop referred to as emo rap[3] and trap metal.[2] Since 2010, O'Connor has released an extensive discography and developed a large fan base. As of 2024, he has released over 100 albums, mixtapes and EPs across several aliases.
Early life
editElmo Kennedy O'Connor was born in Muir Beach, California to a mother who designed clothing and a father who was a photographer. His maternal grandfather was actor Robert Culp.[4] His family lived in Muir Beach, California, before moving to Howell, Michigan[5] at the age of 7. A few years later, he met fellow artists Xavier Wulf, Chris Travis, and Eddy Baker online. The four artists would later come together to form the collective Seshollowaterboyz.[6]
When he was 16, he dropped out of Howell High School and moved to Los Angeles, where his brother and current manager, Elliott, had already been living.[7] Despite moving away from his parents at a young age, O'Connor speaks positively of them, stating, "If I tried to write a book about, 'oh, what would be dream parents?', I couldn't even make anything better than them. All they do is shower me in love. Unconditional love, forever."[8] O'Connor describes Howell as a "mundane" place where its residents are "born and they die there",[8][6] also calling it "one of the most racist towns in Michigan".[9]
Musical career
editO'Connor first started making music at the age of nine after his father purchased an iMac G3. He would download hip hop instrumentals from SoundClick and use the computer's built-in microphone to record himself rapping, though it wasn't until 2010 at the age of 16 that he would start releasing music online under the alias "Th@ Kid", often on MySpace or other early internet blogging services. After moving to Los Angeles, O'Connor connected with other artists he met online including Xavier Wulf, Chris Travis, and Eddy Baker, who at the time were members of the now semi-disbanded Raider Klan.[6] He later officially changed his stage name to Bones in 2012, often associated with the release of his debut album named "BONES".
On July 4, 2012, O'Connor released his eponymous debut album under the alias Bones. From 2012 to 2014 he released 12 albums[10] before gaining journalistic attention for his 2014 album TeenWitch, which gained controversy for its themes based around the Columbine High School Massacre.[11][12][13] The album following TeenWitch, titled Garbage, was released on June 9, 2014, and was the first of O'Connor's albums to gain the attention of major music publications such as Complex Magazine[14] and The Fader[15] who labelled the project as "massive" and "boundary-pushing."[16] In April 2014, O'Connor, along with TeamSESH producer Greaf, formed "surrenderdorothy", a side project that is notably less focused on rap, with a stronger focus on acoustic guitar and singing, with stylistic similarities to indie rock and emo rap. Although O'Connor does experiment with this style in his solo work, surrenderdorothy features it much more predominantly. Since 2014, the duo have released six EPs as surrenderdorothy.
O'Connor uploaded several albums in 2015[17][18][19][20] and headlined his first sold-out show at House of Blues on March 4, 2015[21][22] before opening for electronic artist Shlohmo at The Fonda Theatre.[23] O'Connor was later featured on ASAP Rocky's "Canal St.", which was a remix of O'Connor's song "Dirt". The song later became O'Connor's first feature on the Billboard charts.[24][25] Bones performed "Canal St." with ASAP Rocky on the Jimmy Kimmel Live! show, but was cut from the TV broadcast due to his refusal to censor some of the song's lyrics while performing. Videos of the performance were made available online.[26][27] In May 2015, O'Connor and Greaf started releasing songs under a second side project called Oregontrail. The project is stylistically similar to Surrenderdorothy, but has been noted as having a "darker" and "rougher" tone. It also follows a loose narrative related to the game of the same name which is also reflected in the artwork of the singles. Since 2015, the duo have released seven singles as Oregontrail.
O'Connor released 10 albums between 2015 and 2017.[10] In 2016, he began releasing music under a new persona called Ricky A Go Go. He uploaded five tracks in total to a SoundCloud account for this persona with the fifth one being uploaded in 2017.
On January 19, 2018, O'Connor performed in Koko, London, thus starting his first ever European tour, called the Deadboy Tour.[28] It took him to countries such as Germany, Ukraine, Russia and Italy.
O'Connor is a founding member of the collective Seshollowaterboyz, along with Xavier Wulf, Chris Travis and Eddy Baker, with whom he often performs and collaborates.[29][30] The name of the collective is a mash-up of their self-releasing labels TeamSESH (alongside Dylan Ross), Hollow Squad. Waterboyz and Healthy Boyz. They have performed at notable venues such as The Observatory in Santa Ana, California on November 13, 2015 [31] and The Novo by Microsoft in Los Angeles on January 30, 2016.[32] After Chris Travis left the group in 2019, the remaining members would continue touring under "Bones with Eddy Baker and Xavier Wulf." On March 12, 2024, after Wulf's former girlfriend of 5 years took to Reddit to accuse him of sexual assault, animal abuse and domestic violence, he was promptly kicked out of the group and off of Limp Bizkit's Loserville Tour.[33] As of July 5th, 2024, BONES and Xavier Wulf have reunited and have performed together at a Robb Bank$ show in downtown Los Angeles and he has been added back to the Loserville Tour.
Musical style and influences
editAlthough O'Connor is often considered to be one of the pioneers of the emo rap sub-genre, O'Connor has said that he has no specific genre, though has been characterized as cloud rap, experimental hip-hop and "shadow rap".[34][35][30] O'Connor's singing has been compared to grunge and emo, while his rapping has been compared sub-genres such as horrorcore and emo rap.[36] He is also considered an early pioneer of trap metal.[2]
O'Connor rarely talks about his musical influences, although during interviews he has mentioned Marvin Gaye, Earth Wind and Fire, Bootsy Collins, Stevie Nicks and Joni Mitchell as influences.[34] Over the years of his music career, O'Connor helped underground hip hop develop into new styles and has been noted as "one of the most influential underground artists of the internet age".[8]
Discography
editBones
editStudio albums
edit| WhiteRapper (as Th@ Kid) |
|
|---|---|
| TypicalRapShit (as Th@ Kid) |
|
| BLVCKNWHITE (as Th@ Kid, with Grandmilly) |
|
| Bones |
|
| LivingLegend |
|
| Saturn |
|
| Teenager |
|
| ダサい (Lame) (with Xavier Wulf) |
|
| Creep |
|
| Scumbag |
|
| Cracker |
|
| PaidProgramming |
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| UndergroundGods (with Na$ty Matt) |
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| DeadBoy |
|
| TeenWitch |
|
| Garbage |
|
| Skinny |
|
| Rotten |
|
| SongsThatRemindYouOfHome (with Dylan Ross) |
|
| Powder |
|
| Banshee |
|
| HermitOfEastGrandRiver |
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| Useless |
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| PaidProgramming2 |
|
| GoodForNothing |
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| SoftwareUpdate1.0 |
|
| Disgrace |
|
| Unrendered |
|
| NoRedeemingQualities |
|
| Failure |
|
| Carcass (СКЕЛЕТ) |
|
| Augmented (with cat soup) |
|
| LivingSucks |
|
| TheManInTheRadiator |
|
| SparrowsCreek (with Eddy Baker) |
|
| UnderTheWillowTree |
|
| KickingTheBucket |
|
| IFeelLikeDirt |
|
| OFFLINE |
|
| BRACE (with Xavier Wulf) |
|
| DamagedGoods (with drew the architect) |
|
| REMAINS (with Lyson) |
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| FromBeyondTheGrave |
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| BURDEN |
|
| PushingUpDaisies (with Deergod) |
|
| InLovingMemory |
|
| ForbiddenImage (with Cat Soup) |
|
| SCRAPS (with Lyson) |
|
| Withered (with grayera) |
|
| AmericanSweetheart |
|
| DreamCard (with ghost/\/ghoul) |
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| 2MillionBlunts |
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| TheWitch&TheWizard (with GREAF) |
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| JonesPeak (with Eddy Baker) |
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| BasketCase |
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| Champion |
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| .ZIP |
|
EPs
edit| Dreamcatcher (as Th@ Kid) |
|
|---|---|
| Attaboy (as Th@ Kid) |
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| Midnight:12 AM (as Th@ Kid) |
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| Caves (with Xavier Wulf) |
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| SeaBeds (with Chris Travis) |
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| WeNeverAskedForThis (as Surrenderdorothy) |
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| NobodyWantsMe (as Surrenderdorothy) |
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| ItsTheLeastWeCanDo (as Surrenderdorothy) |
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| SoThereWeStood |
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| ItsTheThoughtThatCounts (as Surrenderdorothy) |
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| YouShouldHaveSeenYourFace |
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| HateToBreakItToYou (with Drip-133) |
|
| Frayed |
|
| ItsDifferentNow (as Surrenderdorothy) |
|
| Slán |
|
| NetworkUnknown |
|
| BreathingExercise (as Surrenderdorothy) |
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| PermanentFrown (with CurtisHeron) |
|
Ricky A Go Go
editMixtapes
edit- PleasureUltimate (2024)
Singles
edit- "The Whisper of Sweet Nothings" (2016)
- "On the Run" (2016)
- "You Are My Everything" (2016)
- "Every Night" (2016)
- "Stranger" (2017)
- "You Know I Want You" (2017)
- "Death Train" (2021)
surrenderdorothy
editMixtapes
edit- NobodyWantsMe (2014)
- breathingexercise (2018)
- ItsDifferentNow (2018)
- ItsTheLeastWeCanDo (2018)
- justwhatthedoctorordered (2019)
- julyrent (2019)
- thishouseisnotahome (2023)
Singles
edit- "Human for a Day" (2014)
- "It All Comes Together in the Final Act" (2015)
- "Sitting in the Car" (2016)
- "No Place Like Home" (2016)
- "Sometimes I Don't Understand" (2016)
- "Like the Back of My Hand" (2016)
- "Caught between the Seats" (2016)
- "What Great Eyes You Have" (2017)
- "Drop Everything" (2018)
Oregon Trail
editSingles
edit- "Goodbye for Now"
- "If All Else Fails"
- "We Have Been Keeping Quite Busy"
- "I Admit, It Has Not Been Easy"
- "Till the Whites of My Eyes Dry Out"
- "We Fought the Good Fight"
- "Ford the River"
- "Second Hand Pain"
Th@ Kid
editMixtapes
edit- ADayAtTheGetty
- YoungDumbFuck
- [KNUCKLEHEAD]
- TEAM SESH
- Strictly for the RATZ
- AttaBoy
- BoredOfEducation
- Cousin Eddie
- DreamCatcher
- FOOL$GOLD
- TheGoodRatZ
- Holy Smokes
- Howell
- MARBLE
- Midnight:12AM
- RATBOY
- RatLyfe
- Stay Golden
- Stifler
All of these releases are available on the TEAMSESH Discography Archive.
References
edit- ^ "Delving Past Yung Lean and Deeper Into the World of Sad Rap". Noisey. August 2014. Retrieved 2021-07-13.
- ^ a b c JAMIESON, BRII (23 May 2018). "This is Trap Metal". Kerrang!.
- ^ "How Bones Built A Cult Rap Community". The FADER. Retrieved 2018-06-23.
- ^ Bell, Max (2014-01-02). "L.A. Rapper Bones Has Some of the Eeriest Videos in the Music Business, and a Sound All His Own". L.A. Weekly. Retrieved 2018-01-08.
- ^ Dazed (2017-09-07). "BONES on record labels, being beaten up & living meme kids". Dazed. Retrieved 2018-01-08.
- ^ a b c Kinda Neat (2017-06-22), KINDA NEAT EPISODE 73: SESHOLLOWATERBOYZ, retrieved 2018-06-23
- ^ "L.A. Rapper Bones Has Some of the Eeriest Videos in the Music Business, and a Sound All His Own". LA Weekly. January 2014. Retrieved 2015-03-12.
- ^ a b c Thomas-Hansard, Artemis (2017-09-07). "Meet BONES, Underground Rap King". Dazed. Archived from the original on 2017-09-07. Retrieved 2017-09-09.
- ^ "RECRUITED: Bones". Masked Gorilla. Archived from the original on 2020-11-12. Retrieved 2019-05-08.
- ^ a b Hans (2014-06-10). "I'm in hell: BONES aka "Th@ Kid" Complete Discography (All Albums, Mixtapes, Etc.) FREE DOWNLOAD". I'm in hell. Retrieved 2018-06-23.
- ^ "TeenWitch by Bones–Glorifying Suicide or a Work of Art?". English Project. 2017-05-26. Retrieved 2018-06-23.
- ^ Gamino, Chris, BONES Targets Columbine on Latest Mixtape "TeenWitch", archived from the original on 2018-06-23, retrieved 2018-06-23
- ^ "NEW MIXTAPE: Bones - TEENWITCH". Masked Gorilla. Archived from the original on 2019-09-13. Retrieved 2018-06-23.
- ^ "Download Los Angeles Rapper Bones' "Garbage" Mixtape". PigeonsandPlanes. Retrieved 2018-06-23.
- ^ "Download LA-via-Michigan Rapper Bones' Massive Garbage Mixtape". The FADER. Retrieved 2018-06-23.
- ^ "NEW MIXTAPE: Bones - Garbage". Masked Gorilla. Archived from the original on 2018-06-23. Retrieved 2018-06-23.
- ^ "Download Bones' New Mixtape "Skinny"". PigeonsandPlanes. Retrieved 2018-06-23.
- ^ "Listen to Bones' 'Powder' Mixtape". PigeonsandPlanes. Retrieved 2018-06-23.
- ^ "Stream Bones' New EP, 'YouShouldHaveSeenYourFace'". Masked Gorilla. Archived from the original on 2018-06-23. Retrieved 2018-06-23.
- ^ "Bones - YouShouldHaveSeenYourFace (EP)". HYPEBEAST. Retrieved 2018-06-23.
- ^ "Elliott O'Connor - Twitter". Twitter. March 5, 2015. Retrieved March 12, 2015.
- ^ "Elliott O'Connor - Twitter". Twitter. March 5, 2015. Retrieved March 12, 2015.
- ^ "Shlohmo - Twitter". Twitter. March 6, 2015. Retrieved March 12, 2015.
- ^ "Track-by-track Review: A$AP Rocky's At.Long.Last.A$AP | Coog Radio". coogradio.com. 26 May 2015. Retrieved 2018-06-23.
- ^ "A$AP Rocky Canal St. Chart History". Billboard. Archived from the original on June 24, 2018. Retrieved 2018-06-23.
- ^ Strauss, Matthew (September 18, 2015). "A$AP Rocky Performs "Electric Body" With Schoolboy Q, "Canal St." With Bones on "Kimmel"". Pitchfork Media. Retrieved January 31, 2016.
- ^ Montes, Patrick (September 2015). "A$AP Rocky Brings Out Bones for 'Jimmy Kimmel' Performance". Hypetrak. Retrieved January 31, 2016.
- ^ "Deadboy Tour". Archived from the original on 2022-03-15. Retrieved 2018-04-19.
- ^ "Inside Game: Bones and the weird world of internet rap". San Antonio Current. June 10, 2014. Retrieved 2015-03-12.
- ^ a b "Delving Past Yung Lean and Deeper Into The World of Sad Rap". August 1, 2014. Retrieved 2015-03-13.
- ^ "Seshollowaterboyz (11pm Show!) | Observatory". www.observatoryoc.com. Archived from the original on 2016-08-16. Retrieved 2016-06-12.
- ^ "Seshollowaterboyz (Bones, Xavier Wulf, Chris Travis, Eddy Baker) Club Nokia Jan 30, 2016 - LA HIP HOP EVENTS". LA HIP HOP EVENTS. 2015-12-19. Retrieved 2016-06-12.
- ^ Fisher, Caroline (March 12, 2024). "Xavier Wulf's Ex Accuses Him of Sexual Assault, Animal Abuse, Domestic Violence, and More". HotNewHipHop. Retrieved March 13, 2024.
- ^ a b Dazed (2017-09-07). "BONES on record labels, being beaten up & living meme kids". Dazed. Retrieved 2018-06-23.
- ^ "Delving Past Yung Lean and Deeper Into the World of Sad Rap". Noisey. 2014-08-01. Retrieved 2018-06-23.
- ^ "Album Download: Bones - Garbage | RESPECT". respect-mag.com. 13 June 2014. Retrieved 2018-06-23.