2 Mello

Matthew Hopkins started chasing drum breaks after one listen to A Tribe Called Quest's "Scenario," and by 2001 he was cutting his teeth as 2 Mello in the local hip-hop scene of Lexington, Kentucky. The mashup albums he posted online in 2013, stitching video game scores to classic rap verses, found an audience fast and pulled him into scoring commercial games himself. His signature sound arrived a few years later: warm, sample-heavy hip-hop textures layered over breakbeat syncopation and the propulsive rush of drum 'n' bass, first fully realized on the Jet Set Radio-inspired Memories of Tokyo-To. Game composition became a parallel career - contributions to Celeste, full scoring duties on Later Alligator, a split score on If Found, and, most recently, a co-written soundtrack for Demon Tides with Fat Bard. He now serves as audio director for the game studio Virtuoso Neomedia and lives in Chicago with two cats, a room full of synthesizers, and a collection of oversized Godzilla figurines.