99 Neighbors Details

In today’s climate, there are many elements that need to come together to build a successful career in music. Obviously you need to be able to write, record, perform, produce, DJ, create content, do interviews, solve complex maths equations, do a backflip, and speak at least three languages—and that’s just on the creative side. As you can imagine, that results in a lot of outsourcing for many artists. Luckily, in the case of Burlington, Vermont’s 99 Neighbors, they can do almost all of it themselves—excluding the backflips and complex maths equations, that is.

The nine member collective was founded by hip-hop vocalists Sam Paulino, HANKNATIVE, photographer Shane Kaseta, and producer Somba and is the result of friends combining their talents and maximising their efforts. It also includes additional members Swank, Aidan Ostby, Jared Fier, and Julian Segar-Reid (aka Juju), and they all live in a house together—talk about keeping it tight. Fresh off the stage following their high energy performance at the first ever New York City edition of the infamous Rolling Loud Festival, I caught up with the three vocalists in the crew: Hank, Sam, and Swank, to hear more about their unique approach to hip-hop and how they are helping put Burlington on the map.