Handsome Boy Modelling School

Dan “The Automator” Nakamura
Prince Paul

Handsome Boy Modeling School are made up of hip-hop veterans Prince Paul and Dan “The Automator” Nakamura. You’ll have heard them in other projects from Paul’s production work for De La Soul to Dan’s pivotal role in Gorillaz. However, for the purposes of HBMS they have adopted the slick alter-egos of Chest Rockwell and Nathaniel Merriweather respectively.

They sneaked out ‘99s ‘So…How’s Your Girl?’ without getting too much attention, despite a host of high-profile guests like Mike D, Moloko, Money Mark and DJ Shadow amongst others. They both left the project bubbling under for some five years, returning in 2004 with a fresh album.

Where the first album passed everyone by, no-one could ignore the follow-up, ‘White People’. This was mainly down to the massive ‘The World’s Gone Mad’ single, and in particular a solitary one-line contribution from indie darling Alex Kapranos along with dancehall legend Barrington Levy and Del tha Funky Homospaien. Now people are sitting up and taking notice of these two über cool producers and their funky tunes. Maybe you should join the ‘School too.

1999 So…How’s Your Girl? – Tommy Boy
2004 White People - Elektra