A perfectly coiffed afro framing his face, wearing a button-down with a pointed collar that looks like it was lifted straight from the ’70s, PawPaw Rod is the picture of retro relaxation. The indie-funk singer is telling NME about the first time he picked up a microphone, setting the scene in his native Oklahoma with a grin on his face. “I had to be seven,” the 32-year-old muses over video call from his home in Los Angeles. The youth choir at church had prepared to sing just one song that day, and he had convinced them to sing a more uptempo gospel number.

“‘Victory Is Mine’, that’s the song I liked,” he says. “They just handed me the mic and were like, ‘All right, you sing it then!’ That was my first time [performing], and people were hype.” It was the talk of their small town, and the pastor even got it played on the local radio station. That performance ignited a feeling he has never stopped chasing, one he also felt when he would watch films and videos of Motown acts. “I could see myself when I saw the Jackson Five videos with [Michael Jackson] and his brothers. What it symbolised to me was camaraderie,” Rod says.

PawPaw Rod on The Cover of NME. Credit: Matt Baron for NME

The self-proclaimed “military brat” was born in Hawaii and raised mostly in Oklahoma, and before the time he dropped out of high school, PawPaw Rod – real name Rodney Hulsey – had already lived in Texas, South Carolina, Washington state and Germany. The would-be singer and rapper soaked up new traits and sounds from each new place, all of it feeding into his sound: a restless amalgam of hip-hop, ’60s funk, alternative rock, and more besides.

The diversity of inspiration he drew from his itinerant life can be heard on his debut full-length, ‘Picture Day: A PawPaw Rod Album’, released last month. Lyrically, the album shines a light on the ups and downs of not quite belonging anywhere, each track a snapshot of his identity and a collective homage to the one day of school when prized photos were taken – when he felt anchored, like he fully belonged, and in his own words, “like a real boy”.

Credit: Matt Baron for NME

Despite his friend groups constantly changing because he lived on military bases where no one stayed for long, Hulsey still tried to recreate the camaraderie he saw in groups like The Temptations and Jackson Five. “I would try to get homies to start an R&B group with me,” he chuckles. “We would go down to this little basement and sing songs. That’s what gravitated me towards [music] in the first place. And the fact that you could just escape into something.”

When his family finally stayed put for a long stretch of time in Oklahoma, he decided to commit to his calling. While the rest of his classmates were positioning themselves to join the best football teams in the county, he set his sights on finding the right people and school to get closer to a legitimate career in music. Hulsey eventually found a like-minded group who also wanted to make music and started a band, REGG, with a sound he describes as “like The Strokes if they had a rapper”. “It [stood] for ‘really easygoing guys’,” he laughs. “We would perform everywhere. We would get into the local bars and play. I started taking that seriously.”

Credit: Matt Baron for NME

One of his classmates, who became his manager, had parents who were local promoters bringing in big acts. Through them, he opened for multiple artists as both a solo act and with REGG, supporting a pre-fame Post Malone, Kelly Rowland and Ludacris. Hulsey experienced a trajectory-shifting evening when the band warmed the stage for Chief Keef in 2013. One of several openers, REGG were put in front of a hostile crowd when things ran “super late”.

“They started booing by the second act, and here we come out, and they’re like ‘Yo, what the hell is this?’” he recalls, his voice quickening. “We’re already off-brand, and they’re throwing change at us. They’re throwing bottles.” Things got chaotic, with fans tased in the audience. During it all, Hulsey thought: “Am I supposed to be making music? This is crazy.” Then, somebody came up to him in the crowd. “They were just like, ‘Yo, I’m in music, and you got it! The way you handled this shit, you got it, bro. Keep at it!’” And he did.

“If you feel like you’ve got something, then you gotta give that out”

In 2021, NME gave PawPaw Rod early praise for his debut release, ‘A PawPaw Rod EP’, applauding his ability to “establish a sonic personality that magpies from elements and mutates genre”. The following year, he was named to the NME 100. Those accolades followed his first single, 2020’s ‘Hit Em Where It Hurts’, which was released by tastemaking label GODMODE [Shamir, Yaeji] and earned acclaim for its funky-yet-glitchy R&B flow and smooth hip-hop delivery. “Every kid has this thought when they’re like, ‘If I just got one [hit] that’s all I need! That’s how I felt when it happened,” he says of the track’s success. “The other day, I drove past the apartment where I recorded it, and I was just like, ‘That’s crazy.’ That day changed my life.

“From there we signed on for [more] songs and we just broke that into EPs,” he says of the three projects – 2022’s ‘Another PawPaw Rod EP’, and then ‘This Must Be a PawPaw Rod EP’ and ‘Doobie Mouth’ in 2024 – that came after this breakout moment. Still, since the releases came during the pandemic lockdown, Hulsey wasn’t able to benefit from typical touring momentum. Nevertheless, “I’m grateful for those experiences,” he says of the EPs, “and it felt like a natural progression to put out an album and to have a full body of work [because listeners already] have an idea of the different sounds I have.”

Credit: Matt Baron for NME

When Hulsey finally felt ready for a full-length album, he knew he wanted it to go back to when and where he decided to be an artist – to his most formative years when he was falling in love with music in school. “I’ve been chasing music since back then,” he says. “I feel like I’m that same kid until I look up or snap out of the song. Keeping your inner child is very important in music.” Recorded in Los Angeles with executive producer Nick Sylvester and additional production from Billy Lemos, Two Fresh and Jordan Feller, ‘Picture Day’ is a feast of funk made through a recipe of sounds only PawPaw Rod grew up on.

On the sultry, Sherwyn-featuring ‘Lights Down Low’, Hulsey goes back in time to write a Motown-era Marvin Gaye track of his own. In ‘The Get Back’, he honours the upbringing and mindset that allowed him to get to the next level of his career: “Back in the day, I doubted but only for a second,” he raps, “People drowned to see you dream so the get back must be seen”. “It reminds me of that part of the dream with my homies back in the day and people I was chasing success with,” Hulsey says.

“Keeping your inner child is very important in music”

He continues to revisit his coming-of-age experiences in ‘Tornado Alley’, as he writes about his “love-hate” relationship with Oklahoma, a place where he learned to stand out while feeling pressure to assimilate. In his hands, sheltering in a place known for dangerous weather turns into a positive metaphor: “When the power’s out, we light up”. “When I hear ‘Tornado Alley,’ it takes me back to that place, because no matter where I go… I mean, I say it in the song: ‘No matter where I go, I’ll be signed, sealed, delivered’. It’s that thing, especially in hip-hop with Black artists, of always remembering where you came from.”

Credit: Matt Baron for NME

Between festival slots at Bonnaroo and Bumbershoot, PawPaw Rod will return to Oklahoma City to perform his debut album in August. It’ll mark his first time playing there in 12 years. “There will be people there from high school that I probably wanted to never talk to again,” he laughs. “My parents will be there. It’ll be a lot. It’s everything. It’s every feeling.” Though he’s overwhelmed at the thought of performing for a hometown crowd, he maintains it’s still the perfect way to experience ‘Picture Day’. “I’m always thinking about the live show,” he says. “I want people to dance, feel good. But also, I like making music that you can play anywhere. I want listeners to go outside. I want them to get closer to the things they want to do in their life.”

Hulsey is already experiencing the fruit of his musical labour first-hand, as fans have let him know how his songs have impacted their lives, much like those early Motown artists impacted him. “I’m very honoured when people come up to me at shows and say, ‘We played your music at my wedding’ or ‘I found my partner because we bonded through your music.’ I’ve even had people say they found their sexuality listening to my music.”

Rodney Hulsey, the kid who fell in love with music before he knew what it would lead to, is now living his version of the ever-changing, often co-opted, American dream – one he chased through multiple moves, thrown bottles and the temptation to quit. ‘Picture Day’ is a living testament to that kid who was looking for a permanent place in the world, and decided, through music, to create his own. “I know how [important] music’s been in my life and how I use it,” he says. His talent is just a gift he feels obligated to pass on. “If you feel like you’ve got something, then you gotta give that out.”

PawPaw Rod’s ‘Picture Day: A PawPaw Rod Album’ is out now via Independent Co.

Listen to PawPaw Rod’s exclusive playlist to accompany The Cover below on Spotify or on Apple Music here.

Words: Erica Campbell
Photography: Matt Baron
Styling: PawPaw Rod
Label: Independent Co.

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