Hip hop group coming to Richmond, records go kart music video

Members of MHz Legacy, an underground hip-hop group scheduled to perform at the University of Richmond on Nov. 4, filmed their music video at G-Force Go Karts in Richmond on Friday, screeching down straightaways and yanking around turns at more than 40 mph.

Tage Future and Copywrite, both members of MHz since the early 1990s, tanked up on energy drinks and strapped in to begin filming a music video for "Gone," a song on their new album, "Megacy," which will be released on Oct. 30.

The group, originally from Columbus, Ohio, has been traveling down the East Coast with Man Bites Dog Records, filming videos in Manhattan and Brooklyn, N.Y., and Alexandria, Va., to promote the new album.

"We're on a video run," Copywrite said while on a filming break. "We're just trying to differentiate ourselves as much as we can."

Each video has its own theme, Copywrite said, and using go-karts for "Gone" was a simple idea that worked for the song. R.M.L. and his production team taped cameras to Copywrite's helmet and filmed from moving go-karts to create a sense of constant movement in the video.

The release of "Megacy" this year is especially significant for MHz, Tage said, because it's the first new record the group has released since its first album, Table Scraps, which was officially released in 2001. Since then, the B-sides and rarities found on Table Scraps have been remixed and released, but "Megacy" is the first album of current tracks that MHz has produced in more 10 years.

"Hopefully it takes us to a more broad audience," Tage said.

"Megacy" features Copywrite and Tage, as well as MHz members Jakki Da Motamouth, Camu Tao and RJD2, who did the production work for half the album. Camu died in 2008, so his appearance on a few tracks is important to the members of MHz.

"We grew up with him," Tage said. "We all grew up together, so it's great to honor him and his fans and his family, too."

When asked if MHz was planning to perform any new songs from "Megacy" in Richmond, Tage and Copywrite's answers were identical, "Yeah, we'll tear it down."

Contact reporter Katie Branca at katie.branca@richmond.edu