BADBADNOTGOOD & Samuel T. Herring

Biography

BADBADNOTGOOD & Samuel T. Herring is a collaborative pairing between Toronto-based instrumental jazz-hip-hop group BADBADNOTGOOD and Samuel Thompson Herring (born April 13, 1984, in Carteret County, North Carolina), the vocalist-frontman of synth-pop band Future Islands. BADBADNOTGOOD — formed in 2010 by bassist Chester Hansen, drummer Alexander Sowinski, and keyboardist Matthew Tavares at Humber College's jazz program in Toronto — built their reputation by fusing rigorous jazz musicianship with a hip-hop sensibility, initially gaining attention through instrumental covers of MF DOOM and Odd Future tracks. Herring, meanwhile, had been developing a distinct artistic voice since his early days freestyling in high school in coastal North Carolina, eventually founding Future Islands in 2006 out of Greenville before the band relocated to Baltimore in 2008. The two worlds converged in 2014 when BADBADNOTGOOD remixed Future Islands' breakout single "Seasons (Waiting on You)," forging a mutual appreciation that led to studio sessions in Toronto.

Those sessions produced two significant recordings: "Time Moves Slow," released May 17, 2016 as the second single from BADBADNOTGOOD's landmark album IV, and a non-album single "I Don't Know," which followed in October 2017. On "Time Moves Slow," Herring's husky, emotionally raw baritone floats over BBNG's spacious, melancholic arrangement — a strikingly restrained departure from both artists' usual register. The track became widely regarded as one of IV's crowning moments and a high watermark for jazz-adjacent indie music that decade. Herring's dual identity as both a synth-pop frontman (Future Islands) and a left-field rapper (under alias Hemlock Ernst, who collaborated with Madlib in 2015) made him a uniquely suited partner for BBNG's genre-fluid aesthetic.

The collaboration's legacy grew far beyond its original 2016 context when, in mid-2021, New York producer VANO 3000 chopped and flipped "Time Moves Slow" into a track called "Running Away," which became the unofficial soundtrack of the viral Adult Swim bump trend on TikTok, eventually accumulating over 3 billion views across the platform. This second wave of exposure introduced BADBADNOTGOOD and Herring's chemistry to an entirely new generation of listeners, cementing "Time Moves Slow" as one of the most far-reaching crossover moments in 2010s independent music.

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Fun Facts

• "Time Moves Slow" was born from sessions initially sparked by a remix — BADBADNOTGOOD had remixed Future Islands' 'Seasons (Waiting on You)' in 2014, and Herring liked the band's approach enough to fly to Toronto and write original material with them.
• Samuel T. Herring's rapper alias 'Hemlock Ernst' has a literary origin: 'Hemlock' came from a 9th-grade poem about Socrates drinking hemlock poison, while 'Ernst' referenced his art-school character Locke Ernst-Frost, a composite of philosopher John Locke, surrealist painter Max Ernst, and poet Robert Frost.
• VANO 3000's 2021 remix 'Running Away' — built on a chop of 'Time Moves Slow' — accumulated over 3 billion TikTok views as the anchor of the Adult Swim bump trend, making it one of the most-viewed sample-based viral moments in music history.
• BADBADNOTGOOD recorded their debut album BBNG in a single three-hour session in 2011; by contrast, the meticulous, expansive IV (which features 'Time Moves Slow') took years and involved polished studio work with Herring and other collaborators like Ghostface Killah and Charlotte Day Wilson.

Musical Connections

Mentors/Influences

• MF DOOM - Primary hip-hop influence on BADBADNOTGOOD; the group's early instrumental DOOM covers helped launch their career [2010–2012]
• Madlib - Produced Samuel T. Herring's Hemlock Ernst EP 'Trouble Knows Me' (2015); a major creative influence on Herring's rap identity [2014–2015]
• Antipop Consortium - Left-field hip-hop group cited by Herring as a formative inspiration; he drove hundreds of miles to see them perform in his teens [Late 1990s–early 2000s]

Key Collaborators

• VANO 3000 - NYC producer who sampled 'Time Moves Slow' for viral 2021 track 'Running Away,' reigniting both artists' profiles globally
• Future Islands - Samuel T. Herring's primary band; BBNG's remix of their 'Seasons (Waiting on You)' initiated the BBNG–Herring creative relationship [2014–present]
• Tyler, the Creator - Early champion of BADBADNOTGOOD; his co-sign of their Odd Future instrumental covers helped the band go viral in 2011

Artists Influenced

• VANO 3000 - Directly built on the BBNG/Herring template with 'Running Away'; the sample's viral success sparked a new wave of lo-fi emotionally driven hip-hop edits

External Links

• Spotify
• Wikipedia