Through their new partnership with Fords Gin, the veteran Hip-Hop producers have released a new vinyl album called Music To Drink Martinis To. Encased in a gorgeous sleeve, the album’s aesthetic appropriately harkens back to the 1950s when classy crooners such as Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr. ruled the charts. The title, meanwhile, is a nod to Dan The Automator’s 1989 EP Music To Be Murdered By (no, Eminem wasn’t the first) and the 2001 Lovage album, Music to Make Love to Your Old Lady By. 

Under their respective aliases, Nathaniel Merriweather (Dan The Automator) and Chet Rockwell (Prince Paul), Handsome Boy Modeling School deliver seven tracks, including “How Does It Feel?” featuring Justin Warfield and “Green Smoothie” with J-Live. 

“This was started last year,” Prince Paul explains to ROCK THE BELLS. “The world was in need of some handsomeness. It was nice to have two instructors taking what they have learned throughout their world travels throughout the years and put it together in one cohesive course, the Handsome Boy Modeling School 2023.” 

Upon opening the album cover, prospective students are greeted with a photo of Prince Paul and Dan The Automator toasting each other with two martini glasses and a bottle of Ford Gin placed perfectly in between them. True to form, Prince Paul is rocking a beret and black handlebar mustache while Dan opts for a simple, straight ‘stache. As for the music, the collection begins with “Case Study” featuring classically trained jazz pianist/bilingual vocalist Emi Meyer and bleeds into “MKUP2Tour” and the ethereal “How Does it Feel?” with Warfield closing out Side A. 

Side B kicks off with an explosive verse from J-Live on the aforementioned “Green Smoothie,” while Dan The Automator provides the cuts over tongue-in-cheek advertisements for the fictional Handsome Boy Modeling School—“the best 60 dollars you ever spent.” The album closes with two piano-laced instrumentals, “Case Study 2 (Instrumental)” and “How Does It Feel? (Instrumental).” 

Prince Paul teased the project via Instagram on Monday (February 27), writing simply, “A handsome revisit @dan_the_a @fordsgin @st.cine Handsomeboy modeling school 2023 @hbms_official @simonfordsgin.” 

Handsome Boy Modeling School was originally formed in the late 1990s as a way to poke fun at the often superficial, consumerist, materialistic and self-absorbed members of upper class society. The duo’s inaugural album, So…How’s Your Girl?, arrived via Tommy Boy Records in 1999 with features from Del The Funky Homosapien, Beastie Boys’ Mike D, Miho Hatori of Cibo Matto, DJ Shadow, Sean Lennon, Kid Koala, J-Live and El-P, among others. It was loosely inspired by an episode of the old sitcom Get A Life called "The Prettiest Week of My Life,” which also contains the origin of the Handsome Boy Modeling School name. Chris Elliott, who plays the sitcom’s titular character, enrolls to become a male model without much success. The concept, by all intents and purposes, was a hit and the album managed to crack the Billboard 200. 

J-Live, whose relationship with Prince Paul and Dan The Automator stretches back more than 20 years, tells RTB, “There’s a red Handsome Boy batphone in the studio. Whenever it lights up, I will answer the call. I always love working with them.” 

For Handsome Boy Modeling School’s second album, 2004’s White People, the savvy sound architects chose a different batch of colorful contributors, including Faith No More’s Mike Patton, Cat Power, De La Soul, RZA, The Mars Volta, Casual and Jack Johnson. The project spawned the cuts “Breakdown,” “I’ve Been Thinking” and “Rock & Roll (Could Never Hip Hop Like This).” But almost as quickly as it started, it was all over. The group called it quits in 2006 over alleged “business conflicts.” 

In a 2018 interview, as Prince Paul was readying The Redux, he mentioned a new Handsome Boy Modeling School album was imminent. “I talked to Dan and we’re going to work on another record next year,” he said. “We’re doing another Handsome Boy record.”

Not long after, they reunited as Handsome Boy Modeling School for a special concert hosted by Saks Fifth Avenue in New York City. 

“It was a very handsome experience,” Prince Paul said at the time, staying in character. “The thing about when we had time apart, we now get to talk about our exotic travels and random helicopters and planes we both bought, and you know, like secret beauty tips. So, nothing has really changed. It becomes a very handsome experience. It’s like we never left.

“So far, the album is already recorded in our heads. Now, it’s just a matter of physically recording it. We’re trying to determine where we’re going to do it. We’re kind of thinking of going far away to record it, maybe fly to Europe. It has to be a handsome experience. You can’t get more handsome than that. If all goes well—I can’t put a date on it—but if you’ve been waiting the last 13, 14 years, within a 12-month span shouldn’t be too much of a wait. It’s just a matter of the ambience. There is not a time and space for greatness.”

Fans of HBMS will be able to get their hands on the limited-release vinyl as a gift with purchase of a bottle of Fords Gin via Reserve Bar starting at $28.99 by clicking here.