RCRD LBL

The Hood Internet

MusicBlog

Location: Chicago, IL

Website: http://www.thehoodinternet.com/

Bio: In an age of immediacy, The Hood Internet gives the people what theywant on a daily basis—even if they don't know they want it yet.Marauding ... (more) the pop, rap and R&B landscapes like laptop-armedalchemists, DJs STV SLV and ABX (aka Steve Reidell and Aaron Brink)drop the unlikeliest elements into their pot and make gold—from DirtySouth rap to Canadian indie rock to "French Touch" electro to prettymuch whatever else you got.

Longtime collaborators and occasional rivals, STV SLV and ABX first "met" on the internet, downloading one another's songs, and later shared bills in their respective bands, taking occasional shots at each other on wax before joining several other friends to start Chicago art-pop band May or May Not. The pair staked out www.thehoodinternet.com in the spring of 2007 and started cooking up full song mash-ups at a breakneck pace, complete with Photoshopped glossies for each title—witness Miami coke-rap kingpin Rick Ross posted up amongst Brazilian electro-rockers CSS, Flo Rida kicking it with the Hot Chip squad, or Ghostface Killah sneering between the guys from Spoon. When the rest of the internet heard what was going on in the hood, the phone got to ringing, and in the past year The Hood Internet tore the roof off with DJ sets at CMJ and South by Southwest between hometown shows with Diplo, Blaqstarr, The Cool Kids and The Go! Team.

With the world wide web on lock—at a million-plus downloads, they've already gone "internet platinum"—The Hood Internet has racked up (as of press time) 140 original mash-up tracks, three mixtapes, some straight-up remixes for bands like Blitzen Trapper and El Perro Del Mar, and a 10-track collaboration with Bay Area rappers/Vans aficionados The Pack. Currently in the works is The Hood Internet vs. Chicago mixtape, which pits a slew of Chicago rappers against the city's finest bands—and the pied piper of R&B himself, R Kelly. (less)