The Hood Internet

Putting the CD into the player of our rented van, I didn’t really expect much, let know what to expect. At that point, the CD I’d found in my “goodie” bag was just another free CD at South by Southwest (a music festival in Austin, TX). What kind of name for a band was “The Hood Internet” anyway? I pressed play and my six friends and I were stunned to hear our two favorite music genres blasting out of the speakers: indie rock and hip-hop, together as one. I’d heard mash-ups before, but nothing like this.

The Hood Internet is a duo of Chicago based DJ’s Aaron Brink (ABX) and Steve Reidell (STV SLV) who combine hip-hop, both mainstream and underground with indie rock. Uniting names like Lil Kim with MGMT, or R. Kelly with groups like Broken Social Scene, Architecture in Helsinki, Jens Lekman, or Rogue Wave (R. Kelly is an apparent fave) the Hood Internet thinks outside of the box.

I got home and downloaded all of the Hood Internet albums I could find online. For some songs, it was love at first sound-byte. I felt electric and elated hearing the gritty hip-hop mixed with fast and upbeat indie pop. I wanted to find all of myfriends who appreciated both genres independently and shout “Look what I found! Isn’t this too fucking cool?!”

There were other songs that I didn’t get right away; things were two slow, it didn’t sound right to my ears. It was upsetting because I wanted to like everything they came up with. Eventually I gave up, picked my favorites and gave up on the rest of the stuff that was too different and didn’t make sense. But that was just it. Over time, random chance, like the inability to skip songs on my iPod or iTunes, led me to listen to their mix-tapes to their entirety. That’s when I started to get it. There’s a certain sense of humor involved when you mix two totally different sounds.

The Hood Internet has produced three full length “mix-tapes,” which are downloadable on their website blog for free. Free music, not albums but the much cooler “mix-tape,” blogging… the whole idea behind the Hood Internet is a Millennial one. We were tired of being forced to pick between indie pop and hip-hop so DJ’s found a way for us to stop wasting time and just listen to them both at the same time!

The Hood Internet represents our generation to a tee. It’s the fluffy “indie” rock and pop that Millennials of any age have come to love, as well as the hip-hop (mainstream and underground) that we can’t help but find ourselves nodding our heads to, united by the technology taken to create the mash-ups, as well as the technology used to distribute, AKA the free music on the blogs.

Tracks to check out would be “Rock Yo Sea Legs,” (Crime Mob v. the Shins); “Fire It Up, Firemouse,” (Lil Wayne v. Modest Mouse); “I’m a Flirt (Shoreline),” (R. Kelly v. Broken Social Scene); “The Next Collarbone,” (Dr. Dre and Snoop dogg v. Fujiya & Miyagi); and “Sentimental Hearts” (Ludacris v. She & Him.)