A mash-up crew who came to fame thanks to their genre-jumping mixes, the Hood Internet were formed in Chicago after members Aaron Brink (ABX) and Steve Reidell (STV SLV) both moved to the city with fresh college diplomas. They met in the indie band May or May Not, but after hearing mash-up DJs like Girl Talk and Them Jeans, they headed straight for the laptop and began combining Lil Wayne with Modest Mouse, Swizz Beatz with Deerhoof, and R. Kelly with Jens Lekman. Initial results were uploaded to the Hood Internet blog in 2007 and it didn’t take long for the music to explode. Right-click downloads quickly ticked into the thousands and by the end of the year New York Magazine had featured the band. The Hood Internet Mixtape, Vol. 1 also landed in 2007, while 2008’s mixtape The Hood Internet vs Chicago landed on some media year-end Top Ten lists, including Current TV’s. For music not released in any traditional format, it was a milestone, as it was in 2009 when the Ting Tings performed their song “Shut Up and Let Me Go” live with a bit of Estelle’s “American Boy” in the middle, a nod to the Hood Internet’s mash-up mix of the songs. In 2010 the group got some cool corporate sponsorship when the New York City streetwear brand Mishka sponsored their Trillwave mixtape. In 2012, the Hood Internet moved beyond the mash-up with their debut studio album, Feat. Released by the Decon label, Feat featured a wide range of guests including Black Moth Super Rainbow’s Tobacco, AC Newman, and Kid Static.

Fresh off the success of last year’s Social Studies LP—which earned the approval of everyone from NPR to The New York Times to The Guardian, who compared the breakout release to early Madonna, the indie disco of Prelude Records and “CSS doing an impression of Dr. Buzzard’s Original Savannah Band”—Body Language have returned with a new album; Grammar, due out through OM’s Lavish Habits imprint on September 10th. Grammar streamlines the Brooklyn quartet’s restless pop experiments with a future-shocked blend of soul and R&B. (read more here)

Skinny Friedman makes and plays jams about butts, feelings, drugs and fighting.
 
His live sets and mixtapes (such as the popular CHOBANI AND ADDERALL series) run the gamut from twerk sessions to cathartic lovestep (with French Montana robbing someone in between). His production style, heard most recently on TRAP RAVE 3.0 (Sweat Music, July 2013) splits the difference between New Orleans bounce, Ying Yang Twinz intimate club music, and Jersey Club.
 
After cutting his teeth in the St. Louis hip-hop scene in college, Skinny linked up with DJ Apt One to launch the anything-goes Philadelphyinz party in Philadelphia. He also held down the bimonthly Wednesday night Players Club party with Sammy Bananas (Fools Gold/Telephoned) at Pianos in New York City, which the Village Voice dubbed “best off-night party”. Currently, Skinny maintains a monthly residency at Silk City in Philadelphia with DJ Apt One and DJ Dav.
 
Skinny travels frequently, picking up gigs in over 30 cities across the country, as well as in Canada and Europe. Supporters of his tracks include Diplo, Sinden, Starkey, Nick Catchdubs, Dave Nada and Dillon Francis, among others. He has appeared on Sway in the Morning on Shade45, his tracks have been featured on SiriusXM’s BPM channel. He has appeared in Vice, Spin, Philadelphia Weekly and The Pittsburgh CityPaper, as well as on blogs like Discobelle and Mostly Junk Food.