| Hoodie Allen | |
|---|---|
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Steven Markowitz |
| Born | August 19, 1988 New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Origin | Old Bethpage, New York, U.S. |
| Genres | Experimental hip hop, pop rap, hipster-hop |
| Years active | 2009–present |
| Associated acts | Clipse, Chiddy Bang, Marina & The Diamonds, Jamie xx, Obey City, RJF, Ray William Johnson, Two Door Cinema Club, Yourfavoritemartian |
| Website | hoodieallen.com |
Steven Markowitz (born August 19, 1988), better known by his stage name Hoodie Allen, is an unsigned American hip-hop artist and rapper.
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Hoodie was born in New York City, New York, and raised in a Jewish household on Long Island.[1] He started writing lyrics as a child, and would perform raps for his friends at house parties.[2][3] Growing up, his nickname was "Hoodie."[4] He wanted a rapper name that "would stick in peoples’ minds and be a little bit funny and representative of who I am," so he settled on "Hoodie Allen."[4]
He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 2010, where he studied finance and marketing and was a brother in the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity.[3][5] While there, he met his producer, RJF.[6][7] After graduating, he worked at Google as an AdWords associate in their START (Standardized AdWords Reseller Training) program.[8] He would leave at 7 AM for a bus ride to the Google offices in Mountain View, work a full day at Google, return at 6 PM, and then write songs, answer fan emails, and schedule concerts until 2 or 3 AM.[3] Reflecting on this, Hoodie said: "I was moving so fast, and even while I was at Google there was so much going on that I felt like I was doing two full-time jobs."[8] His dream and passion was music, so when he got opportunities to do live shows, he decided to leave Google.[8]
Hoodie's first two album releases were "Bagels & Beats" and "Making Waves," which garnered him an MTVU Best Music on Campus Award in 2009.[9] In June 2010, he released "You Are Not a Robot," which hit #1 on Hype Machine, an aggregator that collects the most-blogged about music in the world.[3] After seeing the response, he spent the summer working, and finished his mixtape Pep Rally by September.[6] The album was produced by RJF, and sampled songs from Death Cab for Cutie, Flight Facilities, and Two Door Cinema Club. He picked the name “Pep Rally” because he said that it “captured the energy of the record. Something new and exciting.”[10] When asked about the writing process, Hoodie said: “Throughout Pep Rally, the ideas for samples were very collaborative. We would camp out in [RJF]’s basement for a weekend and not leave till we had 3 songs done—that was the mentality.”[6] The mixtape was downloaded over 200,000 times.[3] He self-financed a video for “You Are Not A Robot,” which has over 2 million views.[11][12]
In July 2011, Hoodie released his third mixtape, Leap Year, which was also produced by friend and producer RJF. It reached 250,000 SoundCloud plays in its first week of release.[13] On the title for his mixtape, Hoodie explains: "It basically just talks to the leap of faith I took this year leaving everything else behind to be an artist."[14] In support of the album, Hoodie headlined a 15 city tour across North America, including stops in San Francisco, New York City, and Montreal.[15] Previously, he had toured with The Cataracs, Das Racist, Chiddy Bang, and RJD2.[16][17]
He also featured in College Humour's Jake and Amir series as the character Amir Blumenfeld's rap teacher.
In July 2011, he cracked the Top 10 of Billboard’s Uncharted Territory.[18] For the week of August 5th 2011, Hoodie was #2 on Billboard’s Uncharted Territory, with Billboard noting that his "growing popularity is undeniable."[13]