Centerstage - Chicago's Original City Guide

Articles Sections >> Arts + Words Bars + Clubs Dating Festivals Fitness Food Lifestyle Music Theater Travel + Tourism Who's Who > View All Follow Friday Interviews

This Chicago duo is re-animating pop songs and the mash-up scene itself.

Tuesday Feb 03, 2009.     By Dan Morgridge

Music Feed

Starting in March of 2007, DJ STV SLV and ABX started posting mash-ups on their Web site with little more than a link to the song and a humorous Photoshop of the imagined collaboration (like Rihanna leaning up against the robots of Daft Punk, or rapper Mike Jones drawn into the animated cover of French band Air's first album). With some attention from larger music blogs like Gorilla Vs. Bear and Stereogum, the duo - known as The Hood Internet - started getting attention for its work.

While most other mash-ups had long been written off as novelty that wasn't so novel anymore, The Hood Internet won fans for their focus on making songs to actually use on a dance floor, instead of just making aural puns. Combined with their consistent output and several mixtapes, the group built a steady following in Chicago clubs and began to tour lightly as well. In 2008, the guys released their third mixtape, "The Hood Internet Vs. Chicago," featuring fifty different hometown artists including, R. Kelly, Office and even the '85 Bears (okay, so maybe they allow for some novelty).

The Hood Internet will be joining Kanye West's DJ A-Trak with Life During Wartime mastermind Bald Eagle for A-Trak's "Infinity + 1" tour on Friday, February 13 at Smartbar. In preparation, we picked at DJ STV's brain about everything Chicago.

Tell us about the Infinity+1 Tour.
I think that's the title of A-Trak's new album. It's got nothing to do with The Hood or Bald Eagle. But on a related note, http://www.jamphat.com/rap/jamphat_files/image025.jpg

What's your favorite hidden gem in Chicago?
Panes Bread Cafe.

Is there a formula for how you choose your mash-ups?
Not really - sometimes it's thought out beforehand, sometimes it's trial and error, sometimes it's a total accident.

Is there any song or artist you would never touch for a mash-up?
I dunno if there's a list, but I do know that we came across some split tracks for some of the songs off Nirvana's In Utero, and my thought was to leave those alone.

Will the Hood Internet ever start to create non-mash-up music, or will you stick with this for the foreseeable future?
Funny you should mention that, because we're just beginning to work on a non-mashup album of sorts. More on that soon.

What's your best piece of Chicago-related advice?
Eat at Hot Doug's!