Chiddy Bang

All Music Guide:

Philadelphia’s clever alt-hip-hop duo Chiddy Bang burst on the scene in early 2010 with their MGMT-sampling track “The Opposite of Adults.” They formed in 2009 as a four-piece electronic-meets-hip-hop group, but by the end of the year their lineup had been reduced to the duo of rapper Chidera “Proto” Anamege and Xaphoon Jones (aka Noah) on production. After building their rep on the Internet by posting tracks like the Tom Waits-sampling “Ice Cream Man,” the band released its Swelly Express mixtape in October of 2009. Proto’s witty rhymes plus the sampling of indie heroes like Radiohead and Belle & Sebastian became popular talking points, but it was their looping of the MGMT track “Kids” that brought them the most attention, and a massive U.K. hit when “The Opposite of Adults” was released as a single in February 2010. That same month, the Gorillaz single “Stylo,” featuring Mos Def and Bobby Womack, appeared with Chiddy Bang handling the remix. After a summer tour with Donnis and Bad Rabbits, the group released its The Preview EP in October on the Virgin label.

Wikipedia:

Chiddy Bang is an alternative hip hop duo from Philadelphia. The group consists of Chidera "Chiddy" Anamege and Noah "Xaphoon Jones" Beresin. The duo was introduced through former band member Zachary Sewall in late 2008 during their freshman year at Drexel University, in Noah's hometown of Philadelphia, PA. Their sound is based on the fusion of hip hop and alternative using samples from artists such as Ellie Goulding, Radiohead, Sufjan Stevens, Passion Pit, MGMT, and Yelle.

Career

In late February 2009, the popular music blog Pretty Much Amazing showcased five songs by Chiddy Bang that were on their Myspace account. Because of this, the group gained some following in the underground among music blogs and local colleges playing a notably packed show at Swarthmore College in April 2009. Pretty Much Amazing continued to occasionally release new Chiddy Bang songs, and in November 2009, debuted the group's first free mixtape entitled "The Swelly Express." During Thursday night’s first-ever MTV O Music Awards, Chidera “Chiddy” Anamege of Chiddy Bang broke the Guinness World Record for Longest Freestyle Rap as well as the Longest Marathon Rapping Record. Chiddy stole the throne from M-Eighty, who originally broke the record in 2009 by rapping for nine hours, 15 minutes and 15 seconds, by freestyling for nine hours, 18 minutes, and 22 seconds. He also beat out D.O. (a.k.a. Duane Gibson, Canada) for Longest Marathon Rapping session. D.O. rapped for eight hours and 45 minutes. They also had an appearance in the hit video game NBA 2K12 with their song "Here We Go"

The Swelly Express

The Swelly Express was the debut mixtape from hip-hop duo Chiddy Bang and Andrew Chidwick. The mixtape quickly gained a music following from its online hit "Opposite of Adults" (which features a sample from MGMT's song "Kids"). The Swelly Express tells the story of Chiddy Bang's rise in the music business and their experiences with record labels, it was first released and promoted through the music blog Pretty Much Amazing. The mixtape was praised by fans for the production style, including samples from Passion Pit (Truth), Tinie Tempah and Pogo (Expialidocious). It also contains a guest appearance from Black Thought of The Roots. The songs "Truth", "Opposite of Adults", "Fresh Like Us", "All Things Go" (featuring a sample from Sufjan Steven's "Chicago"), and "Dream Chasin'" have been re-released for download via iTunes since the release of the mixtape .

Air Swell

On 8 April 2010, Chiddy Bang followed up The Swelly Express with the mini-mixtape Air Swell. As the hip-hop duo had a strong following in the UK, many popular UK artists were featured on the mixtape including La Roux, Kate Nash, Ellie Goulding, Tinie Tempah and Gorillaz.

Sign to EMI/Parlophone

The UK-based EMI subsidiary Parlophone had heard about the group through their online following. According to president Miles Leonard, they had been listening to the song "Opposite of Adults" in the office all summer when A&R manager Ollie Slaney said: “As we keep on listening to this maybe we should do something with it.” The duo signed to Parlaphone/EMI with plans to release a full-length album in 2011.

Sign to NUE Agency

Chiddy Bang signed exclusively with Jesse Kirshbaum of NUE Agency 29 April 2010 for booking representation. That same year the band headlined their first tour, The Swelly Life Tour featuring Donnis and XV(rapper). The duo also opened up for Tinie Tempah on his UK Disc-overy tour. Chiddy Bang has toured extensively throughout colleges nationwide and hit numerous festivals such as Lollapolooza, Austin City Limits, Bamboozle, Bonnaroo, Wireless Festival, Glastonbury and Electric Forest Festival.

Breakfast (2012)

Chiddy Bang initially planned a late summer release for their debut studio album Breakfast in 2011. This was later changed to November 2011 and again to the following year in February of 2012 when they opted to release a single from the album, "Ray Charles," instead. The album was released ahead of schedule on February 22nd, 2012 at midnight via iTunes and is available in the Google Play Music Store, iTunes, and Walmart. The first single "Mind Your Manners" premiered on June 29, 2011 and features samples from Swedish pop band Icona Pop. The single is also featured in the soundtrack for the EA Sports video game Madden NFL 12. It was also included on Now That's What I Call Music! 39, a collection of popular music with periodic releases. On February 8, Chiddy Bang released a snippet of the song "Breakfast" as a teaser for the album. As of March 2012, Breakfast has sold 49,000 copies in the United States. They will be releasing a mixtape titled "Grab a Plate" as promotion for their upcoming album.