Roughly two years ago, Champaign-Urbana was buzzing about the upcoming Girl Talk show, and the Hood Internet were virtual unknowns. At Friday night of Pygmalion 2008, the Hood Internet prepared to play the Canopy Club following excellent sets from Pattern is Movement, Titus Andronicus and Black Mountain. Upon hitting the stage to a packed Void Room, THI proceeded to unleash a dance party the likes of which I have rarely seen, utterly destroying the assembled crowd in the process. People sang, danced and crowd-surfed in such volume that the speakers came loose from their ceiling mounts and the show nearly had to be stopped. In retrospect, I should have known from the exaltation that one of the first bands to play had given nearly six hours before: “Stick around for the Hood Internet, they came up to Iowa City last night and just completely fucking crushed it.” And when Girl Talk rolled through in November, his hyper-energetic stage show and a massive crowd still couldn’t come close to the level of the Hood Internet show a few weeks prior.
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And now (in no particular order), the top five Hood Internet mixes.
Dead Prez x Grizzly Bear – “Two Weeks of Hip Hop”
The group’s most recent big track and probably their biggest hit to this day aside from “I’m a Flirt (Shoreline)”. This is one I’ve never seen live before, but I’m certainly looking forward to it.
Estelle feat. Kanye West x the Ting Tings – “Shut Up, American Boy”
You can check out the rather ironically butchered version by the original artists in the video above, or stream the entire mix here.
Lil’ Kim feat. Missy Elliott x MGMT – “Can You Hear My Kids Now”
This track represents one of my favorite aspects of the mashup — the blend of two completely disparate tracks to create something which is exciting and unexpectedly anthemic.
Kid Sister x Walter Meego – “Pro Nails Forever” (track begins at 0:00)
A sentimental favorite — this track opened the first Hood Internet show I ever saw, back at Pygmalion 2008.
R. Kelly feat. T.I. and T-Pain x Broken Social Scene – “I’m a Flirt (Shoreline)”
This is the grandaddy — the Hood Internet equivalent of the Juicy/Tiny Dancer segement of Girl Talk’s Night Ripper. I’ve never seen a crowd fail to go completely apeshit when this drops.
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The past four times I’ve seen the Hood Internet, they have blown Titus Andronicus and Black Mountain off stage, blown the Wu-Tang Clan off stage, blown every other act at Bonnaroo (on a night that included Passion Pit, Tobacco and Chairlift) off stage, and blown away 200 people in a a cramped Urbana living room. What I’m getting at is that these guys don’t screw around in a live setting — they kick all kinds of ass, so go see them. And by the way, all of their mixes are free on their blog.
The Hood Internet perform tonight (September 8th) at the Canopy Club with FAMICOM, Mickey Karbal and White Rabbit. The show begins at 10 p.m. and admission is free.