Hoodie Allen
Rapper Hoodie Allen is ready for Top 40 radio. The 26-year-old Long Island native has been accruing a massive underground Internet following since his college years, but on his official debut album People Keep Talking, he sounds readier than ever to break into the mainstream.
Born Steven Markowitz, Allen has slowly built his fanbase from the ground up. With each new mixtape or EP release, Allen has improved his rap’s production value and sharpened his lyrical focus, all while increasing his Twitter following and inching closer to the limelight.
The sounds necessary for pop radio are all there on People Keep Talking. Allen’s brand of music is generally weightless and bouncy, with catchier-than-hell hooks and lyrics that largely preoccupy themselves with women and relationships and some YOLO-inspired fun. He injects his beats with a heavy dose of pop, and his melodic raps never degrade to an out-and-out monotone.
On singles “Show Me What You’re Made Of” and “Act My Age,” Allen revels in this radio-inspired party culture. The former is a funky synth-driven romp of chest-puffing and womanizing, complete with a beat-box breakdown. The latter finds Allen embodying a modern-day Peter Pan, rejecting responsibility in favor of drinking and partying.
Allen’s sights are set on being the life of the party, evidenced in the echoing anthem “Won’t Mind.” He wants to create “something for the people,” he says: “Some junior prom s—, some Sadie Hawkins s—, some drunk-at-your-cousin’s-wedding s—.”
Allen’s preoccupation with achieving stardom becomes a constant undertone throughout the album’s 14 songs. Every song indulges in celebrity namedropping, with “Movie” referencing by name a list of nearly 20 films and actors, all layered around warbling synths and a guitar part that sounds like Californian beaches and Hollywood.
Not every song is quite so frothy, however. The mellow “Overtime” is Allen’s tribute to his long hours spent on the computer making music to earn a living, sometimes at the expense of his love life. It’s not the rags-to-riches story painted in Drake’s “Started From The Bottom” — Allen actually left a cushy job at Google to pursue his dreams of making music — but it is the success story of a rapper who built himself up.
Allen’s upward acceleration is potent on People Keep Talking, the rapper’s strongest campaign for mainstream success to date. His jaunty pop-rap style was already fit for partying, but, with this latest album, he seems poised to break away from his underground status. It won’t be long before we hear his infectiously catchy hooks on the radio.
