Chiddy Bang

by David Jeffries
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 they had shrunk to a 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 The 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.