Chiddy Bang

“It all started in Philadelphia,” Chiddy Anamege says whimsically, over a vodka cranberry in an East London dive bar. Xaphoon Jones [Noah Beresin] is next to him as he recollects exactly how their hip hop outfit – Chiddy Bang – first found life. “We went to the same uni. I was a business major who liked to rap and I used to think, ‘there’s a studio on campus, if I can find a kid who has access to it, I can get in.’” Jones proved to be that golden ticket; he too was going to Drexel University, a music major with a passion for creating sounds, and thanks to a mutual friend who noted that Xaphoon had an ability to craft beats and that Chiddy had a natural talent to rap, the two got together. The boys set to work and started immediately, releasing their music for free on the internet. With the MGMT sampling “Opposite Of Adults” (which appeared online over two years ago and clocked up just shy of seventeen million hits on YouTube) the boys were a hit, culminating in a deal with the legendary Parlophone Records – home to musical giants such as Coldplay, Gorillas and The Beatles.
“They wanted to put “Opposite of Adults”, “Truth” (which samples Passion Pit’s “Better Things”) and a couple of other songs in our debut album which we actually spent a lot of time fighting over,” reveals Xaphoon. “If we were going to do an album, we were going to do it properly in a studio and with instruments and maybe some less obvious samples. We didn’t want to jumble popular tracks that already existed in with our own material – so that’s why it’s taken us so long.” The resulting album reflects the focused attitude of Xaphoon (“I’m just the nerd one,” he says when asked who works harder. “There’s no place I’d rather be than inside the studio.”) who creates pulsating beats and electronic sounds for Chiddy to spit honest, inspired, occasionally message-filled and often tongue-in-cheek style lyrics over (he advises “Got To Wear A Glove/If We’re Going To Make Love” on the track, “Baby Roulette”). For evidence of how easily lyrics come to the rapper, just ask him about his experience of bagging a nine hour, 18 minute and 22 second world record for the longest freestyle rap. “I drank a lot of Red Bull,” he jokes, “but at the end of it I remember my mouth was burning.” Does he remember any of what he actually rapped about? “It’s funny,” he confesses, “I cannot.” Could he do a quick freestyle for us now?
“That’s not fair, man,” Xaphoon objects. “You can’t be like ‘Go!’ – you need to give a topic. You might have to do some beat boxing or some rapping. You’ve got to compliment him, or buy him a drink first, or something!” “Xaph is a secret freestyle guru,” Chiddy reveals with a knowing nod, “he can spit secretly.” And it seems it just takes a bit of gentle flattery for Xaphoon to break into an unexpected freestyle. “I’m in the UK and I kick it like soccer,” he begins, “Chiddy on my left drinkin’ cranberry vodka/sippin’ on some tea with my main man Steve/I mean Duncan, it’s ok, we ain’t talkin’/I got a whole bunch of homes in the … plunken?” An impressive effort! And just nine hours 17 minutes and 56 seconds off a record.

[Originally published in Rollacoaster magazine, issue 4, February 2012. Photography by David Sessions.]