1 – 7 of 7 Boom Bap & Blues ‎ Jared Evan Still Blue ‎ Jared Evan The Art Form Of Whatever ‎ Jared Evan In Love With You ‎ Jared Evan The 4th Chapter ‎ Jared Evan Pieces ‎ Jared Evan State I'm In ‎ 1 – 7As you prepare to go to college, old folks who’ve done their four years at school will tell you the same thing. “You’re going to find out about people, places, and things you didn’t even know existed.” And within even my first few days of freshman year, I quickly noticed that the music blasting out of the speakers at the crowded, sweaty orientation week parties was like nothing I’d ever heard before. Gone were “In da Club,” “Can’t Tell Me Nothing,” and “The Motto,” the mainstream hip-hop bangers that had soundtracked my high school experience, and in their place was music that sounded like the people from Kidz Bop had decided to rap about college. The kids bumping this music thought of themselves as hip-hop fans.

But their favorite artists weren’t Jay Z, Biggie, OutKast, or anyone I’d ever heard of from my life-long love of hip-hop growing up in New York City. Their favorites were dudes with names like Mike Stud or Hoodie Allen and songs like "Just Sayin’." I had stumbled upon an entirely new music culture, and I hated it. What I discovered was frat rap. More than just being a type of music, it’s an entire culture that thrives within the college community of kids who like to get super fucked up and hear music about other kids who like to get super fucked up. The lyrics are about parties, women, and the pros and cons of those two things in excess. The rhyme style is usually fairly basic, with a sing-songy cadence. The artists and their devoted fans, while not exclusively, are more often than not young, suburban white dudes with some level of college education. Are all these aspects requirements? No, but they are the major traits of the genre. While those qualities help explain frat rap, there are two other major facts that can shine more light on the genre itself.

The first is that, although it is technically rap, it exists in an entirely different universe. Rarely, if ever, would any of the artists receive coverage from the major rap blogs, radio, or magazines. multifandom hoodieAnd while you may have never heard of Hoodie Allen, the rapper can sell out the same venues J. Cole does. scarlet spider ben reilly hoodie for saleOn top of that, the lexicon is different, the beats aren’t the same, and importantly, the white collegians who love these artists and flock to their shows think of themselves as hip-hop fans, but rarely step outside of this self-confined world. 5060 hoodiesAlmost every artist on this list rejects the title and culture of frat rap, despite the fact that many of their shared fans identify with it and help pay their bills.hoodie allen boise

While the vast majority of frat rap has not and will never appeal to the hip-hop fans who frequent this website, it is an undeniable phenomenon that deserves attention because of its sheer size. botany hoodiesFor that reason, Complex has decided to break down the genre by listing the 10 artists who help define it.hemp t-shirts wholesale in los angeles To make it even clearer, we’ve split the artists into five categories. run dmc hoodie amazonFirst up are the Survivors, the artists who managed to beat their initial classification as frat rappers to gain respected status in the hip-hop world. Next are the Veterans, rappers who’ve excelled in this genre their whole career. Then come the Stereotypes, the broey-bros who are disproportionately responsible for frat rap’s bad reputation.

We also have the Guilty Pleasures, the artists who exist in the frat rap universe who we may never admit to liking but are actually kinda likable. And finally, the Misnomers, artists who unfairly are thought of as frat rappers but don’t deserve the title. We hope this trip into graphic tank tops and vapid party raps is both enjoyable and informative. Written by Max Goldberg (@goopygold)On paper, Steven Markowitz was the typical Penn student. The 2010 Wharton graduate concentrated in finance, landed himself a job at Google and learned how to work hard, play hard.But today, Markowitz — more commonly known as Hoodie Allen — is anything but typical.Besides being a brother of Alpha Epsilon Pi and a member of the sprint football team, Allen spent most of his college years working on a start-up — his music career. He often played shows at fraternity parties and Student Planning and Events Committee concerts, and gained instant fame on campus upon releasing the single, “UPenn Girls” in 2009.After a slew of critically acclaimed EPs, Allen today is releasing his first full-length album, “People Keep Talking.”

With only pre-orders, it is currently at number four on iTunes’ hip hop album charts and includes a collaboration with Ed Sheeran. Despite his notoriety at Penn, Allen entered the corporate world post-graduation. Less than a year after starting at Google, however, four of Allen's performances on Long Island, where he grew up, completely sold out. Riding the coattails of that success, he left the tech giant’s coveted campus to pursue music full time.“There were a ton of opportunities to pursue music in a real way and it allowed a leap of faith to see what it would be like,” Allen said. “It was really a timely thing, things were continuing to grow and grow.”Allen's degree, though, did not contribute to his decision to jump into the music industry. In 2008, when Allen was a junior at Penn, 34th Street Magazine asked him how his degree would help him in the rap world. Zero percent, not at all," he said.In March 2012, Allen released his first EP, “All American,” which debuted at number one on iTunes.

The “Crew Cuts” mixtape followed in February 2013, which included collaborations with Chiddy Bang, Shwayze and Chance The Rapper. The last EP before “People Keep Talking” was “Americoustic,” an acoustic set that reached number one on iTunes’ hip-hop album charts.When 2010 College graduate Joseph Portelli picked out his freshman year roommate on MySpace, he had no idea he would be sharing a room in Hill College House with someone who would later play Madison Square Garden.“I can still picture Steve’s first mixtape cover, it was a teacher writing on the blackboard with a chalky font,” Portelli said. “It’s amazing because he’s come a really long way from the artwork on the MySpace page and the rap that he posted.”Portelli and Allen roomed together for three out of four years at Penn and joined sprint football together. He recalled one of his favorite college memories as introducing Allen to his friends from home and later hitting fraternity parties.“I found Steve to be a bright, witty, sarcastic, interesting guy who was easy to get along with and we had a lot of fun together,” he added.“

He used to stay up until 4 a.m. just responding to people on MySpace,” 2010 College graduate and friend Brett Copell said. “He literally responds to every single fan he has.”While Portelli and other friends pressured Allen to go out during senior week, he spent most of his free time working on what would become his breakout single, “You Are Not A Robot.” He released the track in June 2010, which helped his subsequent mixtape earn over 200,000 downloads.Allen said that he drops by campus any time he is performing in Philadelphia. "I f---ing love Blarneys. #Classic," he tweeted after stopping into the bar on 39th and Sansom streets on Sept. 30, 2012, after performing at the Trocadero Theatre earlier that night. 34th Street reported that he also "went home with a [Chi Omega] girl and ended up spending some time at the XO house after a few drinks" that night.On Nov. 29, Allen will return to Philadelphia again, performing at the Liacouras Center as part of his "Hang with Hoodie" tour. 

“I love to come hang out at Penn and creep around and force my band members to try Bui’s and Allegro’s,” he said.Allen has already dropped three singles off “People Keep Talking.” The first, “Show Me What You’re Made Of,” debuted in May, followed by “Movie” in August and “Dumb for You” in September. Of the unreleased tracks, the biggest predicted hit is “All About It,” a song born out of a collaboration with and featuring Ed Sheeran.“[The album] really represents what it means for me personally, being in a society where you can get instant feedback,” Allen said. “There’s so much positive and there’s so much negative and clutter and noise — don’t lose your own opinion among the others around you.”Nickelback and Creed, Allen joked, was some of the noise he wanted to listen to.  Later, he credited OutKast, Amy Winehouse, Childish Gambino and other soul music as his real influences. “I really like any music that feels fresh and energetic,” he added.