Hoodie Allen

Steven Adam Markowitz, known professionally as Hoodie Allen, is an American rapper born on August 19, 1988. He is regarded as a preeminent artist in frat rap, a hip-hop subgenre centered around coming-of-age hedonism. Throughout his career, Markowitz has remained an independent artist. He is best known for chart-topping independent releases, including his debut extended play All American and his debut studio album People Keep Talking.

Markowitz was raised in a Jewish household in Plainview, Long Island, alongside his brother, Daniel. He began writing lyrics as a child and performed for friends at house parties. He attended the Long Island School for the Gifted and Plainview – Old Bethpage John F. Kennedy High School. At the University of Pennsylvania, he pledged Alpha Epsilon Pi and played sprint football. After graduating in 2010 with a degree in marketing and finance, he worked at Google as an AdWords associate before leaving the company to pursue music full-time.

Hoodie Allen originally formed as a duo consisting of Markowitz on vocals and childhood friend Samuel Obey (Obey City) on production. Their early projects, Bagels & Beats and Making Waves, earned a nomination for MTVU's Best Music on Campus Award in 2009. After Obey City stopped producing in 2010, Markowitz adopted the stage name Hoodie Allen as a solo artist, partnering with producer RJ Ferguson (RJF). He released the Hype Machine chart-topping single "You Are Not a Robot" alongside the mixtapes Pep Rally and Leap Year.

In April 2012, Hoodie Allen released his debut EP, All American, which debuted at number ten on the Billboard 200 and number one on iTunes. He promoted the release through singles such as "No Interruption" and tours across North America and Europe. In 2013, he released the mixtape Crew Cuts and his acoustic EP Americoustic, which topped the iTunes Hip-Hop/Rap chart with guitar work composed and produced by Matt Wentworth.

His debut studio album, People Keep Talking (2014), peaked at number eight on the Billboard 200 and spawned the single "All About It" featuring Ed Sheeran, marking his sole entry on the Billboard Hot 100. He followed this with Happy Camper (2016), which peaked at number 26, and The Hype (2017). In 2019, he released his fourth studio album, Whatever USA, supported by singles including "Never Going Back" and "Come Around."

Following a three-year hiatus, Hoodie Allen released the single "Wouldn't That Be Nice" in 2022, which served as the lead single for his fifth album, bub, released in March 2023. Beyond his music career, Markowitz appeared as a rap teacher in four episodes of the CollegeHumor series Jake and Amir. In 2020, he responded to public allegations on Twitter by stating that he had fired a band member.