Chidera Anamege, now known by his stage name Chiddy Bang, is an American rapper from

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

. Prior to its breakup, Chiddy Bang was an American hip hop duo consisting of Anamege, under the stage name Chiddy, and Noah Beresin, under the stage name Xaphoon Jones. The duo was introduced by former band member Zachary Sewall in late 2008 while the two were studying at

Drexel University Drexel University is a private research university with its main campus in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Drexel's undergraduate school was founded in 1891 by Anthony J. Drexel, a financier and philanthropist. Founded as Drexel Institute of Ar ...

, in Beresin's hometown of

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

. Anamege's sound is based on the fusion of hip hop and alternative using samples from artists such as

Ellie Goulding Elena Jane Goulding ( ; born 30 December 1986) is an English singer and songwriter. Her career began when she met record producers Starsmith and Frankmusik, and she was later spotted by Jamie Lillywhite, who became her manager and A&R. After ...

, Radiohead,

Sufjan Stevens Sufjan Stevens ( ; born July 1, 1975) is an American singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. He has released nine solo studio albums and multiple collaborative albums with other artists. Stevens has received Grammy and Academy Award nomi ...

, Passion Pit, MGMT, Matt and Kim and Yelle. In 2013, Beresin left the group to focus on producing, and Anamege became a solo artist, with Beresin playing the role as frequent collaborator.

History

2009: Formation and breakthrough

In late February 2009, the popular music blog Pretty Much Amazing showcased five songs by the duo that were on their Myspace account. Shortly after, the group gained some following in the underground among music blogs and local colleges playing a notably packed show at

Swarthmore College Swarthmore College ( , ) is a private liberal arts college in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1864, with its first classes held in 1869, Swarthmore is one of the earliest coeducational colleges in the United States. It was established as ...

and Middlebury College in April 2009. Pretty Much Amazing continued to occasionally release new songs from the duo and in November 2009 debuted the group's first free mixtape entitled ''The Swelly Express''. On April 28, 2011 during the first-ever MTV O Music Awards, Anamege broke the Guinness World Record for Longest Freestyle Rap and Longest Marathon Rapping Record by freestyling for 9 hours, 18 minutes, and 22 seconds, stealing the throne from rapper M-Eighty, who originally broke the record in 2009 by rapping for 9 hours, 15 minutes and 15 seconds. Anamege had also beat Canadian rapper D.O. for Longest Marathon Rapping session, the previous record being for 8 hours and 45 minutes. The duo have had appearances in several video games, such as in the sports game '' NBA 2K12'' with their song "Here We Go"from their EP '' The Preview'', featuring rapper Q-Tip of hip hop group

A Tribe Called Quest A Tribe Called Quest was an American hip hop group formed in Queens, New York City, in 1985,Q-Tip

, as well as in ''

Madden NFL 12 ''Madden NFL 12'' is an American football video game based on the National Football League published by EA Sports and developed by EA Tiburon. It was released on August 30, 2011 in North America and Asia, September 1, 2011 in Australia, and Septemb ...

'' with their song "Mind Your Manners" featuring Swedish electropop duo Icona Pop. Their single " Opposite of Adults" was included in the racing game '' Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit,'' in addition to being chosen as the goal song for

Team North America The term Team North America is used in a number of sports to designate a unified team of North American countries in several sports competitions and sports tournaments. Competitions featuring a North American team :''Note that in the above spo ...

in the

2016 World Cup of Hockey The 2016 World Cup of Hockey (abbreviated WCH2016) was an international ice hockey tournament. It was the third installment of the National Hockey League (NHL)-sanctioned competition, 12 years after the second World Cup of Hockey in 2004. It was ...

as well. The singles "Happening" and "Shine" were included on the soundtracks to the movies ''Sex Tape'' and ''Sisters'' respectively.

2009–2010: ''The Swelly Express'' and ''Air Swell''

'' The Swelly Express'' was the debut mixtape from the duo. The mixtape quickly gained a music following from its online hit " Opposite of Adults" (which includes a sample from MGMT's song "

Kids Kid, Kids, KIDS, and K.I.D.S. may refer to: Common meanings * Colloquial term for a child or other young person ** Also for a parent's offspring regardless of age * Engage in joking * Young goats * The goat meat of young goats * Kidskin ...

"). ''The Swelly Express'' tells the story of the duo's rise in the music business and their experiences with record labels, it was first released and promoted through the music blog Pretty Much Amazing. The mixtape was praised by fans for the production style, including samples from Passion Pit ("Truth"),

Tinie Tempah Patrick Chukwuemeka Okogwu (born 7 November 1988), better known by his stage name Tinie Tempah, is a British rapper. He has been signed to Parlophone Records since 2009, a subsidiary of Warner Music Group. He created his own entertainment compa ...

and Pogo ("Expialidocious"). It also contains a guest appearance from

Black Thought Tariq Luqmaan Trotter (born October 3, 1973), better known as Black Thought, is an American rapper, actor and the lead MC of the Philadelphia-based hip hop group the Roots, which he co-founded with drummer Questlove (Ahmir Thompson). Regarded ...

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. The songs "Opposite of Adults", "Truth", "Fresh Like Us", "All Things Go" (including a sample from Sufjan Steven's "Chicago"), and "Dream Chasin'" have been re-released for download via the

iTunes Store The iTunes Store is a digital media store operated by Apple Inc. It opened on April 28, 2003, as a result of Steve Jobs' push to open a digital marketplace for music. As of April 2020, iTunes offered 60 million songs, 2.2 million apps, 25,00 ...

since the release of the mixtape. On April 8, 2010, the duo followed up ''The Swelly Express'' with the mini-mixtape ''Air Swell''. As the duo had a strong following in the UK, many popular UK artists were featured on the mixtape, including

La Roux La Roux ( ) is an English synthpop act formed in 2008 by singer Elly Jackson and record producer Ben Langmaid. The act's debut album '' La Roux'' (2009) was a critical and commercial success, winning a Grammy Award and producing hit singles su ...

, Kate Nash,

and

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. The UK-based EMI subsidiary

Parlophone Parlophone Records Limited (also known as Parlophone Records and Parlophone) is a German–British record label founded in Germany in 1896 by the Carl Lindström Company as Parlophon. The British branch of the label was founded on 8 August 19 ...

had heard about the group through their online following. According to president Miles Leonard, they had been listening to the song "Opposite of Adults" in the office all summer when A&R manager Ollie Slaney said: "As we keep on listening to this maybe we should do something with it." The duo signed to Parlophone/EMI with plans to release a full-length album in 2011. Chiddy Bang @ RPI

That same year the band headlined their first tour, ''The Swelly Life Tour'' featuring

Donnis Ladonnis Decurtis Crump (born June 2, 1984), better known by the stage name Donnis, is an American rapper based in Atlanta, Georgia. He released his debut mixtape, ''Diary of an ATL Brave'', in 2009, and signed to Atlantic Records in 2010. ...

and XV. The duo also opened up for Tinie Tempah on his UK ''Disc-Overy'' tour. Chiddy Bang have toured extensively throughout colleges nationwide and hit numerous festivals such as Lollapolooza, Austin City Limits, Bamboozle, Bonnaroo, Wireless Festival, Glastonbury and Electric Forest Festival.

2011–2012: ''Peanut Butter and Swelly'' and ''Breakfast''

Peanut Butter and Swelly ''Peanut Butter and Swelly'' is a mixtape by the Philadelphia hip hop music duo Chiddy Bang. It was released in May 2011 as a prequel to their debut album ''Breakfast (Chiddy Bang album), Breakfast''. The third mixtape released by the group, it c ...

'' is the third mixtape by the duo. It was released on May 27, 2011 as a prequel to their upcoming debut album '' Breakfast''. It consists of 15 tracks featuring fellow rappers including

Trae tha Truth Frazier Othel Thompson III (born July 3, 1980), better known by his stage name Trae tha Truth (or simply Trae), is an American rapper and record executive from Houston, Texas. Embarking on a musical career in 1998, he soon established himself ...

, Casey Veggies and

Mac Miller Malcolm James McCormick (January 19, 1992 – September 7, 2018), known professionally as Mac Miller, was an American rapper and record producer. Miller began his career in Pittsburgh's hip hop scene in 2007, at the age of fifteen. In 2010, h ...

as well as singer eLDee the Don and electronic music duo

The Knocks The Knocks is an American electronic music duo consisting of Ben "B-Roc" Ruttner and James "JPatt" Patterson. They have released 3 full length albums Big Beat Records (American record label)">Big Beat Records, Neon Gold, Atlantic Records, and ...

. The mixtape contains many references to Anamege's Guinness World Record for Longest Freestyle Rap. The duo initially planned a late summer release for their debut studio album '' Breakfast'' in 2011. This was later changed to November 2011 and again to the following year in February 2012 when they opted to release a single from the album, "Ray Charles", instead. The album was released ahead of schedule on February 22, 2012 at midnight via iTunes and is available in the Google Play Music Store, iTunes, and Walmart. The first single "Mind Your Manners" premiered on June 29, 2011 and includes samples from Swedish pop band Icona Pop. The single is also on the soundtrack for the

EA Sports EA Sports is a division of Electronic Arts that develops and publishes sports video games. Formerly a marketing gimmick of Electronic Arts, in which they tried to imitate real-life sports networks by calling themselves the "EA Sports Network ...

video game ''

''. On February 8, Chiddy Bang released a snippet of the song "Breakfast" as a teaser for the album.

2013–present: ''Baggage Claim''

On June 18, 2014 it was announced that Beresin would be stepping back as an artist and focus on his producing. Anamege announced that he would be releasing a mixtape in late September called ''Baggage Claim'', and released the first single, "Breathe", on August 19, 2013. Anamege released a second single on September 12, 2013 titled "HeartBeat" (featuring Two Guyz). On October 9 Anamege announced via Twitter that Baggage Claim would be released October 11, "Dropping baggage claim on Friday!". It was subsequently pushed back to October 16, 2013, and the release date is now September 2014, he announced this via SKEE radio on the show Anoother Dirty Night Radio, and also via Twitter saying a mixtape would drop late summer. Anamege ended up delaying the track again, and on February 22, 2015 he confirmed on Instagram that the "album" ''Baggage Claim'' will come in the spring of 2015. Also on the same day, Anamege posted on Facebook to say that he was "90 percent done with my album!". He also said that he "even managed to put together a few surprises". However, ''Baggage Claim'' is still unreleased.

World Freestyle Record

On April 29, 2011, after rapping for 9 hours, 18 minutes, and 22 seconds at MTV's inaugural O Music Awards in Las Vegas, Chidera "Chiddy" Anamege earned himself a place in the

Guinness Book of World Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...

for Longest Freestyle and Longest Continuous Rap, a title previously held by Canadian rapper D. O., in August 2003 at 8 hours and 45 minutes and 23 seconds. He told XXLmag.com that it was "definitely a surreal experience." He also mentioned that to earn the record he had to keep rapping even during the two bathroom breaks he took.

Discography

Studio albums * 2010: ''The Preview'' * 2012: ''Breakfast''