Steven Adam Markowitz is an American rapper, composer, and vocalist better known by his stage name Hoodie Allen. He used to write down rhymes and perform raps for friends at home parties when he was younger. After earning his degree from the University of Pennsylvania, he began working at Google. He continued to pursue his passion for music while working at Google, writing songs, responding to emails from fans, and planning shows till the small hours of the night. Markowitz eventually decided to leave his position at Google and pursue a full-time music career after juggling his career and his love. His first official EP, “All American,” which debuted at #10 on the Billboard 200, helped him find early popularity. Within hours after its debut, it secured the #1 spot on the iTunes rankings. A few years later, he released his first studio album, “People Keep Talking,” which only increased his notoriety and peaked at number eight on the Billboard 200. The studio albums “Happy Camper” and “The Hype,” as well as the extended plays “Americoustic” and “All About It EP,” are among Markowitz’s other works.
Early Childhood & Life
He was born on Long Island, New York, on August 19, 1988. He and his brother Daniel were raised in a Jewish home in Plainview.
He started writing rhymes when he was young and also gave rap performances at house parties for his buddies. He attended South Huntington’s Long Island School for the Gifted before transferring to Plainview’s Old Bethpage John F. Kennedy High School.
The University of Pennsylvania was his next stop. During his time at the institution, he pledged to the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity and continued to play defensive back for the sprint football team.
Career of Hoodie Allen
Markowitz’s original band, which included his childhood friend Obey City (Samuel Obey), was called “Hoodie Allen,” and it had Markowitz on vocals and Obey City on production. The duo’s first two recordings, the Bagels & Beats EP and Making Waves mixtape, were nominated for an MTVU Best Music on Campus Award in 2009. After Obey City ceased supplying the duo with music in 2010, Markowitz changed his stage name to Hoodie Allen and carried on working with RJ Ferguson.
In 2010, after earning a degree in marketing and finance from the University of Pennsylvania, Markowitz began working for Google as an AdWords associate in the company’s Standardized AdWords Reseller Training (START) program. He put in a full day’s work at Google and then, after getting home at 6 p.m., spent the next two or three hours writing songs, responding to fan emails, and planning shows. Later, he quit working for Google so that he could focus entirely on his music career.
In his June 2010 debut single, “You Are Not A Robot,” he significantly sampled the song “I Am Not a Robot” by Welsh recording artist Marina and the Diamonds. It successfully secured the #1 spot on “Hype Machine.”
In September 2010, he finished the mixtape “Pep Rally,” which included songs from “Two Door Cinema Club,” “Ellie Goulding,” “Marina and the Diamonds,” “Flight Facilities,” and “Death Cab for Cutie.” You Are Not A Robot became the mixtape’s main song. More than 200,000 people downloaded the mixtape thanks to a self-financed music video for the tune.
He has appeared in four videos with the Jake and Amir duo from the humor website CollegeHumor since March 3, 2011.
His subsequent mixtape, “Leap Year,” which was released in July 2011, received a respectable amount of attention, receiving 250,000 plays on SoundCloud in its first week. In support of the record, he performed in 15 North American cities, including New York City and San Francisco. On Billboards Uncharted Territory for the week ending August 5 of that year, Markowitz came in at number two.
On March 4, 2012, he announced via Twitter that the name of his upcoming first EP will be “All American.” On March 29 of same year, he released the music video for “No Interruption,” the EP’s lead song. The music video, which was posted on the same day, has had over 34 million views as of May 1, 2018.
No Faith In Brooklyn, the second song from “All American,” with Jhameel, was released as a music video on April 9, 2012. The following day saw the release of the EP “All American.” It sold 28,000 copies in its first week and debuted as the #1 album on iTunes and the #10 album on the Billboard 200. In order to promote the EP, he embarked on a 22-stop US tour in April and May 2012 with a number of musicians, including rapper Wax and singer Jared Evan. He formally announced the four dates of a “UK tour for June” on April 19, 2012, via Facebook. He performed abroad for the first time during the “I Work Better In The UK Tour.”
Markowitz released “Crew Cuts” on February 20, 2013, which was promoted as “the free album,” following the success of “All American.” It has eleven songs, including the instantly recognizable “Two Lips” by Moosh & Twist and “Fame Is For Assholes” with Chiddy.
On April 30, 2013, Markowitz’s appearance with Kina Grannis in his brand-new single off of his upcoming album, “Make It Home,” was shown nationally on Fuse TV and Markowitz’s YouTube channel. Its studio version, which was made available on iTunes on May 15 of that year, peaked at number 10 on the Hip-Hop/Rap charts. The artist also has two 2015 singles called “Let It All Work Out” and “The Moment,” both of which feature Travis Garland.
On July 30, 2013, he created the music video for “No Interruption (Acoustic),” and on August 13 of that same year, he independently released the acoustic EP “Americoustic.” The EP peaked at number one on iTunes’ Hip-Hop/Rap album chart and fourth on the overall albums chart.
On October 14, 2014, he self-released his debut studio album, “People Keep Talking,” which had previously been made available to stream via iTunes First Play on October 7, 2014. The 14-track album’s peak position on the iTunes Albums chart, US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums (Billboard) chart, and US Top Rap Albums (Billboard) chart was #2. It was also his first composition to be distributed on physical CDs.
He performed the song ‘All About It’s from the album’s tracklist on Good Day Philadelphia to promote the release of ‘People Keep Talking’. In order to promote the record, he also went on the “People Keeping Talking World Tour,” which ran from October 29, 2014, through an unspecified point in June 2015. MAX and Chiddy were among the performers on the tour, which visited locations in the US, Canada, Australia, and Europe.
On January 22, 2016, his ‘Happy Camper’ second studio album was made available. The album, which was also made available for iTunes download, reached its peak at #2 on the overall albums list despite being offered for free.
On September 29, 2017, he made available his ‘The Hype’-titled third studio album. ‘Know It All’ and ‘Ain’t Ready’ are among the songs on it.
Individual Life of Hoodie Allen
He is allegedly romantically involved with Sadie Newman, a fashion model.
He started his YouTube channel, “Wearehoodie,” on November 6, 2008, and since then it has amassed over 196 million views and 658 thousand followers. He has also attained a respectable level of fame on several social media networks. These include his “hoodieallen” Instagram account, which has gathered over 465 K followers, and his “hoodieallen” Twitter account, which he joined in November 2008 and has already amassed about 1.26 million followers.
Net Worth of Hoodie Allen
The estimated net worth of Hoodie Allen is around $1 million.