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SXSW Is Happening Right Now So You Should Watch Streets by VICE: Austin

This ep of Streets by VICE focuses on Austin. We meet SXSW founder and find out more about the weirdo capital as the seat of live music and talk to local hip-hop duo Riders Against the Storm.

It's that time of year. SXSW. The music festival that's been going for 29 years and has made Austin the annual international destination for bands (and latterly brands) hoping to MAKE IT BIG. And of course there's the tech convention and the film festival which also subsumes the city as part of South by. The city is hectic. Eric Sundermann and Kyle Kramer from Team Noisey are heading down to join the fray and will be reporting there for the next five days. They probably won't come back in one piece. They'll definitely lose some brain cells. They may injure themselves on a hoverboard. They probably won't see Kanye (every year there's some rumor about Kanye playing a some outhouse). They'll certainly eat some mystery meat from a food truck.

Anyway, a few weeks back fellow Noisey editor Kim Taylor Bennett went down to Austin when the city was relatively subdued to host an episode of the series Streets by VICE, which attempts to tell the history of a city by charting the evolution of one street. Above is said episode—something of a primer for South by Southwest, which includes interviews with the festival co-founder Roland Swenson as well as some key characters from the city's film and tech world, amongst others.

The piece also includes a chat with hip-hop duo Riders Against the Storm, a couple of transplants from the East Coast who make music together, but also host regular hedonistic throwdown called Body Rock. Lots of ass shaking. The pair have opened for everyone from Wu-Tang Clan, to Mos Def, to Pharoahe Monch, Dam Funk, and Nas to name a few, and they recently put out their RE:Mixtape, which you can listen to here. It includes the pair doing their thing over cuts by Ibeyi, Bayonne, Lianne La Havas, and Alabama Shakes. And Super Mario. Not to mention their anthem "Booty Sweat" below. Having seen them perform this live and pull a bunch of ladies up onstage to, erm, booty sweat, we can confirm it does do what it says in the title. Or if you're braving the mayhem of Texas this week, they're also playing SXSW. Of course.