--- title: "Grimes Says She Got Hackers to Shut Down a Blog She Didn’t Like" description: "Does one need any more proof that indie sleaze is back in vogue?" date: "2022-03-26" modified: "2022-03-26" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/grimes-hacked-hipster-runoff" categories: - "Cybersecurity" - "Future Society" - "Hacking" tags: - "ddos attacks" - "grimes" - "hackers" --- # Grimes Says She Got Hackers to Shut Down a Blog She Didn’t Like ![Does one need any more proof that indie sleaze is back in vogue?]() *NEW YORK, NEW YORK - SEPTEMBER 13: Singer Grimes attends The 2021 Met Gala Celebrating In America: A Lexicon Of Fashion at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on September 13, 2021 in New York City. (Photo by Gilbert Carrasquillo/GC Images) \Image: Getty Images\* Need any more proof that [indie sleaze is back]() in vogue? Look no further than Claire "Grimes" Boucher's audacious claim that she was the person behind *Hipster Runoff*'s 2012 hack. In a new video interview with *Vanity Fair*, Boucher revealed, among other salacious tidbits, that after the infamous and anonymous one-man scenester blog ran a mean post about her that she got an unnamed hacker friend to run a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack on the site as revenge. The post in question was, to be fair, quite rude. It featured a [Mark the Cobrasnake-esque]() photo of Grimes kissing a female friend at a party (although it appears to have been taken [by Montréal-based nightlife photographer Merlin Bronques]()) and waxed trashily about how she had "gone wild." This happened a full decade before the [Canadian-born artist came out as queer]() and took place towards the end of an era when [bisexuality was still considered more of a party trick]() than an actual sexual identity. "Back in the day, like before the woke era, I actually got canceled for this,” Boucher said of the photo. “I was trying to be like, all integrity, and start my career, and it was like ‘Grimes Gone Wild’ or something, and it was just this like, super wack, mean story, and it was like this meme which was going all over the internet." Though the artist thankfully avoided incriminating her hacker friend by naming the company he works for or the type of tech he "had access to," she did divulge enough to make the story seem believable. "We were actually able to DDoS *Hipster Runoff*," Grimes said, referring to the common hacker tool of creating fake traffic to overwhelm a site's servers, "and, um, basically blackmail them." “We were like, we’re not gonna let you put your site back up until you take the story down," she added. "And \[the anonymous *Hipster Runoff* founder "Carles"\] did, in fact, take the story down, and it was like, my coolest hacker moment.” Another detail that adds credulity to Boucher's story is the fact that *Hipster Runoff*, which ran from 2007 until 2013, did actually get hacked and taken temporarily offline in 2012. Though the site did resurface after the hack, everyone who's anyone knows that it was never quite the same. Because nobody who knows the identity of "Carles" has spoken up about who they are in the near-decade since *Hipster Runoff* shut down, it's almost impossible to corroborate whether Grimes actually was responsible for the hack that killed the website. But in the world of Claire Boucher, who allegedly [has two children with Elon Musk]() and is now [reportedly dating famous leaker Chelsea Manning](), anything is possible. **More on Grimes:** *[Grimes Says She's Changing Her Baby's Name To Something Else]()* ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()