If you haven’t heard of St. Millie by now, you obviously haven’t been paying attention to this thing called hip-hop in Chicago. The 22-year-old Treated Crew affiliate has built a following through both talented projects, (NoReligionButUp, Road To Glory) as well as clever marketing and general good-natured-ness (Face decals around the city, Christmas food drive at Jugrnaut). Pair these qualities with the fact you’d be hard-pressed to find an act west of Lake Michigan that hasn’t worked with, played a show with or somehow been connected to the young artist you can most often find behind the register at Jugrnaut.

St. Millie is a Chicago artist through and through and appropriately tapped first time director and fellow Chicagoan Aykid Shots (Roger Tino Morales), Multimedia Producer for The Chicago Tribune’s Hoy edition to shoot this down-home piece. Knowing the setting is half the battle of shooting anything, and few photographers now the surroundings of the Second City better than Morales, who produced a gallery of shots he took detailing seemingly mundane areas of the city and making them come to life. The video for “Dream 312” is shot with gritty overtures and under-lit shots. Chicago isn’t a fun place in the winter, dark dreary and grey for the most part, and Morales captures all of it, accurately following Millie around town as he describes the dreams he has to grow from his hometown. Rarely does a visual piece work in so many way as this. Few who view the video will know the background of both involved, but I think two talented artists found the perfect compliment to each other for which to show Chicago’s darker side. Check out the full video above and keep a look out for Millie’s upcoming Glory project.