All posts by Jake Krez

A writer/publicist/media hired hand from Chicago, Il who came up writing for the Chicago Sun Times where he helped break artists like Chance The Rapper, Vic Mensa, Kids These Days and many more. Since then Jake has written for the likes of XXL, Complex, Noisey, New City, Billboard, DJBooth and many others while staying up to date on all things Chicago music and beyond.
Blog, News, Photos, Video

Photo & Video of Chance The Rapper’s ‘Social Experiment Tour’

Leave a comment

Photo & Video by FragdFilms

Chance The Rapper opened his debut headlining Social Experiment tour two and a half hours south of his hometown of Chicago on Friday October 25. Photographer/videographer Bryan Lamb and myself made the trip and were on hand for all the festivities as Chance and crew kicked things off at the University of Illinois. A majority of Save Money made the trip south,  joining Chano onstage was none other than Vic Mensa who himself is currently between tours with J. Cole and Disclosure. Continue reading Photo & Video of Chance The Rapper’s ‘Social Experiment Tour’ →

Blog, Interview, Music

|Interview| Getting to Know Producer Nate Fox

Leave a comment

Photo by FragDFilms

A year ago, Nate Fox was living in Pittsburgh, working on a construction site. That all changed on April 30 when Chance The Rapper released his critically-acclaimed project, Acid Rap, featuring production from Fox. The past four months have taken him far from that manual labor life, traveling the country and then the world on the strength of his production and the success of Chance’s latest release. To say it has been a long road is not an overstatement, after ten years plugging away in his native Pittsburgh and later Cleveland, Fox caught the ear of Chancellor with his beat for the Acid Rap single “Juice” with its quirky, bouncing, up-tempo beat. The rest is quickly becoming history as Fox and a talented team of producers including Peter CottonTale and Cam Osteen head back out on the road with Chance for his headlining Social Experiment tour. I got the opportunity to catch Fox while he was in Chicago preparing for the tour and had a chance to catch him for a few minutes between a salad and a session.  Read about the crazy path his life has taken in 2013 and what lays ahead, below. Continue reading |Interview| Getting to Know Producer Nate Fox →

Blog, Music

|Interview| Borgore Isn’t All That Impressed

Leave a comment

To ask Borgore, nothing is too surprising anymore. Having spent a lifetime working in an aroudn music, the early prodigy (he earned a scholarship to Cal-Berkeley for music at 17) is having the time of his life making music that gets people moving. The Israel native joined Steve Aoki, Pharrell and Waka Flocka Flame for the Fall “Aokify America” tour, which started last Friday with a show at the University of Illinois-Chicago Pavilion. Continue reading |Interview| Borgore Isn’t All That Impressed →

Blog, Interview, Music

|Interview| Jay Dot Rain Puts Alabama Back on the Map

Leave a comment

Jay Dot Rain is on his hustle. He has to be. Coming from Alabama, Jay Dot isn’t privy to the kind of immediate exposure or fanfare that artists from larger metropolitan areas enjoy on the regular. Despite this, the Alabama A&M senior has garnered attention from the likes of DJBooth and Complex in recent months in the lead up to his well put together mixtape, Memoirs of a Young Dreamer, released October 2. Continue reading |Interview| Jay Dot Rain Puts Alabama Back on the Map →

Music, Music Review

|Review| Vic Mensa: “Innanetape”

Leave a comment

The thing that has always attracted me to Vic Mensa and his music has been his penchant for being different, his eagerness to push forward and his unwavering ability to make a stand for what he believes in. Those qualities and more manifested themselves fully on his latest project, INNANETAPE, released September 30. Continue reading |Review| Vic Mensa: “Innanetape” →

Blog, Music

|Video| Z Money: “Ignorant”

Leave a comment

Chicago’s West Side produced one of the city’s quickest-rising stars last summer when local artist Z Money dropped a pair of mixtapes, Rich B4 Rap and Heroin Musik that took the underground hip-hop scene by storm and placed the 20-year-old restauranteur firmly in line as the next thing to blow from the Windy City. Currently preparing to up the ante on his dual release, Z Money is currently hard at work in the studio preparing to release a trio of projects simultaneously, while also getting ready to travel south to Austin for SXSW. Continue reading |Video| Z Money: “Ignorant” →

Interview, Music

|Interview| Sandra Vu of the Dum Dum Girls/SISU

Leave a comment

Transitions aren’t easy. For some, change comes easy and they slide into the new routine, for others it’s a bit more difficult to adjust. Sandy Vu of the Los Angeles-based band Dum Dum Girls falls somewhere between the former and latter. Vu, who entered the scene as the drummer for Dee Dee Penny’s all-female project steps out from behind the drum set on a new venture of her own, SISU. Where she was a moving part in the Dum Dum Girls, Vu is free to creatively express herself with the new band, moving about from on instrument to another and crafting a sound that is wholly hers. The transition hasn’t been an easy one though. As anyone with a lot on their plate can attest to, starting a new band while in another is no easy task. I caught up with Sandy, who plays The Empty Bottle in Chicago tomorrow night, as she was just getting out on tour with Dirty Beaches in support of her upcoming album, Blood Tears, out on Mono Prism September 17th.

Jake: Tell me a bit about the tour and opening for Dirty Beaches.

Sandy: We have been super excited to play with Dirty Beaches, I met him about two years ago now when Dum Dum Girls did a tour with him and it’s just going to be special because we’re all family at this point. Their tout manager is our good friend and stuff so it’s kind of like a big reunion party. Continue reading |Interview| Sandra Vu of the Dum Dum Girls/SISU →

Interview, Music, RubyHornet

North Coast Music Festival: Interview with Cherub

Leave a comment

Photos by Bobby Reys

Cherub has been steadily building a name for themselves since crossing paths three years ago with a common musical goal. It was simple, guitarist Jordan Kelley had a sound he wasn’t quite sure how to achieve, Jason Huber had just the voice and production skills to make it happen. Having found each other in Nashville, TN, the pair created Cherub, a hybrid dance/funk electro-pop that has drawn comparisons to Prince and Pharrell. Over the past two years the duo have watched their stars rise exponentially, playing Bonaroo and Electric Forest, along with a successful SXSW in Austin last year buoyed by supports from the Red Bull Sound Select series. This year Jason and Jordan  jumped on tour with Gramatik in the spring and, with festival season out of the way, will begin a Fall tour with ProbCause, Mansions on the Moon and Pell. We had the opportunity to sit down with the pair before the played the Dos Equis stage, check out the conversation below. Continue reading North Coast Music Festival: Interview with Cherub →

Interview, Music, RubyHornet

North Coast Music Festival: Jesse Miller of Lotus

Leave a comment

Lotus has carried the flag for their own genre for awhile now. “Jamtronica”, the band’s signature blend of electronic elements paired with a creatively unique jam band aesthetic that has kept them at the forefront of both genres for close to 15 years now. Lotus’ ability to master a wide range of disciplines musically has allowed the Indiana-based group to constantly tinker with it’s sound and evolve the band’s dynamic. Lotus is a fully adaptable animal, with the ability to go from rock to dance to hip hop all in one rocking set and, largely without vocal aid. I had a chance to catch Lotus frontman Jesse Miller while backstage at The Last Stand Stage, check out the interview below. Continue reading North Coast Music Festival: Jesse Miller of Lotus →

Interview, RubyHornet

|Interview| North Coast Music Festival: U-God

Leave a comment

Like most anyone involved with hip-hop music or pop culture in general, I grew up listening to Wu-Tang Clan and vividly remember ODB crooning through the speakers of my Mom’s Ford Explorer when I was a kid hijacking the radio. So, waiting on the elevator with two photographers to meet and interview U-God during North Coast was one of the crazier moments I’ve had in my life.  The two of us said hello, settled in and enjoyed the view from the 29th floor of the Hard Rock Hotel, check out the conversation below.

Continue reading |Interview| North Coast Music Festival: U-God →