Any band has its growing pains, but for Chicago funk-fusion band whysowhite, there have been more than a few.

Its show and coinciding debut album release Friday at Martyrs mark a milestone for the eight-piece band, which started recording the project in 2011.

After a period of setbacks, the band is playing its first gig together in more than a year and a half. “It has seemed like every year is a set-up year for the next one, which is why I think we’ve been successful,” said rhythm guitarist Charlie “Uncle Funk” Dwyer. “We’re excited to get things rolling finally.”

The band started as the brainchild of eclectic front man Nick McMillan, who began his stage career as an actor before slowly drifting toward music. Over time each member seemed to fall into place.

“Even since our last show at Martyrs, our numbers have grown,” McMillan said. “Davis [Haines, vocals and percussion] dropped out of school and came back to Chicago to play with us and start recording our album.”

In July 2011, just after the band began work on its self-titled debut album, Haines was run over by a semi while he was on his bike. The accident left Haines with a shattered pelvis, broken femur, fibula, ribs and two collapsed lungs, and quite near death. “I pulled through, but we weren’t sure really how the whole thing would affect the band,” said Davis, whose twin brother, Charles, also provides the band’s lead vocals.

The Davis twins retreated to their home Birmingham, Ala., to recover physically and mentally, leaving whysowhite in a state of hiatus for about six months.

“We were in a whole different world, there was no time, and day to day, business was just ambiguous. We felt like the band was a passing fancy we would tell our kids about,” Charles said. “We weren’t sure how to be in a band after our world had just shifted.”

After their bandmates took a road trip to visit the twins in late 2011, there was renewed faith in the group. With Davis on the mend, whysowhite enlisted help from newcomers Hannah Shefsky, a Northwestern grad, on keyboards and supporting vocals, and DePaul graduates Dave Sumberg on bass and Andrew Ambromawitz on percussion.

The steadily growing band began playing again, with shows at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas; Martyrs and Abbey Pub. But the show Friday at Martyr’s represents the first time the full band has performed together since Davis’ accident.

As they jam in their practice space, a converted fire-house on the North Side, it is easily evident that the close friends put heart and soul into their work. The sound is a mix of funk and rock with a hint of hip-hop flavor, lent by Charles Haines and McMillan.

“We spend 10 hours practicing every week, but probably like 40 hours together just hanging out,” said lead guitarist and in-house engineer Chris Miller. “The reason for our sound is because we said maybe to everything and didn’t say no to anything.”

With the album finally out, the band isn’t certain what the future holds, but it plans to charge fully into whatever it is.

“We’ve had every reason not to stay together, and we’ve been through tough times, which makes hanging out that much more important. This music is what we make when we hang out,” Charles Haines said. As for the future, “We have no idea; there’s no precedent for that in life.”

Jake Krzeczowski is a locally based free-lance writer. Follow him on Twitter: @jakekrez

At age 15, Dikembe Caston, better known as Kembe X, decided to drop out of high school and pursue hip-hop.

After an argument with his father, the former De La Salle student shifted his focus to rhymes, with an understanding that time and concentration breeds success.

“I knew that if I focused on [rap], the way stuff works, if you work at it, you’ll get good at it,” said Kembe X, 18, a native of South Holland. “I figured if I worked at it then and took the four or five years necessary to develop , and I’ll be like 19 or 20 when it comes to fruition.” .

It was a chance for sure.

That chance began to pay off in 2011 when his debut mixtape, “Self Rule,” landed on the Forbes.com list of top free music for the year, placing above the likes of Frank Ocean and The Weeknd.

Since then, Kembe X has released a project with sometime partner Alex Wiley, “Can I Borrow a Dollar?” He was quiet in 2012, save for lending his voice to some local records.

While that success was well-deserved, it did put added pressure on the teen artist. “The pressure actually was like immediately after I dropped ‘Self Rule,’ and it was more so [about] people’s expectations,” he said. “The pressure was making me apprehensive with my writing. It just wore off because I wanted to make music.”

The product of his renewed efforts is the follow-up mixtape, “Soundtrack II Armageddon.” The project, released Monday, is a departure from the dark, interpersonal theme of his debut, and is the first in a multi-part series that will be released throughout 2013.

“This project, for me, is even more personal as far as the way that I think,” he said. “The way that I think has changed, I’m not in the same dark place. It’s the same subject but the view is just different.”

“Soundtrack II Armageddon” demonstrates the sort of growth one would hope to see from an artist his age, with lyrics that show a knack for subtle detail.

To help celebrate the release, Kembe X will join his good friend Alex Wiley for an all-ages “Club Wiley Appreciation Show” starting at 4 p.m. Feb. 9 at Reggie’. The show will be the second visit to Reggie’s in three weeks for Wiley, who impressed as the opening act for Action Bronson on Jan. 27.

If nothing else, the leap of faith seems to be working out.

“Last year, we wanted things to be big, but we knew it was kind of a set-up year,” he said. “This year is going to be really big, though, with everything we have coming out. I’m excited.”

Jake Krzeczowski is a local free-lance writer. Follow him on Twitter @jakekrez

January 29, 2013 8:20PM

Words By Jake Krzeczowski

 Photo: Allen Daniel

Video: Bryan Lamb

That trend doesn’t seem like it will ease up anytime soon, either.

For instance, local artist Rockie Fresh, who signed to Rick Ross’ Maybach Music Group last July, will join talented up-and-comer Chance the Rapper for an all-ages show Saturday at the Bottom Lounge to celebrate Rockie Fresh’s “Electric Highway” release, his first on a major label.

“The main difference with this project was that I had the resources to craft it the way I wanted to,” Rockie Fresh said. “It’s always real important for me to do stuff here in Chicago because this is where my true fans and true friends and family are, so I’m always glad to be back.”

Returning after shows in New York and Colorado, Rockie Fresh tapped 19-year-old wunderkind Chance the Rapper to join him onstage at the Bottom Lounge.

These two artists are increasingly becoming the face of the local hip-hop movement. Both recently played sold-out shows at Metro.

“I think me being considered at the forefront of all of this kind of makes sense,” Rockie Fresh said. “We all need different outlooks on different parts of the city, which makes Chicago so great because you have myself, Chance and Chief Keef all talking about the same city from different lights.”

The two artists’ styles differ from what has become the “norm” for Chicago hip-hop; they incorporate creative instrumentation and samples with thoughtful and sometimes poetic lyrics.

“Me and Rockie have known each other for a [while],” said Chance, whose “10 Day” debut mixtape was picked as one of the top 10 free music releases of 2012 by the site forbes.com. “Just to be in a class of artists that are young, mostly black, successful kids is dope to be a part of — there’s really a big fan base right now.”

All proceeds from the show will be donated to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation to help fund research on Type 1 diabetes.

“When we heard about the benefit side of the show, we were really excited because we haven’t played any benefits yet this year,” Chance said. “I have a cousin that suffers from juvenile diabetes and a lot of older relatives that have Type 2 or Type 1. It’s just always dope to give back in any situation.”

The Bottom Lounge show is shaping up to be a glimpse of what’s to come from the Windy City.

“Right now, me and Chance are both buzzing both in and out of the city and getting a lot of attention,” Rockie Fresh said. “I think it’s important for the unity of the city for us to do something together like this.”

Jake Krzeczowski is a locally based free-lance writer. Follow him on Twitter @jakekrez.

Updated: January 23, 2013 2:06PM

In an age when a kid in a YouTube video can become a star overnight, Trampled by Turtles’ steady climb to popularity is a refreshing reminder of the days when artists were judged on the quality of their music.

In today’s music world, “making it” has become relative as the Internet and conglomeration of digital music have made it harder than ever to gauge the path for success.

If ticket sales still count, the folk/bluegrass band Trampled by Turtles, who play a sold out show Thursday at the Vic, may have found a measuring stick.

The band’s steady rise has been as much a surprise to the members as anyone else.

“So far. the tour has gone way past our expectation,” said Ryan Young, who plays the fiddle and lends back-up vocals. “Just about every show we’ve played has been sold out and some are selling out in advance, which is incredible. So far, so good.”

So good, indeed. The Duluth, Minn., band got its unusual name from a collaborative brainstorming session in which band members chose a moniker “they didn’t totally hate.”

That was in 2003. Since then, slow and steady has won the race for Trampled by Turtles by remaining consistent and knowing what fits the band’s sound.

The band really burst onto the national landscape with its 2010 release, “Palomino.”

“We just did the same thing, or didn’t do anything particularly different when ‘Palomino’ came out,” Young said. “That one did better than our previous work and we didn’t change much with our latest release, ‘Stars and Satellites,’ but that did even better than ‘Palomino.’ ”

With 2012 in the rearview, the band has no plans to stop any time soon, with festival dates peppering its schedule, with the Telluride Bluegrass Festival in Colorado on June 20-23 circled in particular.

If nothing else, Trampled by Turtles won’t be caught off-guard in front of the sold out crowd at the Vic.

“There’s a lot of good acoustic music acts out there that don’t get as much recognition as we do and I can’t really say why,” Young said. “I think it’s something in our songs that really resonates with people; we’re definitely excited to bring that to our fans in Chicago.”