Category Archives: Features

Features, Interview, Music, These Days

Beyond The Theory: Towkio Rides A .Wav Of His Own

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Originally Appeared on TheseDays in July 2016

It’s the Fourth of July and I’m sitting across a couch from Preston Oshita as he decides between a hot dog or lobster roll. Studying the menu before him he weighs his options, the waiter just let him know the oysters weren’t available. Taking a moment and decides on the lobster. His food on its way, the artist better known as Towkio quickly reflected on his choice: “I’m not huge on fish but lobster just seems appropriate”. Such is a small indication of the kind of leap in lifestyle the 24-year-old crossover act has achieved since stepping out to the world four years ago as Tokyo Shawn. In the time since, he’s gone from sleeping on my couch to some of the biggest names in music, continuing a winning streak with his July release, Community Service 2, which continued building his distinct sound and mentality. Sitting on the couch with the fireworks crackling in the background, he settled into yet another sofa to explain the ride that has positioned him as one of the most exciting breakout stars of the last year. Continue reading Beyond The Theory: Towkio Rides A .Wav Of His Own →

Features, Music, These Days

Carrying The Purple Torch: Eryn Allen Kane Continues Her Soulful March Forward

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Originally Appeared for TheseDays in July 2016

Five minutes before taking the biggest stage of her life, Eryn Allen Kane is freaking out.

Her mind running, palms sweating, feet pacing, she begins to make sense of how she got to this point: backstage preparing to perform alongside none other than Prince, her first proper stage experience outside of backup duties.

Suddenly, a familiar face steps into the green room. Recognizing the worry on her face, sensing the nerves bubbling to the surface, Prince assures her, “don’t be nervous, why are you nervous, why?”

Looking at him, Kane could think of only one thing to say, “because you’re Prince, man.”

“So what,” he returned. “You’re Eryn and you’re here for a reason and this is your time, this is you.”  Continue reading Carrying The Purple Torch: Eryn Allen Kane Continues Her Soulful March Forward →

Features, Flaunt Magazine, Interview, Music

Catching Up With Lil Uzi Vert at The Metro

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Originally Appeared in FLAUNT Magazine August 2016

With forty-five minutes left to go before the ten o’clock curfew for the sold-out show at Chicago’s Metro Lil Uzi Vert is nowhere to be seen. A surprise performance from Lil Bibby and subsequent set from DJ Oreo keeps the crowd moving with a consistent offering of turn up songs that has the room moving in frenetic dance circles, albeit without the name on the marquee. With just under forty minutes to go and organizers looking around nervously, the small ball of energy that is Lil Uzi rockets onto the stage. Reacting immediately, the temperature in the venue seems to rise exponentially. As Uzi works his way through the first single joined by none other than Famous Dex, I prop myself up on a folding chair to get a better view. Reaching to the ceiling for support my hand slips on the condensation from the pure energy in the room. Looking around one can see the future of hip-hop. While everyone in the venue seems to know all the words to every song and dance move to boot, all seem to do so without ever looking at the stage. Instead, a sea of cell phones light up the room, most screens flipped inward, the fans watching themselves enjoy the music for their followers. Continue reading Catching Up With Lil Uzi Vert at The Metro →

Features, These Days

‘Wave Don’t Die’: Chicago’s Activist Music Scene How a New Generation of Artists & Activists Are Affecting the World

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Originally Appeared on TheseDays.News (August 2016)It’s a scene that’s becoming all too familiar in these turbulent times: a large group of protesters clogging downtown streets, disrupting corporate commerce and planting themselves on the ground with their hands up. Once again our city’s voice stand up for a fallen friend, brother, son as thousands poured onto Michigan Ave this past Sunday to stand up against the latest brutal police shooting, this one that left 18-year-old Paul O’Neil dead. Once again the Chicago Police Department trotted out a list of reasons to try and explain. Once again Rahm Emanuel pursed his lips, gripped the podium and dipped his head to the floor in a gesture that has come to embody the greater mentality on the subject. And once again, another young man didn’t come home because of the itchy trigger finger of one of those lives in blue. With hearts heavy and spirits waning, the pain is once again palpable.

Features, These Days

October Cover Story • The Endless Tour: How DJ Oreo Played The Support Role To Center Stage

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It’s nearing ten o’clock and DJ Oreo is tucking a pink towel into the neck of his shirt as he settles into a big orange chair at a barbershop on the west side of Chicago. Home for a brief spell from tour with Atlanta-based sensation Lil Yachty, he’s been quickly summoned back to tour, so a visit to the barber is a necessity longed for on the road.

As the stylist goes about pulling at his locks, Oreo similarly pulls on a strand, peering at it in the mirror. “It’s about a foot now,” he says questioningly, looking over his shoulder. The barber, nodding in agreement, “yeah, about a foot now, maybe more.” Tossing back the strand and resettling himself in the chair, adjusting the yellow towel across his shoulders, he thinks back on his last haircut.

Continue reading October Cover Story • The Endless Tour: How DJ Oreo Played The Support Role To Center Stage →

Features, News

Following Series of Fires, Pilsen Community Regroups & Rallies for Victims

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It was about three in the morning Friday night when I was beginning to nod off on my couch when a sea of red and blue lights suddenly flooded my apartment, sirens not far behind. Looking out my window onto Halsted St. in Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood, I counted three fire trucks quickly pull west onto 18th, screaming down the street in the early morning hours of Saturday morning. The next day, I checked the news to find the story of seven fires set only a few blocks from my own home. Fires that killed one resident, threatened the lives of dozens more and left twenty-five Pilsen residents displaced without a place to go.

Continue reading Following Series of Fires, Pilsen Community Regroups & Rallies for Victims →

Features, These Days

Home Team • Ian Eastwood

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As we continue along this ever-expanding idea of a Chicago Renaissance, it’s undeniable that the forward-thinking artistic movement goes well-beyond just music. Art, at its essence is interpretation and no one takes cues like fast-rising dancer, choreographer and Oak Park native, Ian Eastwood, who has been forging a new path in his own lane that speaks to a larger independent movement that has come to pace this scene of artists and creatives operating out of the midwest.  Continue reading Home Team • Ian Eastwood →

Features, These Days

Artistic Empathy: Kweku Collins Moves To The Front Of The Class

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(Originally Appeared for TheseDays News)

At a time when most of his peers are hunting down summer jobs, jonesing for internships or cramming for finals, 19-year-old Evanston native Kweku Collins is lounging idly on a couch. An electronic vaporizer in one hand, the other rubbing his loose collection of curious locks, each with it’s own plan and direction that dictate his wily look, Collins looks very much the part of a college student nearing the end of his freshman year and in a way, he is.

Instead of picking a school and signing up for classes though, the ever-sleepy-eyed Collins sent a mixtape to Alex Fruchter and Mike Kolar, owners of the local imprint Closed Sessions. He hit send on the email at the beginning of February 2015, by the time the Chicago River was dyed green, he was a signed artist with a team to boot.

Continue reading Artistic Empathy: Kweku Collins Moves To The Front Of The Class →

Features, Pigeons & Planes, Portfolio

WHAT CHANCE THE RAPPER’S ‘COLORING BOOK’ MEANS FOR CHICAGO AND THE FUTURE OF MUSIC

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By Jake Krez (Originally Appeared for Pigeons & Planes)

It’s nearing ten o’clock on May 12 and I’m sitting in a line of bumper cars to the right of Chancelor Bennett as he tugs down on his cell phone screen again and again. Continue reading WHAT CHANCE THE RAPPER’S ‘COLORING BOOK’ MEANS FOR CHICAGO AND THE FUTURE OF MUSIC →

Features, Interview, Sports

Preview: Dan Poneman’s ‘SwagAir’ Showcase & Q+A

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Daniel Poneman knows basketball. He should, the game has been a part of his life since he was a kid. However, Poneman’s relationship with the game is markedly different than that of your average AAU player or high school starter. While the path a celebrated basketball player takes is well-documented, often ending up somewhere in this month’s March Madness tournament, Poneman’s journey from the end of the bench on his traveling team to being one of the pre-eminent college scouts by his teenage years is far from typical. In high school, while lining up next to some of the top talent Chicago and the country at large had to offer, Poneman was smart enough to recognize the resources around him and began blogging about local talent on social media and eventually SwagAir.com, a site that later caught the attention of college coaches across the country and led to headlines from outlets like ESPN and the New York Times. A catalyst for NBA players like Anthony Davis, Jabari Parker and Jahlil Okafor, Poneman is continuing to invigorate the local hoops community, this time in the form of his SwagAir Showcase. Continue reading Preview: Dan Poneman’s ‘SwagAir’ Showcase & Q+A →